This February, GLEF takes you on a field trip to Hawaii!
At Nuuanu Elementary School, outside of Honolulu, technology enhances the curriculum for all grades.
The K-6 students strengthen writing skills as scriptwriters and book reviewers for the school's daily student-run television broadcast. Social studies projects include collecting oral histories and creating multimedia biographies. Students use science and math to test local water quality, posting the results on the school's Web site and sharing them with the Hawaii Department of Health.
Students at Nuuanu Elementary School benefit from a long legacy of technology integration.
In 1989, then-principal Eleanor Fujioka insisted that the students have access to technology -- which at that time meant one Commodore 64, passed from classroom to classroom.
Today, the students run their own television station. They combine creative writing with computer animation.
"In the past, they said, 'Just let the good students [use] the computers.' But what about the majority of the students? ... We have to give every child from K-6 in our school an opportunity to work with the technology, to use it as a tool to support their learning," says Kelvin Chun, Nuuanu technology director and a 2002 EdTech Leader of the Year.
Our coverage of this story includes:
* An article, From Hula to High Tech
* A 7-minute Web documentary. (Note: Will play in QuickTime 5.0 or Windows Media Player.) (Download the latest quicktime)
< http://www.glef.org/1126 > - click on "play video"
* A multimedia feature, which uses two specific projects to examine how Nuuanu uses technology and teamwork to engage students. Includes student work, photos, audio clips, and curricular information.
< http://www.glef.org/1126 > scroll down to click on "play multimedia"
(Note: Flash Player 6.0 is required. Flash Player 6.0 can be downloaded free from Macromedia.)
Send your comments and questions about the Nuuanu Elementary School story to feedback@glef.org.