SBIR Phase I: Using Real-Time, Synchronous Collaborative Technologies to Support Elementary and Middle School Students in Developing Reading, Writing, and Collaboration Skills

这个SBIR第一阶段项目的更广泛/商业影响是提高教育技术行业和K-8课堂的标准。虽然今天的教室通常会凑合使用一系列不相关的应用程序，但该项目提供了一套连贯、有凝聚力的应用程序，完全支持共同核心国家标准(CCSS)和下一代科学标准。此外，为这套应用程序提供动力的技术将使学生即使在不同的地方也能进行协作，既可以在屏幕上写作，也可以一起交谈。这种远程协作和信息共享是21世纪识字技能和最终劳动力准备的重要特征。该项目配有专业发展材料和循序渐进的指南，旨在支持教育工作者在课堂上使用材料，该项目适合在全国范围内采用。该项目满足了全国范围内提高3-8年级儿童阅读技能的迫切需求，特别是在科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)学科。战略是使用低成本、联网的移动计算设备？孩子们觉得非常吸引人并且越来越容易获得的技术？作为构建协作学习环境的锚定平台。这个项目将支持从写到读、为受众写作和合作写作，这三种策略已经被证明在阅读和写作技能方面都产生了积极的收获。更具体地说，这个项目将提供一整套工具，使目标学生群体(3-8年级)能够阅读指导文本(高质量非虚构类写作的专业写作范例)，在安全、吸引人的环境中与同行合作，创建发展语言和视觉素养技能的多媒体项目，并在互联网上发布和分享他们的作品。这些活动对学生参与阅读、写作和协作活动的数量和质量的影响将进行实证评估。为了让教师更好地准备好使用这一项目，将向教育工作者提供课程和专业发展材料。

THIS SBIR Phase I project's broader/commercial impact is to raise the bar for the educational technology industry and for K-8 classrooms. While classrooms today generally make do with a collection of unrelated applications, this project provides a coherent, cohesive suite of apps that squarely support the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as well as the Next-Generation Science Standards. In addition, the technology which will power the suite of apps will enable students to collaborate even when they are not located in the same place, both writing onscreen and talking together. This kind of distance collaboration and sharing of information are important features of 21st century literacy skills and eventual workforce readiness. With the accompanying professional development materials and the step-by-step guides designed to support educators in using the materials in their classrooms, this project is well positioned to be adopted nationwide.The project addresses a pressing, national need to improve reading skills amongst children in grades 3-8, especially in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines. The strategy is to use low-cost, Internet-connected, mobile computing devices ? technology that children find exceedingly engaging as well as increasingly available ? as the anchoring platform upon which to build a collaborative learning environment. This project will support writing to read, writing for an audience and writing collaboratively, three strategies that have been shown to produce positive gains in both reading and writing skills. More specifically, this project will offer a complete suite of tools that will enable the target population of students (grades 3-8) to read mentor texts (professionally-written examples of quality nonfiction writing), to collaborate with peers in a safe, engaging environment, to create multi-media projects that develop both verbal and visual literacy skills, and to publish and share their work over the Internet. The impact of these activities on the amount and quality of student engagement in reading, writing and collaboration activities will be empirically assessed. To better prepare teachers to use this project, educators will be provided with curricular and professional development materials.