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You will find Caroline’s story refreshing
and encouraging. This celebrated technology whiz describes herself as
a humble, "language artsy" type who dared to give technology
a try. And she has come a long way – from a Chapter 1 reading teacher
with two Apple IIEs and no tech know-how to Technology and Learning’s
1996 National Technology Teacher with an electronic publishing lab and
a globally recognized, student authored web magazine, Midlink.
Caroline’s philosophy of teaching is clearly evident in her use of
technology. "Just open the gate and let them out, " she says,
"It is amazing what kids can accomplish . . . I don’t think
that adults give kids enough credit. I am always amazed by what they can
do when they have the tools and the freedom to use them." To see how his students'
thought about the project and Caroline's curriculum
idea. |
MIDtech (MT): Let me
get started with a question that I thought might give you a chance to do a little
reminiscing about your personal history with technology. Do you remember the
first time you touched a computer? Can you tell me something about that experience?
McCullem:
Yes, it was in my Chapter 1 reading class in Charleston, S. C. I lived in
Charleston and taught in an inner city school that had a lot of kids who
were really needy. I was doing every song and dance – every trick in
the book that I could think of to keep them interested and motivated. Reading
aloud and doing all of those other things that would get them interested
in books. One of the things though that I was required to do by the state
was to teach a statewide vocabulary list. I was trying to figure out an
interesting way to do that, and I had tried everything – we made flashcards,
we played games, and I had made up board games and everything. And one day,
out of the blue, two boxes arrived in my classroom. I was a new to the system
then, and I am sure that other teachers were aware that this was going to
happen. But I had only been there for about a week and all of a sudden these
big boxes came. I opened them up and there were two Apple IIE computers.
And I went, "Wow, I wonder what we could do with those in a reading
classroom? I wonder what would happen if I tried? I wonder what kind of
software is out there?" One thing led to another and the first software
program that I ever discovered that I found useful was Word Attack.
by Davison. It’s a drill and practice and now they have improved it
a lot. Of course, drill and practice serves a very narrow purpose but it
does have its place certainly with those kids who need to improve those
skills. Well, kids loved it. I decided that I really needed to learn more
about this because I needed to make sure that this includes the vocabulary
words that we were held accountable for teaching. I started programming
my own list, and I started writing sentences in the context of our city
and using people that the kids knew, including our principal and other Prominent
figures in our community . . . and they got so excited about it and would
beg to go to the computers to practice vocabulary skills. Their rate of
passing vocabulary tests, their scores on the standardized test – everything
came up. It was remarkable. So I knew right then that I had found something
that really worked. If I could just get something meaningful onto that machine,
I knew that the machine held an attraction for the kids. And the next thing
that I discovered was the word processor and from then I became a computer
addict.
MT: Was
there ever a time that you felt like a computer klutz or did you always
have the confidence?
McCullem: No,
I guess I am one of those people that I don’t particularly mind making
a fool out of myself. When I began, of course, I didn’t really understand
any more than anyone else does. And being this language artsy, liberal
artsy type person that I am, I looked at this machine and I was threatened.
I thought this takes numbers and technical skills that I don’t have.
But I guess what motivated me was what I saw happening with the kids. If
they were that interested in something then I was not going to be embarrassed
over my own lack of knowledge about it – I was going to get over that
to make it happen for them.
MT: Did
you have any idea about what impact technology would later have on your
professional career? Could you talk a little about that?
McCullem:
I had no inkling of how much it would just permeate everything that I do.
I use the computer everyday – probably at least once an hour I have
to touch base with my machine, for email or something like that. It is just
a tool. Just like I don’t think you could work without that pen that
you are writing with right now and I couldn’t either and neither could
I work without a computer. Probably the first time that I felt the real
importance of it in my career was when I was in the Charleston Area Writing
Project. I competed for one of those scholarships and I was delighted to
have the opportunity to go through that intensive training in the teaching
of writing. They gave us a choice, which they usually do in the writing
project, to choose what we wanted to focus on. My focus was the computer
because I had had this experience with Word Attack. I guess our textbook
was Nancie Atwell’s [In the Middle]. I thought I was going to
be Nancie, you know, I was just so excited about her philosophy because
she said things that I had always felt but I had never really had the courage
to stand up and say, "This is right." I just really loved her
whole philosophy. Incorporating the computer into that and using the word
processor to make that philosophy happen in my classroom was my focus for
the writing project. I really began to explore that when I had an opportunity
to read some things and try some new things during that summer. I began
the summer as a computer newbie. By the end of the summer I was so shocked
that my presentation was one of those selected to be given to our school
board because they felt it was so useful. I thought, well, you know other
people see the sense in this, too, so maybe it’s not just me. That
was the encouragement I needed. I also took what I learned back to the classroom
in the fall and saw the magic that happened when kids started writing. I
saw that reading and writing connection and how their interests level increased
and the amount of time that they are willing to spend on their editing because
of the word processors.
MT: So
you were on the cutting edge . . .
McCullem:
And didn’t even know it – I guess I was. I didn’t particularly
feel like it at the time. I felt like I was having a great time and it worked
and I was delighted. It was exciting!
MT: How
did you come up with the idea for Midlink Magazine. Where did
that come from?
McCullem: From
the same type of activity. I knew that I needed a computers after that year.
With the Writing Project and that chance to explore the technology I was hooked,
and I was not stopping until I got a bunch of those machines in my classroom.
And then, I’m sure many teachers have experienced this, my husband’s
job called us to other locations and we moved to Tampa and then to Orlando.
So I was in Florida for about eight years. Some of those years I taught. Other
times I was working at home as a parent volunteer. I was serving on PTA boards
and doing all of those things which required some word processing skills so
I really got to use those. I guess I began to see how all of this tied together
when I got back into the classroom again and I began to us it on a daily basis
with the students.
The magazine came from the classroom and the fact that the students were writing.
The students were excited about what they wrote. As you know, part of the writing
process method is that you have to have a real audience. That was one of the
things that I learned: that having a real audience and purpose increases students'
motivation. So I thought, "Wow, if just an audience of their peers increases
motivation, what would happen if those peers became global peers?" By that
time I was working closely with the University of Central Florida. As you know
I rely a great deal on whatever university is close to me because I realize
those resources are so wonderful. They have time to do the research and the
exploration which I don’t have time to do because I am so busy in the classroom.
So I had heard about the World Wide Web and one of my parents said, "Here
it is, and I think you would enjoy this." It took about a week for all
of that to kind of cook in my brain. So I called that guy back up and I said,
"Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could put some o f the writing that we
are doing in the classroom on the Web? Do you think that I could possibly learn
how to do this?" How difficult is this? He said that, "You probably
need to call your friends at the University and see if they can help. I’ll
do what I can but I’m just a computer programmer and you’re going
to need web space and you’re going to need this and that . . . " So
that’s when I called friends in the computer science department at the
University of Central Florida and they helped me get my first web page up. And
at that point all I did was to send them the writing and this parent and the
University worked together to put it on the Web.
MT: So it all
originally came about through a parent’s suggestion?
McCullem: Yes,
because he showed me the Web. So once the first issue of the magazine got posted,
I thought ...so that's done the kids will enjoy the web page and everything.
By that time I was on some email lists. I wrote to some friends and that was
how I got the other teachers to contribute to Midlink.. In our first
issue we had writing from Australia and Hawaii and Tennessee and I don’t
know probably four different locations – all teachers I had met through
teachers’ email lists on the Internet. And we all decided that our kids
were creating incredible things and we wanted to share that. So we continued
to talk about it and the word spread. The next thing I knew I got letter from
a writer at the National Science Foundation. He said, "We’re doing
a newsletter and we are always trying to highlight some educators who are doing
some innovative things. I went to your page." And I thought, "This
is incredible. How did he find that out about us?"
MT: How did
he know?
McCullem: I
have no idea. I think he had seen it on an email list because we had posted
by that time some messages to teacher a couple of teacher listservs that described
our web page as some writing that the kids might enjoy. We invited other teachers
to go there and take part in all the fun. We sent that out to a variety of sites,
Web 66 and Kidlink
and all of those, and so the writer for the National Science Foundation
- went there and wrote about it. That went out in a hard copy in the National
Science Foundation newsletter. From there Captain Craig Nelson on the NOAA [National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] ship, the Malcolm Baldridge, read the
newsletter. All kinds of people read the National Science Foundation newsletter,
so we got a lot of mail from that. Craig Nelson called me, and said, "We
have this ship sailing around in the ocean and one of our missions is to bring
the K-12 community aboard if we can. Can you think of any way that we could
work together?" All I did was ask the kids and they thought of a variety
of ways. We exchanged email with Craig Nelson for years and eventually ended
up having a teleconference and so forth. It all kind of started through email
from the classroom, and the fact that we were doing some writing that would
be interesting to other teachers and other students.
MT: I love
that story! So it all started because you were willing to take a risk with the
first Apple IIE?
McCullem: Right,
opened up that box and took out that thing I didn’t know what to do with
. . . It’s like an antique now.
MT: Do you think that
technology helps you be a better teacher?
McCullem: Yes,
it teaches you to be flexible because things don’t always work and you
always have to have a backup plan. I mean most teachers do that anyway. You
have to have two or three backup plans with the computer and more if you factor
in the Internet. Recently we had a workshop that I was helping with it. For
the whole first hour I think the Internet connection on the entire east coast
went down so we had to do a lot of other things that we had planned to do later
– just completely reshape the workshop and in an hour it came back up.
But, you know, we just can’t have dead time in a classroom. The students
don’t deserve to have that -- they deserve to have some activities, some
meaningful things going on. So we always want to have a back up. And yes, it’s
helped my teaching because it has kept me honest. I really have to think of
what it is I want the students to learn and how many different ways I can think
of to present that.
MT: I can tell
that you like to make lemonade -- that’s a real positive take, "Technology
keeps me flexible – keeps me on my toes."
McCullem: That’s
right, it does. If you want to know a pet peeve that I have it’s people
who complain about what they don’t have instead of trying to do something
with what they do have. People ask me what advice I have for people who are
just starting out. My advice is always to get a track record doing something
– anything, even if it is just that you sent an email message and got a
reply or that you took the messages that your students had written with pen
and paper at school, took the best ones and took them home to your computer
or to the media center to the only computer in your school that has email access,
and put that on email and sent it out and got a reply back on that computer
and took it back to the classroom and shared it -- held it up and the kids were
all excited about it. With anything that you do like that you tell the community,
you tell the parents, what you’re doing. My approach is always to say,
"This is what we did with the resources we have. Now can you imagine what
we could do if we had this in our classroom and we had the network we need.
How are we going to work together to get that?"
MT: That’s great.
That was going to be my question. What advice would you give to somebody who
is just starting out and doesn’t know where to turn? And maybe just has
a humble Apple IIE and as in your story they can learn to do a lot.
McCullem:
Those Apple IIEs still work. There are still some working in the school
where I am teaching today. The teachers will not let them go because there
is software that really works on them. And the kids love it.
MT: I’m
thinking in terms, and not of just rural areas because rural areas often
do a great job in supplying the technology that teachers need, but suppose
teachers don’t need the hardware as much as they just need a mentor
-- who could do just a little hand-holding.
McCullem:
My advice and I probably already said this . . . the university. You know
that NC State has been an integral part of Midlink. It wouldn’t even exits today if
we didn’t have the partnership with NC
State. All of the work that is created by my students and all of the
work that we edit from other students, who don’t have their own web
page, is posted on the server at NC State.
Any of the things that we have been able to do that are really innovative
like the 3D models or the real time Hyperstudio
stacks that you can play live on Netscape,
all of that stuff -- I would never had known how to make that happen
if I hadn’t had help from the local university, in our case, NC State. There are numerous universities all
over this country. There are small colleges with people who know these things
and have those skills. We have been given a mandate by our State Board that
we will try to form partnerships among K-12 schools and universities and
I sincerely believe those partnerships are going to make the difference.
They are going to be the thing that is going to have the most influence
on school improvement. I think on how these rural schools are going to catch
up. They don’t have the resources. They don’t have people in their
schools or maybe even in their immediate community to make these things
happen. But if they are anywhere close to a college or university, I think
they might..., not to call up the university and say, "Help me, help
me!" but say, "This is what we have going already. Do you have
anybody over there who could help us complete this, help us develop this
into a full blown project, or what ideas do you have?" So it’s
really information. It’s not the money and it’s not even the people
actually coming to your classroom and doing anything. It’s the pieces
of knowledge and the pieces of technology that they can supply that will
allow the classroom teachers to have the access to the things that they
need.
MT: And
that leads into probably one of our biggest challenges which is using technology
to help teacher gain those pieces of knowledge that they need.
McCullem:
That’s right, and that’s one of the things that we are trying
to do with Teachers Connect. We assume that most people by the end of this
year at least ,and many people within the last 6 months, have gained some
sort of access to the WWW. There are so many useful things out there already
but there are also sites that are not even worth your time to click on the
mouse to go in there. And what we are trying to do at the NCDPI with Teachers Connect is to make certain that the
resources that teachers need are in one place. And that if the teacher is
wondering, "So okay, here’s the web but how does this fit in to
the Standard Course of Study (SCS). And how can I find other teachers
who are maybe in my own area and might be able to help me? And who has done
this before, maybe in my neighborhood?" All those questions we are
hoping to put some sort of answers for these onto Teachers Connect. We have
had something called the Great Web Site Search that Mary Ostwalt and Karen
Creech, teachers involved in the Educators on Loan Program, recently implemented
in the mountains at Appalachian State University. They use the resources
from that university to host teachers from all over the state. They found
websites and evaluated them using a rubric and made certain that they were
acceptable, useful, and supported the Standard Course of Study in some way.
They took those sites and then they figured out where they would be aligned
with the SCS in NC. They have now put those into a data base and
that’s one of my jobs at DPI is helping to put those onto the web so
that they will be there for other teachers to access.
MT: That’s
a great project.
McCullem:
Yes that and another thing I am really excited about that we are going to
be doing in the coming year -- we are going to be having a project -- we
are not quite sure of the name of the yet. At this point we are thinking
Techology Outpost or the TTop for short.
MT: I do
think there is a lot in a name.
McCullem:
Yes, and we were thinking in terms of those old convertibles called the
ttops. Have you ever seen them? They are just so classic and they still
run. They just let all the free air in and not only do they take you where
you want to go but it’s fun to get there. That’s the kind of spirit
that we hope to convey in this center. We are sitting in the heartbeat of
that room right now. This is going to be the place where we are hoping to
have teleconferences for teachers who are just starting out. They may have
never had a teleconference using CUSeeMe. They may not know how to pick it up or how to
install it or anything. We are going to have webpages will help with that.
We are going to set up a monthly teleconference where people can come and
just practice. And there is nobody there to make fun of you. We are all
learning together. If your picture isn’t right it’s ok because
we have been there, too. And using the resources of NC
State because that reflector site is provided by the Center for Learning Technologies is where we are
going to host these. It will be a safe site. It will be a place where there
won’t be any uninvited guests. We’ll be having teleconferences
to share information and also just to practice that technology. And some
of the other things that will be happening in that center will be web pages
that will announce contests and projects that teachers in North Carolina
can join and participate and contribute to.