The theme of our March newsletter is Women's History Month. This month's Integration Idea relates to oral histories, and in particular, creating "herstories" of female family members and other notable women. Also, our Spotlight on the Web showcases some great resources for online women's history.

As always, don't forget our On the Horizon events listings and Fun Facts. Contribute an idea to either of these sections, and if we accept it we'll send you a free Sun Associates gift!

Back issues of Sun Associates news are available online.

Please feel free to email any of the contributors of our newsletter with your comments and suggestions for upcoming issues. We are always looking for submissions and ideas to make Sun Associates News better and more relevant to your work.

IN THIS ISSUE

I. THIS MONTH'S FEATURE -- Data Collection Methods

II. INTEGRATION IDEA OF THE MONTH -- Oral Herstories

III. SPOTLIGHT ON THE WEB-- Women's History Online

IV. ON THE HORIZON -- March Calendar Listings

V. FUN FACTS & TRIVIA -- Women's Suffrage Around the World

VI. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

I. THIS MONTH'S FEATURE: DATA COLLECTION METHODS -- Jeff Sun

Those of you who took the recent Sun Associates online survey might recall that one of the questions asked what (if any) steps you had taken to "assess the impact" of technology in your school or district. Here's the data resulting from that question:

Staff Survey -- 77%
Collection of Anecdotal Evidence/Information -- 34%
Indicators and Rubrics -- 33%
Student Survey -- 32%
Interviews/Focus Groups -- 26%
Analysis of Standardized Test Scores -- 21%
Peer Review -- 16%
Not Applicable- Have not used evaluation tools 8%
Other -- 7%
I Don't Know -- 5%

As you can see, surveys came out at the top of the list of assessment methods. This is not surprising, and we all know that teachers are constantly surveyed by their districts about any number of subjects. The annual "technology survey" in the teacher's mailbox has become a fixture in most districts.

But this heavy use of surveys begs a number of questions. For example...

• How much emphasis should be placed on largely self-reported, self-assessed, data?
• How can we capture the real substance of teacher and student technology use through multiple choice questions?
• How can we increase survey response rates?
• Besides surveys, are there other ways to efficiently collect technology evaluation data?

Thus, this month's Sun Associates News feature is on data collection. In this article we outline data collection strategies, provide sample instruments, and provide an overall context for surveys as but one data collection mechanism.

Return to top

II. INTEGRATION IDEA OF THE MONTH -- Heather Hurley

Welcome to the Integration Idea of the Month. Each month we share a technology project that you can implement in your classroom. All lessons are designed for the one or few computer classroom, though a lab setting will work just as well.

This month's lesson plan -- "Oral Herstory Projects" -- provides resources for conducting an oral history project in your classroom. An oral history is the gathering of a person's spoken memories of his or her life. Women have played an important role in shaping this country, and by conducting an oral history, students can see how women's roles have changed over the years and what life was like during an earlier historical period.

In addition to this month's "Spotlight on the Web" sites, we have included some websites that are specific to oral history and are appropriate for all grade levels.

If you have questions or suggestions for future projects, email Heather.

Happy integrating :)

Return to top

III. SPOTLIGHT ON THE WEB -- Melissa Chatfield

The goal of Women’s History Month is to inspire communities to celebrate the accomplishments of women around the world and across time. There are several websites dedicated to women’s history. The National Women’s History Project website is particularly useful for general information. This website includes event listings, lesson plan ideas and an extensive list of links to women’s biographies.

In addition, Women’s History Month can provide a unique opportunity to connect students with women in their own community. "What Did You Do In The War, Grandma?" provides an oral history of Rhode Island women during World War II written by students at South Kingstown High School. Conducting oral histories is an excellent example of an interdisciplinary project that provokes students to interact with and learn from women in the community. Even more, compiling the data into a website or other method of presentation can enhance the community connection by making it more accessible.

Web Search Tip

If you are looking for an excellent search engine without ads or additional material, try Raging Search. The site uses the same search engine as Alta Vista without all the extras.

Questions, comments? Email Melissa.

Return to top

IV. ON THE HORIZON -- Lara Buchko

March Educational Technology Events

If you have questions about our upcoming events, or if you would like to submit an educational technology event for our calendar, please email Lara.

Survey Winner!

The Newsletter theme will be *SPRING*. We invite you to submit related ideas, resources, or information to any of writers (email addresses are in each section's byline). If we publish your contribution in our next newsletter, we'll send you a free gift!!

Send your calendar submissions to Lara

Return to top

V. FUN FACTS & TRIVIA -- Jean Kim

In 1918…

Women's suffrage organizations existed in 27 different countries. In the U.S. alone, there were more than 1,000 such organizations. In 1918, the number of women who were asking for the U.S. vote was larger than the number of men who had organized for any single issue in the nation's history.  Nationwide, there were more women's suffrage petitions sent to legislative bodies than there were for any other single social or legislative issue.

Answer to Last Month's Question:

LEGO bricks (originally known as "Automatic Binding Bricks), were introduced in 1949. The name is actually the name of the LEGO company, founded in Denmark in 1932 by Ole Kirk Christiansen. The word LEGO comes from the Danish words "LEg GOdt" -- meaning "play well." For more information about LEGO, visit their website.

Trivia Question of the month

When were women first allowed to compete in the Olympics?  In what three events did they compete?

If you have an answer to this month's question, email Jean . The first correct answer received will win a Sun Associates prize!

Return to top

VI. HOW TO SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE

We hope you enjoyed reading the ideas and information in Sun Associates News. If you have received this newsletter forwarded by a friend and would like to to receive your own copy, simply send an email -- with the word SUBSCRIBE in the subject -- to us at newsletter@sun-associates.com. If you would prefer not to receive future issues via email please let us know by emailing to newsletter@sun-associates.com. Just put the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the subject of your email message.

Sun Associates offers this monthly newsletter as a service to educators interested in issues related to the integration of technology in schools. Our firm specializes in technology evaluation, planning, and professional development. We work with teachers across the country and bring this breadth of experience to all of our work. This newsletter is designed to share some of our recent findings and experiences.

Return to top

Home	Search	Contact Us

Information on this site that has been produced by Sun Associates is Copyright 1997 - 2006 Sun Associates and is available for individual, one-time, use by educators. Duplication is prohibited without permission. All other material is the property of its authors and Sun Associates makes no warranty for its use or accuracy.