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Student Involvement at NECC 2002

By Sue Waalkes & Pooja Agarwal

The Panel

Something unusual happened at the NECC 2002 conference in San Antonio, Texas: High school and college students were featured as presenters and panel members to show how students should be drivers, not just passengers in education. The result was an astounding success, and the outcome will be additional student involvement in future NECC conferences.

Pooja Agarwal, a student from Washington University in St. Louis, and Arthur Nicholls, a recent high school graduate from San Antonio, Texas, were invited to the ISTE Leadership Symposium. Pooja and Arthur participated in a panel discussion facilitated by Cheryl Lemke, CEO, Metiri Group. Both did a fantastic job articulating what digital literacy skills students will need to cross the Digital Divide and succeed in the global community. Panelists included Jana Knezek, Director of Library Services from Northside Independent School District in San Antonio, Texas; James Smith, Program Supervisor with the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in Olympia, Washington; and Amy Pearl, Manager of Web Resources with the Intel Innovation in Education Initiative. The keynote speaker and panelist, John Bailey, Director of Technology for the U.S. Department of Education, commented that these students demonstrate the skills and composure needed to succeed in the future.

Linda Roberts

Students also initiated and presented two sessions at NECC 2002. The first session, If We Could Make a School—A Student’s Perspective, was kicked off by Dr. Linda Roberts, Founding Director, Office of Educational Technology, U.S. Department of Education 1993–2001, now Senior Adviser to several companies, foundations and education research organizations. She described the importance of educational reform and how the 2001 ISTE Student Technology Leadership Symposium created enthusiasm for student involvement in future high school design. Pooja Agarwal and Jeff Conor, a high school junior from Olympia, Washington, presented an overview of the event held before last year’s NECC conference in Chicago. The symposium charged 24 students to create an ideal learning environment for students in high school. The products created at the 2001 event were so positively received by the Leadership Symposium participants that it was decided to spread the word at this year’s conference. Read the details of what happened at the 2001 symposium. Articles also appeared in the November issue of ISTE’s Learning & Leading with Technology magazine, and the George Lucas Educational Foundation newsletter.

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Pooja Agarwal & Eric Bowden

The second session, “Integrating Technology in the Science Curriculum Created By Kids for Kids,” was presented by Pooja Agarwal and Eric Bowden, both graduates from the Illinois Mathematics & Science Academy (IMSA) in Aurora, Illinois. These students described two programs of the IMSA Kids Institute that integrate technology into the elementary classroom; both programs were created and are facilitated by IMSA high school students.

Jeff Conor

Pooja discussed the IMSA Team Mars program, originally created and taught by IMSA students, currently adapted as a 16-week online curriculum used by about 200 elementary students in the Chicago area. IMSA Team Mars incorporates a problem-centered curriculum involving the use of computers and the Internet and can be accomplished with inexpensive materials. Eric described a second Kids Institute program where IMSA students create a yearly Real Science CD for grades 3–6 containing integrated science lesson plans with supporting visual data for the selected curricular themes. The program has grown into a 1,000-CD distribution, free of charge, to districts throughout Illinois. Future plans for the 2003 program include streaming Real Science over the Internet. For more information on the IMSA Kids Institute, these two programs, and more, go to www.imsa.edu/kidsinstitute.

NECC, the premier ed tech conference, is committed to continuing active participation by students. Their passion and vision about what learning environments should be remind us who educational technology serves—our future!