Teachers learn how to use L3RN, new online network

For the students of Alicia Hale's European-history class at Ballard High School, the semester's final project was enough to banish end-of-the-year laziness: The students got to imagine what certain historical figures might have had on their iPods.

Some students surmised that Adolf Hitler might have enjoyed the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" during his years as a frustrated artist. Another suggested that Michael Jackson's "Beat It" summed up King Phillip II of Spain's feelings during the era of the Spanish armada.

But at the end of the project, instead of simply sharing their ideas with their classmates, Hale's students got to share their song lists with the entire Seattle School District -- thanks to the district's new online network, called L3RN.

"The maximum was 20 songs in the presentation, and I had kids begging me to let them upload more," Hale said. "They were working into the night, teaching themselves extra audio programs, everything."

Similar to YouTube, the popular Internet video-sharing Web site, L3RN (pronounced simply "learn") is touted as a tool for professional development of teachers, allowing teachers in different schools to discuss ideas and upload lesson plans and other information.

But for students, it means they can comment on their peers' work and also show off their projects to their parents. According to Hale's Advanced Placement students, it also has proved to be a lot of fun.

"We're figuring out a way to help our students become global citizens and transcend our brick-and-mortar walls," said Ramona Pierson, the school district's director of education technology. "Traditional education tends not to reflect a student's culture or values, and now kids can bring something into the classroom that reflects who they are."

Districtwide launch this fall

Though many parts of L3RN are available to the public, at www.l3rn.com, only teachers can post to the site. They can designate certain files as private, so only other teachers and students can see them. To comment on students' work, visitors must have a login name and a password from the school district.

Some teachers started testing L3RN last spring, before its districtwide launch this fall.

Lily Shively, a teacher at Lawton Elementary School on Queen Anne, started using the L3RN Web site at the end of the school year to post a podcast that her second-grade students created about Seattle.

"It was great to be able to post the podcast where families and other people in the district could listen to it," Shively said. "It was much easier for them to find out what the kids had learned about Seattle."

She said one advantage of L3RN was that it helped students who would normally shy away from a writing assignment.

"When you give kids a pencil and paper, sometimes they shut down a little," Shively said. "But when you have them tell a story, they get really motivated by being able to tell it verbally."

The district gets the software free, and Hale estimates that L3RN saves thousands of dollars in paper.

"The less paper, the better," Hale said. "It's almost heartbreaking when I had students write an essay and watch them put it in the recycling bin on their way out of the door. This solves that problem."

There is no anonymity on L3RN. Student comments are permanently attached to their online-user names. They cannot be changed or deleted by the student, so teens must think twice before posting something inappropriate or hurtful.

"They were really good about feedback on their projects at the end of the year," Hale said. "They knew I was sitting there and looking at their comments, so they were very positive."

Medley another online tool

This fall, the district plans to add to L3RN by introducing another online system called Medley, a social-networking site comparable to MySpace.

Medley will allow students to have personal home pages. They can create online journals and send messages to their friends and teachers.

"It's great, because it's safer than a lot of the social Web sites that are out there," Pierson said. "Kids will feel secure on Medley because we'll manage it and make sure there's no bullying."

And there's another benefit -- at least for the teachers.

With round-the-clock access to L3RN and Medley, students will have to come up with better excuses for forgetting their homework.

"With these tools, students will be able to post their work online and then get it at school," Hale said.

"The excuse of, 'My printer broke this morning, Ms. Hale!' is over now."

Rachel Fields: 206-464-3305 or rfields@seattletimes.com