Ohio SchoolNet Statewide Initiatives
Ohio Educational Technology Agencies serve Ohio's K-12 schools and assist educators in meeting and exceeding state performance standards. One of the agencies' first major programs to utilize internet technologies was Inquire Ohio, in 1997. WGTE Public Broadcasting was assigned the online role in this program, and continued to provide the core of web development and online support through subsequent inquiry-based educational initiatives such as Hunting for Everyday History, Gateway To History, The Rest of Your Brain, and others. As webmaster for these programs, it was my job to design the program websites and integrate new media in such a way as to facilitate collaboration between students, teachers, program administrators, and the community.
Inquire Ohio
The initiative revolved around an interactive website to promote inquiry-based science education for fifth and sixth grade students. Curriculum materials were produced with funding from the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Network Commission in support of the Ohio SchoolNet initiate and included themes titled "Flight", "Skeletons", "Finding the Way", "Living in Space", "Houses", and "Making it Work".
Students were asked to become active participants in a process that involved teamwork, problem-solving, and "discovery learning" as they "uncover evidence" to either prove or disprove information.
The program also featured online "Resource Finders" who would receive questions from students via the website and then produce short video clips with answers that were supplimented with video and digital materials from PBS and other participating organizations.
Inquire Ohio finished as a finalist for the 1998 Eddie Award for the nation's top educational Web site.
Hunting for Everyday History
Hunting for Everyday History takes history out of textbooks and puts it into the hands of students where it becomes a living treasure.
As part of the curriculum, students hunt for everyday artifacts as a means of developing a better understanding of the role their communities play in Ohio history. The program featured distance learning opportunities, live sessions, and an interactive Web site.
The site had a "Build Your Own Web Site" feature, which enabled students to post their finds to the website and share them with other classrooms across the state. Over 75 Ohio historical societies and museums cooperated with the project by providing information to students and helping with artifact identification.
The program was funded by a grant from the Ohio Educational Telecommunications Commission and Ohio SchoolNet. More than 20,000 third, fourth, and fifth grade students students and 750 teachers participated in this statewide initiative.
The Rest of Your Brain
In this virtual museum initiative, fifth graders from across Ohio created the exhibits found in each gallery. They worked with their classroom teachers and a corps of talented arts instructors to experience math, science, citizenship and language as musicians, painters, dancers, animators and sculptors. The Rest of Your Brain capitalizes on research that demonstrates the connection between arts experiences and improved academic performance.
The Rest of Your Brain utilized many of the same features that had been so successful in Inquire Ohio and Hunting for Everyday History.
Gateway To History
Gateway to History was another statewide initiative focused on middle school students throughout Ohio. Utilizing many of the same features that had been so successful in Inquire Ohio and Hunting for Everyday History, it also included a stronger set of features designed for instructors. Many of these new tools came as the result of teacher feedback from the previous programs (mentioned above), and many teachers were involved in the development of the website.
Much of the success of this project (including access to a large number of resources) was due to the support of the Ohio Humanities Council and the National Endowment for the Humanities We the People Project.
