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Research Results

Impact of the IMYM Project on Grade 8 Pilot Teachers: A Follow-up Report

May 2001

Prepared by Distance Learning and Information Technologies Unit, Program Development Branch, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning

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1.0 Background

During the 2000-2001 school year, Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning selected 23 pilot schools (twenty funded pilot schools and three non-funded pilot schools) for Phase 4 (grade 8) of the Interdisciplinary Middle Years Multimedia (IMYM) Project. There were a total of 45 grade 8 teachers from these 22 schools.

Pilot teachers participated in 12 days of professional learning on the pedagogy related to integrating Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to support the grade 8 interdisciplinary unit, Systems and Interactions. Teachers piloted the Systems and Interactions unit over the 2000-2001 school year in order to explore issues involved in integrating Technology as a Foundation Skill (TFS) in an interdisciplinary context.

At the conclusion of the Systems and Interactions interdisciplinary unit, pilot teachers attended a one-day follow-up session held by the Manitoba Education and Early Childhood Learning IMYM Project Team in Winnipeg, Manitoba, on Friday, May 11, 2001.

The purpose of this follow-up session was to gather feedback from pilot teachers about the implementation of the Systems and Interactions interdisciplinary unit and about their experiences during Phase 4 of the IMYM project. Pilot teachers discussed some of the successes and challenges they encountered while implementing the unit, and shared experiences, ideas, resources and student samples with other pilot teachers. They also had the opportunity to "Show-and-Share" some of their

  • Student Products - electronic collections, portfolios, websites, videos, multimedia presentations
  • Teacher Products - concept maps, BLMs, lesson plans, rubrics, websites, videos, multimedia presentations
  • Learning Resources - URLs, videos, books, experts

Pilot teachers also used a "think-pair-share" strategy to discuss guiding questions. The results of these discussions were later shared with the large group.