Feature Story

April 7, 2006

By Jenny Carless, News@Cisco

In response to the devastation the United States Gulf region experienced after Hurricane Katrina, Cisco Systems joined many others in providing immediate support. It is also making a longer-lasting commitment, helping improve the quality of education for the affected communities through its 21st Century Schools ("21S") Initiative.

Over the next three years, 10 Cisco employees will serve as "21S Fellows" for each year of the program - providing consulting and expertise in educational governance, curriculum development, teacher training, e-learning and the use of technology in schools. The 21S Fellows will work in three teams: governance, technology and education.

The education team will focus on working with teachers, principals and superintendents to develop highly focused, measurable, technology-aided initiatives that help transform educational development.

Infusing Technology into Education Programs

The education team's main goal is to help the school districts use a strategic planning approach to map out their challenges and then work with them to identify ways to use technology to enhance and fortify the instructional and administrative solutions they select.

"There are many great programs that form part of the public school reform movement, but they typically don't use technology. We want to help the schools infuse proven, research-based technology applications into these existing programs," explains Peg Maddocks, 21S education team lead. "By doing that, we can accelerate the effectiveness of the programs."

For example, one challenge that educators face is the fact that students today learn differently than they did 20, or even 10, years ago. Generation X and Y students grew up with technology as part of their everyday lives. With video games, computer applications and the Internet, they are accustomed to fast-paced entertainment and constant interaction, and they expect instant feedback. As a result, the old ways of teaching are not as engaging to students today.

Having recognized this, the teachers at Rowan Elementary (one of the 21S schools) identified an interactive teaching solution that provides new approaches to keep students engaged. Cisco teamed up with Promethean to deliver and install an interactive whiteboard implementation - including the boards, hand-held voting devices, educational software and teacher tools - over the winter break holiday. The teachers have found that the boards and software have brought their lessons to life - combining online media and engaging content, and creating a collaborative learning environment.

In addition to expanding learning opportunities and increasing student participation, the teachers at Rowan have found that the Promethean deployment allows for real-time assessment of their students. Using the voting system, the teacher asks the class a question, and students use the handset to answer, seeing their responses instantly displayed on the board. The ActiVote system provides a method for teachers to obtain and instantly gauge how well students are absorbing a lesson. Not only that, it's fun!

"This is a great example of how Cisco and our 21S partners can facilitate the blending of hardware, software and learning assessment products in a way that can bring immediate, meaningful benefits to the teachers and their students," Maddocks says.

More than a Job

The Cisco employees who have dedicated the next year to this project as 21S Fellows were selected for their skills, experience and strong desire to help (including a willingness to move to the Gulf Coast region for a year).

The three teams of 21S Fellows and their team leads will work closely on the ground with each other and the local school districts. Each team member has responsibilities aligned with their area of expertise and their Cisco experience. For example, members of the technology and education teams will help conduct baseline technology and instructional surveys in the participating schools.

As Maddocks says, "The Fellows also need to be comfortable in a variety of roles. We're very much a start-up here." For example, some team members are serving as district representatives. In this role, they will support the school leaders with their strategic planning and change management efforts and help answer their 21S questions along the way.

Leading the Education Effort

Peg Maddocks is an experienced educator who has worked in e-learning for the past 20 years (10 of those at Cisco). This experience has helped in her role as leader of the education team.

"Part of my role is to help define what we mean by 21st century schools," she explains. "We have a lot of data from the many connected learning initiatives Cisco has been involved in - such as the Jordan Education Initiative. My goal is to combine the technology aspect with the pedagogical part into a comprehensive program, so that when we go to a school and say 'we want you to be a 21st century school,' we're clear on what that means."

Maddocks jumped at the opportunity to be part of the 21S program because she saw a chance to make a big difference in people's lives. As she says, "this is an extraordinary opportunity to use this blending of technology and education to help the communities that were so badly affected by Hurricane Katrina and at the same time serve as an example to schools and communities everywhere of what can be achieved."

Jenny Carless is a freelance writer located in Santa Cruz, CA.