To try DocuShare on-line please visit our web site at www .xer o x.com/docushare/

SUCCESS STORY

There has been a lot of discussion prais-

ing the virtues of technology in education.

A PC on a teacher�s desktop aligns with

everyone�s vision of the 21st century

classroom. But what people really like to

hear about is an implementation of tech-

nology in the classroom that is making a

measurable difference, one that teachers, measurable difference, one that teachers, administrators and students all are bene-

fiting from. The usage of DocuShare for

curriculum development at the Wayne

Finger Lakes Board of Cooperative

Educational Services (BOCES) and the

school districts it serves is one such

implementation.

In 1997, the state of New York posed

a challenge for students and teachers

alike, by raising the academic standards.

Teachers were expected to teach with

a higher level of expertise and students

were expected to dramatically improve

their academic performance. Curriculum

had to be redesigned, teachers had to be

trained, benchmarking strategies put in

place and resources had to be combined.

A project like this called for a tremendous

amount of collaboration. For the Wayne

Finger Lakes BOCES, covering 1700

square miles, in four counties, and

serving 25 school districts of varying

financial abilities, collaboration was

a daunting task. Wayne Finger Lakes

BOCES assembled a team and began

to tackle the project, getting forty four

thousand students and nearly six thou-

sand educators prepared to not only

embrace the new standards but ideally

exceed them was the main goal. The

role technology could play in this massive

effort was obvious, but before that could

happen appropriate infrastructure had to

be put in place and delivery mechanisms

had to be agreed upon.

The implementation team quickly recog-

nized that any effective solution required

the development of an advanced informa-

tion sharing system. With the late 1997

installation of LAKE Net (Learning Access

Knowledge Education Network), one of

the largest wide area networks in New

York State, incredible capabilities for

students and educators alike opened

up. �All of a sudden a twenty-four lane

communication highway replaced what

felt like a gravel road,� said Dr . Joseph

Marinelli, District Superintendent at

W ayne Finger Lakes BOCES.

W ith the infrastructure in place, the

team was ready to deploy a technology

solution to facilitate upgrading curricu-

lum; increase communication between

teachers, administrators and students;

train everyone on the new educational

approaches; and help to evaluate results.

Central to all of these activities were doc-

uments�spreadsheets, memos, policies, uments�spreadsheets, memos, policies,suggestions, requisitions, curriculum

content�which had to be rapidly and

cost-effectively shared throughout the

BOCES. �When it came to the document

management solution, DocuShare met

our criteria. We needed something

inexpensive and simple to use. We also

wanted a �community� component. Most

of the document management solutions

we looked at were group-based which

meant it had to be controlled by a system

administrator. DocuShare allows the

users themselves to post a file, or create

a bulletin board out on the Web. Not only

is it expedient but it allows many new

technology users to use a digital tool in

ways that are meaningful and reinforcing

to them, which encourages their readi-

ness to use and integrate technology in

the classroom,� said Marinelli.

Fulf illing Education�s Promise

for the 21st Century with

Xerox DocuShare

Clicking on the DocuShare icon seamlessly

takes users to the DocuShare site, where they

can add and share files, type not es on bul-

letin-boards, or updat e their group calendars

Applications suc h as DocuShare are turning

vision into r eality by offering powerful,

easy-t o-use collaboration tools

P/N610P65225 SS4 2/17/00 10:03 AM Page 1

To try DocuShare on-line please visit our web site at www .xer o x.com/docushare/

SUCCESS STORY

Fulf illing Education�s Promise

for the 21st Century with

Xerox DocuShare

DocuShare was first launched with a

group of 270 teachers from most of the

curriculum areas. Those who participated

were interested in sharing their knowl-

edge about classroom instruction but

did not have a great deal of time to meet.

They all worked together on establishing

new standards for curriculum. DocuShare

provided a simple-to-use, common plat-

form for sharing information. �We started

getting feedback from the teachers right

away. They were impressed with how

easy DocuShare was to use. They also

liked the community component. They

liked �owning� the project by being able

to set up their own shared areas and

password to protect them. More than

anything, the teachers liked being able

to go to work together even though they

were physically apart,� said Jack McCabe,

Associate Superintendent for Curriculum

and Technology, W ayne Finger Lakes

BOCES.

Marla Steele, Director of Staff Develop-

ment and Instructional Technology for

W ayne Finger Lakes BOCES described

life before and after implementing

DocuShare, �The old way of developing

standards or curriculum was to bring

people together for several days and

�thrash things out.� This was extremely

expensive for all concerned. We would

rent rooms in a hotel, provide lunches,

reimburse mileage, and the schools

would need to pay for substitute teachers.

We would meet and write, someone

would scribe it and then someone would

type it up later . It would be mailed out

to all of the districts and then revisions

would have to be made. This process

was time consuming and sometimes the

project would lose its momentum. Now,

with DocuShare, changes can be made

instantly, taking away the time and

distance constraints. It puts a sense of

choice and freedom into the process.�

W ayne Finger Lakes has been able to

connect students, teachers, administrative

staff and other educational institutions

through DocuShare. Teachers can look

for lesson plan ideas posted by other

teachers. Administrative offices can post

information quickly to bulletin boards

and students can work on projects with

other students in different school districts.

�We are even running meetings through

DocuShare. Last week I was at a meeting

and we brainstormed a list of goals for

that group. Instead of going through the

list reduction and all those other pieces,

we put it up on DocuShare and did the

list reduction there,� explained McCabe.

As a solution, Xerox DocuShare merges

the power of telecommunication technol-

ogy with peer -to-peer collaboration.

Students and teachers are now accessing

the very best information available from

the web while at the same time sharing

information amongst their own talented

staff in a secure, flexible way . �It has

broken down barriers. It has given us

opportunities to work with people we

don� t typically work with,� said Steele.

Since DocuShare is a web-based virtual

sharing environment, with server -based

software, it requires minimal technical

setup and no PC software addition. This

allows the technical staff to focus more

on the end user at thousands of

(Continued)

Students and educators alike have instant,

password-protected access to the latest infor-

mation and schedules from any web bro wser

P/N610P65225 SS4 2/17/00 10:04 AM Page 2

FOR MORE INFORMATION

OR TO ORDER DOCUSHARE

Please contact your authorized

Xerox Channel Partner or Xerox sales

representative. Or call the DocuShare

sales department directly:

United States: 1-800-428-2995

Outside U.S.: 1-650-813-7279

Europe: +44 1488 657686

Questions? Comments? E-mail us at

xissinfo@pahv.xerox.com or visit our

web site atwww .xerox.com/docushare/

�

, T he Document Company

�

, the digital X and DocuShare

�

are trademarks of Xerox Corporation.

All other trademarks are the property of their respectiv e companies and are recognized as such.

P/N

610P65225 2/00

T o try DocuShare on-line please visit our web site at www .xer o x.com/docushare/

The hope for technology in education is

that it helps students acquire the skills

they need for their future, and helps

teachers better impart those skills.

�There are new demands on students

with respect to working in 21st century

America. Also, society itself is becoming

more complex. The ability to work effec-

tively in a telecommunications oriented,

high-tech world is the world that we

need to prepare our students for ,� said

Chuck DeV oe, Director of the Office

of Te chnology Policy, New York State

Education Department. By using

technology such as DocuShare,

raising education standards can be

a collaborative and efficient process.

HOW THEY DO IT

Over 4,000 users access DocuShare

using standard web browsers, from

a variety of platforms and operat-

ing systems including Macintosh,

Windows 3.1, Windows 95,

Windows 98 and Windows NT.

� We started getting feedback

from the teachers right away.

They were impressed with how

easy DocuShare was to use.�

Jack McCabe

Associate Superintendent

for Curriculum Technology

W ayne Finger Lakes BOCES(Continued)

computers, in multiple locations.

Additionally , DocuShare is immediate

and technically trouble free. �DocuShare

maps to the way people work today,

sharing information across geographical,

functional and system boundaries. In the

spirit of the W eb, DocuShare creates a

common ground among users so regard-

less of their technology expertise, they

can participate in the collaborative

process of developing and sharing

information,� said Doug Mclean, vice

president, sales and marketing, Xerox

Internet and Software Solutions (XISS).

DocuShare�s collaborative nature and

ease of use pulls people toward

technology. Interestingly, it also pulls

people past the technology itself, to the

information on the site, the latest posting

on the bulletin board, and the links to

external sites containing more informa-

tion. People who had not used the Web

six months ago are now effortlessly

surfing for more information, thanks to

easy migration from DocuShare to the

Internet. Most importantly, DocuShare

pulls people together . It becomes a

provocative solution when one considers

that instead of delivering information to

the user , it helps create responsibility

by bringing people together to share

knowledge and deliver solutions.

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