Technology skills bring 5th-graders into new era

BY DENISA R. SUPERVILLE
THE RECORD
Staff Writer

Brian P. Chinni is supervisor of curriculum, instruction and assessment at the Montvale school district.

At the beginning of this school year, the district, under Chinni's direction, started using a program called Project ABLE (Authentic Based Learning Environments) which allows fifth-grade students to use technology in the classroom to devise possible solutions to global problems. ABLE was developed by The Madison Institute, a Montvale-based educational consulting group founded by Chinni.

Q. What is Project ABLE?

Project ABLE is a program that was born out of the need for our students to obtain what we have defined as the essential skills for life and work in the 21st century. Those skills specifically align to creative, critical and innovative thinking, the ability to solve, really, unknown problems in real context and authentic context … the ability to work collaboratively, both locally and globally; the need for cultural awareness and global competency; and the ability to communicate effectively and apply technology in a purposeful way.

Q. Can you give me a specific example of how this program is used in the classroom?

Given that one of the more popular stories in the media at the onset of the school year was aligned to that of the potential swine flu epidemic, that was an area, a problem, that the teachers and we knew would be relevant to every child that experienced the program. The students had to work in teams to conduct an investigation that would allow them to bring potential solutions that would remedy, or even eliminate, the possibility of a swine-flu epidemic in their local community. They had to determine what steps could be taken to address this issue and help to solve this problem. With that, there are certain skills we wanted the students to use.

The product they had to produce aligned to their ability to research, investigate and analyze data and information. And they had to work collaboratively to do so. They had to create a news segment — a 5 o'clock news segment, if you will. They had to have news personalities, they had to write the script that would allow them to report on the issue and the solutions that they derived in alignment to that issue. We based this in the media center — they had to use the white board to create the backdrop for the news video and footage. They edited those using Windows Moviemaker. They used Web-based research, analyzed data and investigated to make sure they were credible sources. They evaluated each other's presentations, and engaged in teacher-led discussions as it related to the presentations.

Q. Going forward, what changes would you make to the program?

From my own observations and from working with the teachers, I would continue to build from here. Now we have learned how to design these curriculum units and implement them successfully, and understand the principles of those units, we now have to really make more concerted efforts to allow for that cultural and global competency component to be integrated into the experience, and that's where we could really begin to harness the very powerful technologies that we have today.

Q. Can you elaborate?

What I'd like to do now is either work within the units that we have created or develop other units that allow our students to work collaboratively with their counterparts around the world. So, for example, if we were conducting a study on the swine flu, wouldn't it be powerful if we can connect with a school in the Middle East or in China or other countries and continents and get a greater perspective as to how that epidemic is affecting those students and what they are doing to address those problems, and exchange these ideas and solutions together? [Because that would yield a more optimal result, one.] Two, there is no better way to allow our students an opportunity to gain appreciation and understanding and empathy and an ability to communicate with their counterparts, other cultures, than to place them in that context.

Q. Is the district paying The Madison Institute?

No. There is no cost to the district. Obviously, my association to the district brings opportunities to the district at no cost. That's an added value, I guess, for Montvale. That said, Project ABLE International is a not-for-profit organization.

Q. How does Project ABLE promote 21st-century skills?

By virtue of the fact that we are placing students in situations where they have to solve real-world problems and work collaboratively to do so, and conduct investigations to do so, investigations that require research and investigation using Internet-based resources as an example and others, of course. Being able to sift through that information to identify and determine what's credible and what's not, to be able to effectively cite those sources in their solutions, that's one component. The fact that students are required to utilize technology — but identifying the technology that they feel would be most appropriate and effective for their study — it requires them to be informed users and consumers of technology, and then requires them to utilize that technology to conduct the investigations, to produce their outcomes, whether it's a multimedia presentation, whether it's a podcast, whether it's a Web site with some Web authoring tools. That's another skill that's aligned to those learning experiences.

The Record Columnist E-mail: superville@northjersey.com