IST-school district partnership may yield online courses

University Park, Pa. -- A Penn State School of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) doctoral student's research on community computing networks may result in a local school district offering some required courses online to its high school students.

Since last fall, the IST student, Lu Xiao, has worked with a group of teens from the State College Area School District and their learning enrichment teacher, Shirley Donovan, to put a course online. Recently, the students demonstrated a prototype to school officials.

"The students were the developers and the users -- my role was facilitator," Xiao says. "I helped the group with design issues, finding the courseware they needed and troubleshooting installation."

Xiao explains that the idea for the collaboration grew out of an invitation issued last fall by her faculty adviser, John Carroll, the Edward M. Frymoyer Professor of Information Sciences and Technology. Carroll has a National Science Foundation project to investigate how information technology literacy and community networks can mutually leverage one another.

As part of his research, Carroll contacted several local groups, including the school district, about partnering with IST to enhance and expand their use of computing technologies.

But Carroll's goal goes beyond teaching software, networking or integration.

"We're interested in how people can take control of their information technology needs," Carroll says. "We want to see if learning about information technology as a means to achieve one's own community-oriented goals leads to more sustainable technology practices."

Xiao chose to work with the school district, Centre County Historical Society and Centre Region Senior Center. The project with the school district progressed the fastest.

In their presentation, Donovan's students noted that that dozens of students opt for correspondence courses to fulfill some of the district's course requirements.

An online course not only would generate income for the district that is now going to correspondence schools, but also would bring the course content more in line with what the district teaches, says Alex Berghage, a 9th grader.

The students in grades nine through 12 did more than just post class readings and assignments. They adopted a course management tool that allows teachers to design and grade quizzes, upload files and relevant Web pages, and create chat rooms for students and teachers.

The students also address security issues and back-up for databases.

"This could be another tool that teachers use," says John Sheridan, the district's director of learning enrichment/student services who attended the presentation.

Donovan adds that since the project's start, several teachers have expressed an interest in the cyber system. The next step is to choose a class and put it online.

"We were honored to have the opportunity to present at the IST building and have some of the IST staff present," Donovan says. "We have enjoyed the partnership with IST and hope that we can continue to build a working relationship."