Related Links
Media and Technology at Athens Academy
History of the Media Across the Curriculum Project
The Challenge
The world is changing rapidly. Significant forces contributing to change are mass media and new information technologies. These forces which are changing the way people live, learn, and think must be understood because they challenge the growth and development of today's youth.
Athens Academy is engaged in an exciting project to explore the role of media and information technologies in education. The school seeks to enhance students' learning experiences across the curriculum by integrating media literacy education and effective use of educational technologies.
Project Goals
- Teach students to read media, use media, and create with media and information technologies, all critically, reflectively, competently, and responsibly.
- Develop innovative approaches for integrating media education and educational technologies into all subjects.
- Enhance all learning experiences, including cooperative and self-directed learning, and encourage students to become creative, critical, and autonomous.
International Partnership
Athens Academy and the Bertelsmann Foundation of Guetersloh, Germany have been partners in the Media Education Across the Curriculum project. The Bertelsmann Foundation was established in 1977 by Reinhard Mohn, the majority shareholder of Bertelsmann AG, one of the largest media companies in the world (holdings include Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, RCA, Arista, and Ariola Records among others). The Foundation provides financial support to future-oriented projects in five basic categories: media, sociopolitics, international relations, culture, and education, as well as health and medicine.
The Foundation has supported the Athens project with funds earmarked for extensive research, faculty development (including site visits to American and German schools and libraries), and facilities construction on the Academy campus. A high school in Guetersloh involved in a similar media project has shared and exchanged information with the Academy.
Timeline
Athens Academy began the Media Across the Curriculum Project (MACP) in 1990, and in the ensuing years, pursued the use of technology to enhance teaching and learning, utilizing evaluation to inform these developments. The longitudinal evaluation of the laptop program began with grades 7 and 8 with foundation, corporate, and trustee sponsors and was conducted by the University of Georgia’s Department of Instructional Technology within the College of Education. The evaluation continued into its latest phase for grades 9-12, made possible by a matching grant from the E.E. Ford Foundation. Beginning in 1999 and ending in 2003, the final phase of MACP had three primary goals:
- expanding the innovative practices with the integration of personal technologies (laptop computers)
- enhancing and developing models for faculty development
- developing and implementing an evaluation study to document the impact and the effectiveness of the personal technologies on teaching and learning
Evaluation
Link to the University of Georgia study’s website to access the full report.
The Promise of Ubiquitous Computing in Schools
A Report of a Four Year Evaluation of the Laptop Initiative at Athens Academy
2000-2003
by Janette R. Hill, Ph.D. and Thomas C. Reeves, Ph.D.,
Department of Instructional Technology, University of Georgia