Maryland

The Maryland Technology Academy, a partnership of the Maryland State Department of Education, the Johns Hopkins University, and Towson University, is an exciting professional development opportunity for teachers across Maryland. The Academy consists of three components: a Leadership Program, an Administrators' Symposium, and a Satellite Program.

At the flagship Leadership Program, educators spend three weeks during the summer learning to use technology to support instruction and improve student achievement. Teachers learn to design technology-enhanced instructional activities that support State Standards while addressing special needs and classroom management issues. Participants, known as Academy Fellows, also learn the leadership skills necessary to assist others in their schools or districts to use technology more effectively. Throughout the school year, Academy Fellows communicate with each other using a dynamic online learning community and attend four different follow-up sessions to share their progress. The projects designed and refined by the Fellows during their first year of membership are published on the Maryland Technology Academy web site for use by other teachers in Maryland. Concurrent with the Leadership Program is a two-day Administrators' Symposium where school principles learn how to bring about change in their instructional programs using technology and assisted by the Fellows.

The Maryland Technology Academy Satellite Program, held regionally throughout Maryland, is an offshoot of the Leadership Program, focused specifically on developing teachers' skill in designing effective technology-enhanced lessons. Twenty programs throughout the state conduct two-week summer sessions that offer participants, known as Academy Associates, the opportunity to learn technology integration skills for use in their classrooms. The programs also have access to an online learning community and have two face-to-face follow-ups during the school year. Now entering its third year, the Academy has already served over 700 Maryland teachers. Participants give high marks to the program. They credit the Academy with increasing their ability to integrate technology effectively into their classroom and with opening up to them ne leadership roles in their schools and districts. For additional information, see: www.cte.jhu.edu/techacademy

Contact
Kathleen Cave
Maryland State Department of Education
200 W. Baltimore Street
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-767-0441 (p)  410-333-2128 (f)
E-mail: kcave@msde.state.md.us

Maryland's Technology Inventory and Analysis for Decision-makers, completed every two years by each school has become a major tool for the determination of all programs and priorities associated with the use of new and advanced technologies for education. The State's Technology Inventory was conducted for the first time electronically in late 1999, allowing for more timely review and release of the data. On January 30, 2001, the latest inventory data was announced. MBRT is pleased to report to the public through this report, comprehensive data, including statewide summaries, local school system summaries and individual school results.

The technology online survey is conducted by the Maryland Business Roundtable for Education and the Maryland State Department of Education and analyzed with assistance from The Johns Hopkins University Center for Technology in Education. The most recent survey report indicated: "While student-to-computer ratios and classroom access to the Internet in the highest poverty schools are still well below , the real 'digital divide' seems to be in the way in which technology is being used to instruct students." Data contained in the new survey show that the higher the poverty level in schools, the less frequently technology is used for tasks that require higher-level thinking and meaningful application of knowledge and skills. This is true even in schools in which access to computers and the Internet is readily available. Survey results indicate that students at schools in wealthier communities are more than twice as likely as their counterparts at schools in poorer communities to use technology to gather, organize, and store information. They are three times more likely to use technology to perform measurements and collect data. Nearly 35 percent of students at high-poverty schools report they never use technology to display data in charts or graphs. More than 55 percent say they never use email, electronic bulletin boards, or home pages. The State is now attempting to apply recent research studies that demonstrate ways to link improved student learning with higher-level uses of technology and ways to help [one-third] of its teachers who say do not regularly integrate technology into their lesson plans.

Contact
Barbara Reeves
Director, Instructional Technology
Maryland Department of Education
200 West Baltimore Street, 6th Floor
Baltimore, MD 21201
410-767-0382 (p)  410-333-2128 (f)
E-mail: breeves@msde.state.md.us