Integration of technology into the curriculum spearheads the policy of the school district. The ultimate goal of this is the improvement of learning performance. Since the implementation of the active technology policy, the ARP ISD appears to be scoring higher on the yearly exams administered by the state of Texas. Within the district, an ICT director is charged with integration of ICT into the curriculum and bringing teachers up to speed on ICT through in-service training. This director is also the curriculum specialist of the school district. The ICT director works together with the ICT coordinator who is present at each of the three schools. ARP ISD has been awarded several grants from diverse sources to bring about the integration of ICT in the curriculum.

The following are important starting points for the educational design at ARP ISD:

• The current generation of students learns via images and much less via test. For this reason, much should be visualized in teaching and learning. ICT can help accomplish this.
• ICT makes it possible for education to be customized to the individual needs and interests of students.
• Information skills constitute an important element in society today. Specific, structured attention should be given to this in today's education. Primary school students must learn how to look for information. Students in the junior high must, in addition, learn how to organize information and high school students must learn how to manage information.
• Everything that you test for, including such topics as listening and management skills, must also be taught. Students must work on the skills/knowledge that they don't already possess.

Each class has access, in principle, to at least 3 (primary school) or 5 (junior and high schools) computers and a printer. This is true as long as the teacher of that class has sufficient computer skills. Each class has a number of Internet connections. The high school has a computer lab with 12 Pentium computers and a workstation. The classroom for business studies has 20 computers (Pentium and 486) where multimedia activities can be carried out. There are also 486-type computers available for programming and 12 Macs and printers are on hand for remedial math.

The junior high school has a computer lab for reading education with 12 Macs, a general computer center with 24 multimedia computers (Pentium), 2 scanners, a scan converter and printers. There are 12 PCs in the library for research and word processing. The primary school has a computer center with 12 Pentiums—two of which are multimedia computers—two scanners, a scan converter, video capture and four printers. Another computer lab will be added with 24 Macs.

Brief user training courses accompany each new technology introduced in the school district. In addition, nearly all teachers have followed an introductory course in computer use. Teachers who have followed this course are certified and are therefore provided with computers in the classroom.

A sample of the use of ICT in teaching/learning at the ARP ISD:

• A course in web-mastering for high school students.

• Information management for grades 7 and 8

• In high school business class, students work on collaborative research into the software packages used by businesses in the area so that these choices can be reflected in the curriculum.

• The program 'accelerated reader' is used in the primary school to keep track of the progress of students in the area of comprehensive reading. The program also provides diagnostic information upon which the teacher can determine whether or not remedial measures are needed.
• Grade 4 students construct simple websites with information about their teachers as part of the curriculum in communication and writing skills.
• High school students take part in local television broadcasts with the help of a studio that is present in the school.

Teacher: Marty McDougal

The students: Students from grades 6-8

Subject area: Science

Meteorology forms part of the junior high science education curriculum. ICT is being explicitly used in this topic this year, specifically through use of spreadsheets and the World Wide Web. Students from grades 6-8 are working on this project. The project is still in a nascent stage and will be built upon in the coming years.

The project has its own website (http://www.arp.sprnet.org/weather/wnet2.htm) which plays a central role in the project. The information gathered by the students is placed on the web. Students can present the results of their investigations on the website. There are links to sources of information about the weather and there is the opportunity to interact with other schools via E-mail. The design of the website is taken care of by high school students who take part in the course on web-mastering (see above).

Twice daily, a small group of students gathers information about the weather (temperature, precipitation, cloud coverage) from the weather station at the school. This information is first recorded in a spreadsheet and later on is placed on the web. During the lesson, students compare their weather data with data from other parts of the country. These data are gathered via contact with other schools with said contacts being made via the website. In order to predict the weather, students use data from over the course of several days.

This project is worked on both at class-level as well as on the level of individual students, with individual students working on their own sub-topics within the theme. For instance, one of the grade 7 students is busy with an investigation into the effects of El Niño on various regions. With the help of information gathered by the students, the basic concepts are dealt with in grade 6 with more in-depth treatment coming in grades 7 and 8. Many students come in between classes to work on their research. Room is explicitly made within the ARP ISD to stimulate students to work on their projects in this way.

The teacher attempts to do the following in this project:

• The link to the 'real world' is strengthened by allowing students, themselves, to gather and process data about the weather.
• Impart research skills in the science education curriculum (performing measurements, graphical presentation of data, making forecasts).
• Foster the feeling of involvement among students by having them build and fill in their own website.
• Make more use of images as an alternative to text in science education.

The teacher has access to 8 computers, a video recorder and a scanner. The intention is that the data gathered by students be directly input into a laptop computer. For technical reasons, this has not worked well in practice.

Use is made of spreadsheets, PowerPoint and the World Wide Web.

ICT is employed to search for information and to share information with others.

In the conceptual framework developed prior to field research, a number of characteristics of EPs were formulated (Voogt & Odenthal, 1997a). These characteristics are grouped around four components of the teaching/learning environment that exert influence on the teaching/learning process: 1) goals and contents, 2) roles of the teacher, 3) roles of the students and 4) materials and infrastructure.

The following overview summarizes the characteristics of EP, and to what extent they can be found in the teaching/learning situation described.

In the project 'The Weather' use is made of measurements taken by the students themselves. By relating these measurements to actual weather reports, the subject meteorology is treated in a real life way.

• Emphasis in the teaching/learning process is placed on developing new skills

The students take measurements, which they must organize and present graphically. In addition, they must gather and process information on the weather as it relates to the sub-topic they have chosen. This information is presented on the website. The investigation into El Niño is a good example of this.

The students are actively put to work. They must gather measurements on the weather, make forecasts, compile their data in convenient to read graphs and present their finding on the website.

• The teacher bases his actions on the interests and needs of individual students

Students can work on their own research questions; there is room in the curriculum for individual activities in addition to class activities.

• The teacher actively creates a learning environment for students

The teacher clearly creates a learning environment in which the weather station and the website play important roles.

• The teacher stimulates cooperation between students

The teacher ensures that the students—as a group—are responsible for maintaining the website and collecting the data. Every day a small group of students is responsible for carrying out the measurements at the weather station.

• The teacher is a partner in the learning process of the students

Part of the educational approach is that students carry out their own investigations related to the weather. The teacher is a partner in this learning process.

The students are actively engaged with the material in a number of ways: taking measurements, searching for and arranging information, formulating research questions, presenting results.

• The students are independent (but not yet autonomous)

The students are given a certain degree of independence in carrying out the plans for their own investigations, which take place in addition to the traditional activities.

• The students work in teams

The students are responsible—as a group—for the collection of data as well as for filling in and maintaining the website.

• The students become 'experts' in their sub-topics.

Students become 'experts' in their sub-topics, particularly when they carry out the research themselves. They share this expertise with the class via a presentation, and on the website.

The students use spreadsheets to arrange and further manipulate their measurements. In addition, they work together to build their site on the World Wide Web.

• Various forms of ICT are used

The students use spreadsheets, PowerPoint and the World Wide Web.

• Use is made of non-structured and semi-structured (non-ICT) sources of information

For their own investigations, students are encouraged to use sources other than the Internet (encyclopedias, TV stations—such as the Weather Channel).

• Learning is flexible in time

Students have a certain degree of flexibility in the use of their time, specifically in working on their individual investigations.

By using ICT, Students become more involved in their own learning, for instance by being collectively responsible for taking measurements using the weather station and building and maintaining their own website. Furthermore, weather phenomena can be visualized with the help of ICT. This supports the teaching/learning process.

Further plus points of this teaching/learning situation"

• The use of high school students for the design of the website adds another dimension to the project. In this way, students from the whole school are involved in and responsible for the project.

Suggestions for further enrichment can be given in every teaching/learning situation. By enrichment we mean that a teaching/learning situation can be expanded upon such that it would contain more characteristics of EP.

Up to this point, students' grades are based on a list of goals that must be monitored. A possibility for enrichment could be to make the products of the individual investigations (the websites that the students make as part of their presentations) part of a digital portfolio. This has the additional benefit of offering the teacher a tool for monitoring progress.