ADD-IT Up

The ADD-IT project’s final year brings PDAs to Missouri classrooms

Doling out hand-held communication devices to Missouri grade-schoolers isn’t just a way to keep students interested in learning — it’s an advantage that allows the tech-savvy teachers working with the ADD-IT program to develop innovative assessment techniques.

As part of the research grant’s final-year efforts, ADD-IT, or Achievement through Data-driven Decision-making and Instructional Technology, equipped two fourth-grade classrooms at Hallsville Elementary School in Hallsville, Mo. with enough PDAs for each student.

Teachers have used the devices to enhance everything from digital scavenger hunts to outdoor field trips, but the principal purpose of the in-class PDAs is to assist teachers’ assessment of students. The devices collect and store electronic data, such as photographs or essays, that can be transferred to a student’s online portfolio. The portfolios are directly linked to state standards, and this allows teachers to quickly and regularly scan students’ achievements.

“With the No Child Left Behind standards, teachers are very focused on prepping students for tests,” said Jane Howland, the principal investigator of the project and a professor in the School of Information Science and Learning Technologies. “Sometimes, teachers are so focused on NCLB that their curriculum became the test. We wanted to work with pre-service teachers and current teachers to help develop more effective assessment techniques that minimally disturb classroom curriculum and are connected with students’ daily work.”

Teachers at Hallsville and Mill Creek elementary schools use Foliotek, an electronic portfolio system created by LANIT, to develop students’ electronic portfolios. Additionally, MU student teachers and master’s students in the Teaching Fellowship Program may use Foliotek during their fieldwork experiences to help manage their classrooms and reflect on students’ growth.

and While the electronic portfolios help instructors more efficiently examine students’ work, they’ve also helped motivate elementary-school students by encouraging in-class reflection with the use of technology.

“What we’re finding is that electronic portfolios tend to make K-5 students more reflective,” Howland said. “They were initially intended to demonstrate to teachers, a student’s growth over time. The handheld and portfolio technology motivates students and enables teachers to show the students’ progress so that at the end of the year, student improvement is clear.”

LANIT developed an electronic portfolio specifically for the ADD-IT project. Although LANIT’s program will not be available for commercial use after the project ends, Howland says ADD-IT has demonstrated to teachers the value of electronic portfolios.

“It’s very important for teachers to understand the value of ongoing assessment,” Howland said. “But it is also important to understand that the large scale tests are just a piece of the assessment. The use of electronic portfolios reinforces this perspective for teachers.”

ADD-IT began in 2003 and is currently in its final year. The project, which aims to enhance learning, teaching and assessment through technology, will wrap up in September. But Suzanne Stillwell, Hallsville School District’s K-12 technology director, said she plans to continue using PDAs in fourth-grade classrooms and hopes to eventually equip some middle-school classrooms with PDAs, too.

“The handhelds give students mobility,” Stillwell said. “Students are allowed to take their PDAs outside of the classroom, which allows them to introduce new information into the learning environment. The handhelds add a new dimension to classrooms. The ADD-IT experience has helped us tie PDAs to learning and assessment and created the opportunity to implement handhelds into the classroom.”