Teachers around the world are inventing innovative ways to incorporate technology into their classrooms, building environments that encourage students to be active, engaged, and in command of new tools.

For instance:

• In Castlebar, Ireland, ten-year-olds use digital cameras to record their field trip to a nearby archaeological site where history comes to life.
• In rural Tennessee, teenagers build robotic "cybugs" that mimic insect behavior, then race them through a maze.
• In Haifa, Israel, young children stretch their language skills to invent lovable toys for an interactive Web site.

A new Web site, launched in January 2002, provides a place where educators can learn from each other`s experiences. The Innovation Odyssey Web site showcases a different classroom every school day, featuring technology-enriched projects from all over the globe appropriate for a wide range of ages, subject areas, and learning styles. The Odyssey site tells stories of technology innovation using teachers` own words and features photographs taken in their classrooms.

"The title "Odyssey" comes from the words One Digital School Year (ODSY). An odyssey is a journey, and it works well here, too. We want to offer a visit to classrooms around the world — a journey through classroom innovation."
-Amy Pearl, Manager Web Resources,
Intel^® Innovation in Education

Educators browsing for fresh ideas can click through the easy-to-navigate links to seek out ideas they might want to adapt for their own classrooms.

The international collection of teachers showcased on Odyssey come from small towns and big cities, from schools loaded with the latest digital equipment and schools making do with ancient computers. Some are brand-new to using high-tech equipment in the classroom. Others are old pros who lead their communities in advocating technology use in education. What they share is a commitment to providing students with an optimum learning environment.

The teachers` stories bring to life what researchers have identified as key ways that technology can be harnessed to support learning. According to the National Research Council, these important supports include:

• Providing scaffolding and tools to enhance learning and help children solve problems
• Providing more opportunities for feedback, reflection, and revision
• Building global and local communities

Many Odyssey teachers report that technology is providing a spark to make their classrooms more exciting and help their students feel more connected with the world beyond the school.

Jennifer Kirch — Day 62 in the Odyssey lineup — is a teacher in Egg Harbor, New Jersey, who uses technology and an exotic classroom pet — an African pygmy hedgehog, to integrate the subjects of literature, writing, math, science, health, social studies, and workplace readiness. The project allows her to weave together sound classroom practices, including "strategies of cooperative learning, multiple intelligence, and brain-compatible learning," she says. Her fifth-grade students, on the cusp of adolescence, become more motivated to learn. "Because the hedgehog is real, their learning has meaning," she says. It`s not the kind of project teachers might think of as technology-infused. But Internet research, digital cameras, publishing software, and other tools play an important role in classroom work.

Across the country in Las Cruces, New Mexico, a teacher named Sue Ann Dobbyn brings together technology and her high school students` natural interest in sports to teach powerful lessons about physics. Her story — Day 63 on the Odyssey site — tells how students make digital videos of one another throwing a football, then use mathematical analysis software to examine the action for velocity, acceleration, force, and momentum. "Technology allows students to actively participate in class experiments — to be the stars," the teacher explains. "It also facilitates the use of sophisticated analysis tools to manipulate the data and show relationships between factors." The result? A jump in students' understanding of physics — and a boost in their self-confidence as learners.

Beyond presenting good ideas for teachers, the Odyssey stories provide parents, school board members, and voters a window into effective technology-enhanced learning. For anyone wondering about the benefits of technology in the classroom, Odyssey offers a convincing journey.

Read more on the Innovation Odyssey Web site at: www.intel.com/education/odyssey.

How To Submit a Project to Odyssey
Have a classroom technology project that`s too good to keep to yourself? An online submission process makes it quick and easy to share your story with a worldwide audience. Innovation Odyssey is looking for stories that involve student learning in K-12 settings and in which technology use clearly enhances the learning.

Teachers aren`t expected to write their own stories. Instead, you complete and submit a project description using an online form that`s used for story development by the Intel team. Your story is illustrated using digital photos you submit via e-mail. As a thank-you for your time, you receive your choice of a digital camera or a handheld microscope.

Submit your Odyssey projects at: www.intel.com/education/odysseyinfo.