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JFYNet Newsletter
Spring 2010
In This Issue
MassCUE Video
Scaling Innovative Solutions
How You Can Benefit from JFYNet and Moodle
Join Our Mailing List
Quick Links
 
Instruction Technology Integration Specialists: 
 
 
 
Mass CUE Video
 

JFYNet presented a workshop titled "Student Success with JFYNet" at the 2009 Mass CUE and M.A.S.S. Technology Conference at Gillette Stadium. Three of our partner schools--North Shore

Technical High School, Knox Trail Junior High School and Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School demonstrated how JFYNet is utilized in their school systems. 

 
The Mass Cue instructional videos are now featured on our new You Tube page.  Check us out at:
 

Scaling Innovative Solutions 

During the past 18 months, JFYNet has piloted a set of next-generation math and science interventions designed to increase student engagement and achievement in grades 6-12.  Now with the support of our partners, JFYNet is extending the scope of this exciting work for member districts.  Our wave two replication effort includes:

JFYSciBlended Online Middle School Curriculum
High-quality and engaging online modules for students in grades 7-8.  This fully online JFYSci curriculum and assessment package is a perfect opportunity for districts piloting blended online learning approaches.

JFYNet Plus - Targeted Math and Science Interventions for Grades 6-12 (MassCue Video which is featured above)
JFYNet Plus is designed to provide the right learning tools for students where and when they need them.  Using personalized learning play lists or learning algorithms, JFYNet Plus helps create an engaging, hands-on, customized math and science curriculum for students in grades 6-12. 

Our wave two replication push is designed to set the stage for JFYNetWorks' i3 (Investing in Innovation) effort.  JFYNetWorks is actively scheduling district meetings to discuss the JFYSci and JFYNet Plus pilots and consider how these efforts align with school and district improvement strategies as well as Race To The Top and i3 priorities.

How you can benefit from JFYNet and Moodle 

Since last spring, JFYNet has used Moodle as its course management system. Moodle is an Open Source Course Management System (CMS), also known as a Learning Management System (LMS) or a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE).  Moodle has features that allow it to scale to very large deployments and thousands of students, yet it can also be used for a single school or even individual students.  Many institutions use it as their platform to conduct fully online courses, while some use it simply to augment face-to-face courses (known as blended learning).  Many Moodle users use the activity modules (such as forums, databases and wikis) to build richly collaborative communities of learning around their subject matter (in the social constructionist tradition), while others prefer to use Moodle as a way to deliver content to students and assess learning using assignments or quizzes.  For more information about Moodle, please visit http://moodle.org.

 

Within the JFYNet Moodle site, JFYNetWorks offers various resources to teachers and students in the form of courses.  These courses were developed by JFYNet staff.  The courses include a high school science review course specifically geared toward the Biology MCAS test; a fully digital online middle school science curriculum called JFYSci; and middle and high school math courses aligned to the grade 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks and MCAS.

 

All courses have an online grade book and many reporting features to choose from.  The math courses that are aligned to the frameworks have associated forums for teachers across the state to connect with each other by sharing teaching strategies and resources.  The middle and high school math courses provide printable PDF and word documents with actual MCAS questions aligned to the frameworks.  Teachers can use these documents in any way that adapts to their lessons.  The courses also include quizzes for each standard composed of historical MCAS questions, and have the capability of developing practice MCAS tests.  An extremely powerful piece of these courses is the inclusion of Adaptive Curriculum activity objects.  These new online activities use a visual approach to foster conceptual understanding of math topics.  Students are motivated to learn by the realistic graphics, interactive problem sets, and compelling real-world activities.  There are five types of math activity objects:

 

  • Concept Development, which focuses on conceptual learning and helps students comprehend difficult to understand problems.
  • Problem Solving, which engages students in problem solving scenarios based on Polya's Problem Solving cycle.
  • Visual Proofs, which walks students through the process of developing formulas, theorems, and special relationships.
  • Dynamic Modeling, where students become more responsive as they learn math and changing variables and observe the results in real time.
  • Simulated Exercises, where real world simulations encourage students to practice mathematical concepts through a series of leading questions.

 All these activities have associated teacher guides, student worksheets to support the web based application, student independent practice worksheets and associated quizzes to assess performance.  The math alignments as well as our other alignments are always expanding as we  add new web activities and other software as they prove to be of educational value.  These additions are tested and chosen by JFYNet staff as well as our teachers in the field.

 

JFYNet also has in place JFYSci, our fully digital online middle school science curriculum.  Now that the science MCAS is a requirement for graduation, educators are focused on building the fundamental science skills in middle school.  Students with a solid science foundation will have greater success both in school and in career paths.  JFYNetWorks engaged The Center for 21st Century Skills to create an all digital science curriculum.  JFYSci, like all our curricula, is based on the Massachusetts frameworks.  Students access the course through JFYNetWorks' Moodle site.  JFYSci uses LAMS (Learning Activity Management System). The LAMS creates a structured learning sequence for students.  JFYSci teachers can monitor students and move them back and forth between activities.  LAMS works well for middle school students because the system helps them stay on task. JFYSci includes twelve units that use web based activities and Adaptive Curriculum activity objects.  The goal is to establish a blended learning environment by mixing online work with traditional classroom activities.  JFYSci units include offline activities that encourage research and scientific inquiry.  Several main features and themes run through the JFYSci course sequence: the tracking atom, green science, and the capstone project. In the tracking atom, student teams collaboratively create a Web site and present an atom's story from the beginning of time to the present day.  The tracking atom functions as a formative assessment of student progress and allows students to document their progress in creative and engaging ways.  All course units include a related activity on green science.  The goal of the green science activities is to help students become more cognizant of real world problems so that they develop environmental awareness.  Students also relate their classroom work to real world problems.  The capstone engineering project reinforces knowledge of environmental issues in line with STEM objectives. After students choose a problem, they develop an engineering-based solution through research and data analysis.  Students develop scientific knowledge and communication skills as they work collaboratively and give class presentations.

 

The high school Biology MCAS exam has been of great concern to administrators, teachers, and students across the state.  JFYNet recognized the need for a program geared toward preparing students for this test.  JFYNet's response was to create the Grade 10 Science Review course in Moodle.  Every JFYNet curriculum begins with the Massachusetts Curriculum Frameworks, so JFYNet staff developed science power standards the same way we chose standards for our MCAS math alignments.  In the JFYNet math and science alignments, we select standards based on rankings by point value and frequency of appearance on the MCAS.  After analyzing the 2006-2008 science tests, the staff selected twelve science standards and created a science curriculum on our Moodle site.  The JFYNetWorks 10th Grade Science Review includes a combination of web activities, MCAS quizzes and Adaptive Curriculum activity objects.  The course offers diverse exercises so students can focus on different activities that address varied learning styles.  We use interactive lessons so that students can take full advantage of the pedagogical range of technology-enabled instruction.  Some activities can be done individually, others with whole group instruction.  Students and teachers enjoy using the program.  They find the variety of activities which include puzzles, virtual modeling and inquiry-based exercises engaging.  JFYNet plans to expand the science curriculum by including more standards and resources.  The curriculum includes a teacher's guide.

 

The JFYNet Moodle site can be found at moodle.jfynet.org. Certain areas are open to any teacher or administrator in the state at no charge.  These areas provide access to historical MCAS questions grouped by standard and question type, with and without answers.  Visitors also have access to all of the teacher forums for each standard in the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks.  These forums are a place to share ideas, resources and teacher strategies for particular topics.  If you would like to be given access and need a username and password please contact Ryan Camire, JFYNet Educational Technology Integration Specialist, at rcamir@jfynet.org.
Gary Kaplan
Executive Director 
JFYNetWorks