Mark Smith, Research Fellow & Director
Mark Smith is a licensed special educator in Virginia and the Information Technology Resource Teacher at a Title One elementary school outside Washington, D.C.
Mark has lectured as an adjunct faculty of George Mason University’s Graduate School of Special Education focusing on the use of Internet collaborative technologies as (and in conjunction with) assistive technologies. As a teacher and university lecturer his primary interest is on using media to reach non-verbal students.
He has 25 years of experience in new media production and story telling working for network news and newspaper companies. He has been a producer, writer and foreign editor for NBC and CNN. Mark was director of television at Associated Press where he designed and helped launch their television operations. He ran his own new media company for 10 years, pioneering broadband Internet infrastructure technologies as well as streaming media content and business models in the 1990s.
Mark presented previous research at the National Education Computer Conference in 2009 with MetLife Fellows Jennifer Orr and Jennifer Metcalfe. This same team presented on use of collaborative Internet technologies in elementary education at the 2010 International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) in Denver. Mark presented again with Jennifer Orr and Research Fellow Ann-Bailey Lipsett at ISTE in 2011 in Philadelphia, on K-5 student online newspapers.
Speaking Engagements:
International Society for Technology in Education, June 26-29, 2011 Philadelphia, PA.
TerraceTimes an Open Source Online K-5 Student Run Newspaper
The open online newspaper is converting a growing 400+ student-hours of outside-school online non-academic play, into self-selected online curriculum work. None of it assigned. Students spend on average 2 hours each day outside school surfing the web, interacting with social networks, reading, writing and collaborating on the web. 97% of 4th and 5th graders as well as 50% of 3rd graders at our Title One elementary school have a personal Facebook page. Two or three students in every 2nd grade classroom have Facebook pages. Kindergarten and 1st graders use social networks such as Club Penguin and Webkins. Our challenge is to find a way to co-opt this activity for learning curriculum by creation of an online newspaper. What makes it unique: 1) It is visible to anyone, 2) It uses the three rules of Elementary Internet Safety, 3) Students are producing multimedia about the curriculum, so it’s not the standard student newspaper with weather, lunch menus and SCA announcements, 4) Students are adding content from home, 5) Independent creative and factual writing have increased from near zero to hundreds of posts, book reports, and other items per week, 6) Student editors created a work-flow ensuring quality and safety, 7) Nothing on the site has been “assigned” by a teacher.
Accessibility Summit, April 1-2, 2011 Washington, D.C.
Assistive Technology: Advocating Present and Future
From mind-controlled wheelchairs to iPads and social networking, existing and future Assistive Technology will be surveyed, providing a menu of what is available for parents and educators, as well as individuals with physical and/or intellectual special needs. This presentation will look at Assistive Technology (any technology used to compensate for a special need) as it exists today and discuss how that definition is broader than most in the field of special needs education would believe. A focus will include technologies for advocating for preliterate students and adults, as well as people with severe physical disabilities. Trends within Assistive Technology will be reviewed and attendees will learn how to take full advantage of emerging technologies.
Mark Smith, M.Ed., Director of Research, Education Study Group
Previous Research Includes:
Research Title: Impact and best practices on use of iPod Touch with assistive technology to help student with Autism/PDD and accompanying speech delay. Research Year: 2009-2010 Research Classification: Student Support/Enrichment Research Summary: The marketplace of “apps” for iPhone and iPod Touch technology is growing. It is also growing in the field of assitive technology. iPhone technology provides computing and storage power in an unrivaled small space which is a clear advantage over older model assistive communication devices such as Dynavox. This research will obtain the technology for a single student and their teacher and look at best practices and impact on student behavior and learning.
Research Title: Multiple Intelligences & The Collaborative Web Research Year: 2009 Research Classification: Student Support/Enrichment Research Summary: This project developed a rubric for use of collaborative technologies in support of implementing instruction based on Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence theory.
Research Title: Clairvoy.com: Online Collaboration; Building a School-wide PLC Culture of Transforming Practice from Within Research Year: 2008 Research Classification: Curriculum Development,Professional Development Research Summary: An online collaborative environment, Clairvoy.com, was introduced to the staff. The behavior of the staff was studied. The research concluded 80% of the staff use the tools on a regular basis for professional development using the PLC model. Research also concluded use of Clairvoy.com overcame many of the barriers challenging implementation of traditional PLC models in schools.
Research Title: Use of Exploratory Teaching Method for Punctuation Unit in 2nd Grade Research Year: 2007 Research Classification: Curriculum Development Research Summary: An ex-post facto, single group pretest-posttest research design was used to study if a convenience sampling of 22 students in a 3rd grade class of a Title One school (majority English as a Second Language learners) earned higher scores on their use of upper case punctuation after an intervention on writing punctuation using an inquiry-based teaching strategy. The intervention consisted of a two week unit of study. A pretest and posttest were administered on the first and last day of the intervention. Findings suggest the students scored higher in their usage of upper case letters after the intervention. Study limitations and suggestions for further investigation are discussed.
Research Title: Implementing Daily Curriculum-Based Assessment to Inform Instruction Research Year: 2006 Research Classification: Curriculum Development Research Summary: Students who do not have mastery of prerequisite knowledge are less able to access the curriculum. Especially in cumulative subjects such as Math and Phonemic Awareness, students who do not master each lesson are less able to access the curriculum of subsequent lessons, because they lack the prerequisite knowledge. Holding the entire class hostage to remediate a sub-group delays learning, frustrates some students, and interferes with the program of study. Using our Flexible Review Group strategy coupled with the use of Visual Entry Tickets allows general education (and some special education) students to be taught the curriculum to mastery over the course of every two lessons. These strategies, when implemented within the body of a LEARN model lesson plan, can be implemented without adding additional time to the lesson. Definitions: Visual Entry Ticket [curriculum-based assessment done at the beginning of a lesson to determine mastery of prerequisite knowledge] Flexible Review Groups [group of students needing remediation on prerequisite knowledge defined at the beginning of each lesson using Visual Entry Ticket curriculum-based assessment tool] Results: The test group receiving the intervention strategy scored 42.5% higher than the first control group and 68.2% higher than a second control group.
