As new technologies quickly come into play, it becomes increasingly difficult for published research to keep pace in evaluating their usefulness for literacy and learning (Kamil & Lane, 1998). Leu, Karchmer & Leu (1999) argue that the evaluation of effective literacy strategies will increasingly fall to classroom teachers who use these new technologies on a daily basis. They describe a phenomenon called the "Miss Rumphius Effect" in which our more experienced colleagues share new visions of literacy learning, resources, strategies, and expertise to inform teaching. Miss Rumphius, the main character in Barbara Cooney's beloved picture book of the same name, sows seeds of the lupine flower to make the world a more beautiful place. Like Miss Rumphius, these technological pathfinders will sow the seeds of knowledge to support us in our use of technology to enhance and to transform literacy learning.
This article highlights the work of three New England teachers in their use of technology. Our travels begin at the Ella F. Hoxie School in Bourne, Cape Cod in Ms. Susan Pandiani's third grade classroom. Next we are off to Mr. Steven Woznicki's fourth grade classroom at the Florence E. Smith Elementary School of Science, Math and Technology in West Hartford, Connecticut. Finally, our travels will take us back across New England, to Ms. Marjorie Duby's fifth grade class at the Joseph Lee School in Boston, Massachusetts. Like Miss Rumphius, these teachers work beyond the confines of "their own gardens" to pioneer and share new ways of using technology to teach and learn.

The North Star Navigators

The Voyage is Just Beginning...
Set sail with us as we begin a year long exploration of our true potential.
We believe that we are all gifted, special, creative and multi-smart.
Follow us on this amazing journey of self-discovery as we explore our talents, gifts, and strengths.

This message is posted on Ms. Pandiani's web page (http://www.capecod.net/voyage/navigators.html) and serves as the inspirational theme of her classroom. It is based on a picture book called The North Star written and illustrated by Peter Reynolds (fondly referred to as "Captain Peter" by the students) and on her ongoing collaboration with him. The North Star, which can be accessed on-line (http://www.fablevision.com/northstar/read.html), encourages readers to chart their own course in life, while paying attention to their own guiding signs and North Star along the way. (In the on-line text of The North Star the reader has the choice of selecting a version with a male or female starring as the main character.)
As I entered Ms. Pandiani classroom, she issued the call "Navigators navigate!" At that point the children looked up, clapped and gave their attention to their teacher. Ms. Pandiani welcomed me and explained to the children that they had a visitor who would spend the day with them in order to learn about the important work that they do at school. I felt drawn in and charmed by this intriguing atmosphere.
Throughout the classroom environment the navigational metaphor was evident. The children worked in teams, which had navigation related names such as The Queens Fleet, Orion, Scorpio, Leo etc. Similarly, within their collaborative group, each child had responsibilities that were described in nautical terms. For example, the quartermaster was a member of the team whose job was to pass out the paper and materials to her group.
As I looked around the room I saw ships, paper lanterns and stars made by the children hanging from the ceiling. The third graders explained to me that the ships took them on their voyage. The stars were there to help guide them, while the lanterns helped to light their way. There was a mural entitled " The North Star Hemisphere" with the "Isle of Perseverance", the "Isle of Disrespect", and the like, designed to help students reflect on the course they are charting and to offer alternatives for "safe passage". And there was the enchanting artwork by artist /illustrator Peter Reynolds to inspire dreaming, imagination, writing, and artwork.

Author/Writer In Residence Via the Internet

Ms. Pandiani's collaboration with Peter Reynolds began in 1996 when she discovered math software (The Graph Club), which included a little book entitled Fizz & Martina in The Incredible Not-for Profit Pet Resort Mystery, written and illustrated by Reynolds. She e-mailed him about how much her students enjoyed the book, and from this initial contact, a classroom mentoring relationship developed. Ms. Pandiani shared how early on "Captain Peter" sent her class a hand written, hand drawn prototype of his book, The North Star. Later, he sent Ms. Pandiani's third graders blank paged hardbound books for their own writing. Thus, was the beginning of her beautiful ongoing friendship and mentorship with an author/writer.
Ms Pandiani (sometimes playfully and lovingly referred to as "Queen Pandiani" by her students) explains that Peter Reynolds has helped her to refine her teaching, especially as it relates to writing. For example, when third grader Kaela was writing a descriptive paragraph entitled The Worst Storm Ever, Ms. Pandiani questioned her use of the word "ponderous" to describe "heavy rain". In sharing Kaela's paragraph with Reynolds, however, he thought the choice of the word "ponderous" was brilliant. Thus, inspired by Kaela's descriptive paragraph, he composed a poem, Freedom Is Rain, which included the following stanza:
I felt the ponderous rain
pounding on my roof
it made me ponder a pound of ponderings
sitting there listening
to the Ponderous Rain.

When Ms. Pandiani shared Peter's poem with Kaela, Kaela was inspired to compose her own poem entitled, Ponderous Rain which is posted on Kaela's web page (http://www.capecod.net/voyage/kaela.html). Her poem reads:
The ponderous rain soaked the window pain,
making shapes of unimaginable things.
The other things were normal things,
like doorknobs and silver strings.
The ponderous rain makes a gurgling sound
as it whirlpools down the drain.
The pitter patter of the rain
sends sleepy thoughts to my brain.
All this happens as the ponderous rain
soak the window pane.

This incident was not only an important learning experience for Kaela, but for Ms. Pandiani, as well. So much so, that it spurred her to write an article about this event which was subsequently published in The Reading Teacher (1998). 52, (2) 174.
On the day of my visit to Ms. Pandiani's classroom, Hoxie school was preparing for the celebration of its 90th anniversary. The children were making posters to publicize this event in storefront windows in town. They also decided to send an e-mail to Captain Peter to invite him to this event. The children sat on the rug in the meeting area viewing the monitor while Queen Pandiani keyboarded their collaborative composition. Together, they went through the drafting, revising, and editing process until they were satisfied with their communication. It read:

Dear Captain Peter,

Here is a picture of us. How are you doing on your journey? The Navigators hope that you are sailing smoothly. We are doing great! We worked well with the substitute when the Queen was in Sacramento. That made her happyJ
Peter, would you like to join us for Hoxie's 90th Birthday Celebration? If you can't come to Hoxie School on Friday, would you like to write an acrostic poem for the Navigator's Web site? We would love it!!!!!!!! Please write back to us and let us know when you can visit us.
FYNS (Follow Your North Star)
And UYI (Use Your Imagination)
Love,
Your Navigators and Queen Pandiani
In addition to designing posters and writing to Captain Peter, the children rotated onto the six computer stations (one designated for each of the six collaborative groups) in order to make a star page (an individual Web page for their Discover a Star page) and to key in a biographical statement (each page also includes a name acrostic poem) for their web page. Students were also using the on-line MapMaker software to create their own constellation of guiding stars. Ms. Pandiani orchestrated the process, scaffolding the work of individuals at the computer stations, as well as supporting the work of the larger group.
In Ms. Pandiani classroom technology is used primarily as a communicational tool. Students write letters back to Captain Peter. They post their work on their classroom web page, and read the writings of parents and grandparents posted on their web page, as well.
Ms. Pandiani explains that "it takes a fleet to raise a child", speaks of her North Star Classroom as being part of that fleet. Technology provides an important tool for maintaining connections among its sojourners. Her third graders, the North Star Navigators, began their journey as first and second graders when they were North Star Junior Navigators. They will become the North Star Guides in grade four, and will develop into full-fledged Voyagers in middle school. Ms. Pandiani proudly shares the archives of writing posted on her web page done by her students, their sisters, brothers, parents and grandparents. Additionally, she signals her community to keep in touch on-line by "putting their messages into a bottle" and by casting them into the "cyber ocean" (http://www.capecod.net/voyage/fleet.html).

Good morning possessors of magnificent minds!

As I already mentioned to you, we are enjoying a visitor today. Please make sure you say "hello" to Ms. Kurkjian and make her feel welcome.
We have a full day of learning and fun today so please be ready to begin at 8:40 by having your Wake-up Work journal on your desk.
By the way, careful editors, can you find two punctuation, grammar, or spelling mistakes I made in this message?
Yours fondly,

Mr. Woznicki

This was the morning message that was posted on Mr. Woznicki's overhead monitor as his students entered their fourth grade classroom at the Florence E. Smith School, Magnet School of Science, Math and Technology in West Hartford, Connecticut. As the school day began, the children gathered their materials, read the posted message and began to settle into their day. Just by using this message, Mr. Woznicki greeted his students, welcomed this visitor to the class, focused them on their morning work, and helped them to practice their editing skills. As. Mr. Woznicki walked his students though editing the message, scaffolding when necessary, individual students keyed in corrections.
On the day of my visit I had the opportunity to observe several ways Mr. Woznicki uses technology to support, enhance, and transform literacy learning and teaching. The range of strategies I observed often shared a combination of the following characteristics: 1) using technology functionally to solve everyday problems,
2) enhancing familiar teaching strategies, 3) expanding curriculum, and
4) distributing expertise and responsibilities among members of the community.

Magnificent Minds and the Functional Use of Technology

Mr. Woznicki believes that it is not necessary to artificially seek out ways to use technology per se, because it naturally presents its benefits as a teaching and learning tool. Therefore, he does not consider technology as an "add- on", but as integral to everyday activities. Mr. Woznicki explains that he uses technology in the planning of his curriculum, the gathering resources and materials, and in the presenting/teaching of the curriculum. Similarly, children use technology as a tool to solve their own specific problems. I observed an example of this at recess when a fourth grade student used the computer to articulate the rules of Four Square, a game the children regularly play at that time. She explained to me that there was an ongoing dispute about the rules and so she was keying them into the computer so that they could be referenced and discussed. I saw another example of embedding technology into ongoing activities when a fourth grader whose job it was to take attendance and lunch count for that week nonchalantly relayed this information to the office via e-mail.

Magnificent Minds and the Enhancement of Familiar Strategies

On the day of my visit Mr. Woznicki integrated technology with some "old favorite" instructional strategies. "The Morning Message" is a familiar technique that was enhanced when, using a word processor, Mr. Woznicki easily and effectively posted his message on the overhead monitor. A digitized photograph of himself was also incorporated into the message, adding a dramatic and personalized touch. The display of the Morning Message on the monitor helped to create a shared focus among community members. Moreover, fourth graders were empowered to take responsibility in the editing process by keying in their corrections that were displayed on the overhead monitor.
The K-W-L framework (Ogle, 1986) for expository text is a strategy familiar to most teachers. The K phase (What We Know) helps students to activate their background knowledge, the W phase (What we Want to Know) helps readers to set purposes for their reading, and finally the L phase (What I Leaned) helps them to consolidate and articulate what was learned. Here again, Mr. Woznicki used technology to support and enhance his use of the K-W-L framework.
The students with whom Mr. Woznicki worked during Reading were collaborating on the L phase and were revisiting their K-W-L chart (see Figure 1) for Jean Fritz's book, Where Do You Think You're Going, Christopher Columbus? The learners had a copy of the previously completed chart, and referred to it as they discussed and searched in their books to locate unanswered questions. At the same time, Mr. Woznicki posted the K-W-L chart on the monitor and as children discussed their responses to the questions, he keyed the information for all to view and discuss.

Magnificent Minds and the Augmentation of Curriculum

The Florence E. Smith School is a Science, Math and Technology Magnet School. Science is an important focus and technology augments the study of science. On the day of my visit NASA was launching its Polar Expedition to Mars. On the front board Mr. Woznicki posted the address of the NASA web site which was documenting this expedition. In keeping with a theme of study on exploration, he capitalized on a "teachable moment" by engaging his students in a lively discussion about the landing. He piqued their curiosity about this event by inviting questions, and by encouraging them to visit the bookmarked web site at recess or at home.
Technology also supports the curriculum in a science-related activity referred to as the "Micro Mystery of the Week". For this activity a fourth grader, Kevin, was responsible for challenging the class to identify a sample of something that was magnified and projected onto the monitor through the use of a FlexCam. The whole class was able to view the magnified material, to make observations and to ask questions in order to identify the substance. Using an observation sheet the children described its color, shape, texture and composition. Light was held up to the magnified sample allowing the children to consider whether the substance was transparent, translucent or opaque. Finally, Kevin took questions from the class. Findings included that the substance was edible. It was not soft like a sponge. It was not sweet like candy. It was not breakable like pasta noodles. Several guesses were made, however, although some guesses came close, no one guessed that the substance they were examining was breadcrumbs. Because Kevin succeeded in stumping his classmates, he won the right to challenge them next week with a new sample.
One of the major components in the fourth grade science curriculum at the Florence E. Smith School is the study of weather. This is done in part through a thematic unit in which students engage in a variety of hands-on activities. Students make use of HyperStudio, a multimedia-authoring tool, to support them in their research of weather phenomenon (Kurkjian, 1998). So in collaboration with the media specialist, Mrs. Lucy Leone, the students in Mr. Woznicki's class learn how to use resources such as books, encyclopedias and the Internet appropriately. Additionally, in the context of developing research strategies, they have the opportunity to create a report in an engaging multimedia format.
Technology strengthens the study of weather in the opportunity it provides the students to participate in an actual ongoing NASA Research Project. Fourth graders collect weather data on a weekly basis and then upload it to the NASA site. At recess time a rotating group of students gather this data, measuring minimum and maximum temperatures, rainfall, and describing cloud covers. One saw the pride and satisfaction of young researchers as they carefully took these measurements and uploaded them to the NASA site.

Magnificent Minds and the Distribution of Expertise

Mr. Woznicki holds the expectation that his students will share the responsibility for the teaching and learning, and utilize technology in that process. Students are encouraged to be technology users and to take the lead in teaching and in supporting each other in their learning. For example, as part of the "Wake up Work" posted in the Morning Message, the fourth graders were asked to analyze data that they themselves provided in their responses to "The Question of the Week" which was "What is the last digit of your telephone number?". Brett, a member of the class, compiled the data, then created and presented a bar graph on the overhead monitor for his classmates to read and interpret. Similarly, students are encouraged to review, evaluate and present highlights of new educational software to their classmates.
Mr. Woznicki distributes expertise among the members of his class during "pre"computer lab workshop sessions, as well. Prior to taking his students to the media center to work on their HyperStudio Weather Projects, he invites them to share some of the problems they are having on their projects, and encourages those who have already solved the same problem to explain their solutions. At times, Mr. Woznicki uses the overhead monitor displaying the HyperStudio Program to demonstrate the process in collaboration with expert classmates. During this "pre" computer lab workshop time, Mr. Woznicki also requests that classmates share their exciting discoveries. Finally, Mr. Woznicki encourages collaboration and the sharing of expertise during the actual computer lab time when he reminds his students to strategically seat themselves next to classmates who have already solved the problems on which they are currently working.
Mr. Woznicki speaks of his students as being members of a classroom community in which they are responsible for doing their part and for doing as much as possible for themselves. This stance applies to their use of technology, in that he empowers students to use it in their everyday ongoing activities as a natural part of what they do. He believes that children are in-part responsible to learn and discover from their own mistakes and so he arranges the environment so that they are in a positive and scaffolded environment in which risk taking is permitted. He believes that when expectations are high, students rise to the occasion. Moreover, when it comes to technology, he acknowledges that a great deal of expertise resides within the classroom community.

Massachusetts Bay Colonists and their Looney Lobsters

The Cyber-British are coming! We are in Ms. Marjorie Duby's classroom at the Joseph Lee School in Boston, Massachusetts where history is coming to life for her fifth graders. Ms. Duby's class is in the midst of studying the American Revolution. Students are reading the book My Brother Sam is Dead (Lincoln Collier & Collier, 1974) taking field trips to historic sites, and participating in simulations of personas from the Revolutionary War time period. And Ms. Duby is using technology as a tool throughout this unit of study to enhance and support their learning.
Because Ms Duby's class is located in the heart of Boston, she and her students take advantage of the opportunity to participate in educational programs at actual historic sites in the area. For example, they recently visited the Adams National Historic Site in Quincy, Massachusetts where they reenacted the Boston Massacre. Dressed in British and colonial costumes, her students simulated the events of this incident right down to the hurling of (in this case Styrofoam) snowballs.
On the day of my visit the fifth graders were preparing for an upcoming field trip to the Old South Church where they would engage in a debate by taking on personas of actual historical figures who were in attendance at the Boston Tea Party Meeting of 1773. Ms. Duby provided her class with short sketches of the actual historical characters in preparation for their reenactment of this meeting.
Ms. Duby encourages her students to explore various perspectives, including the points of view of "the invisibles" of the time, those people such as women, Africans, servants, apprentices, Native Americans, whose voices are not normally heard in the typical course of studying the American Revolution. She uses simulations of real and fictitious characters of the period as one way to engage her students in this perspective taking.

How Does Technology Fit?

During the course of study, and as part of these simulations, Ms. Duby's fifth graders participate in an Internet Project with another group of fifth graders in Maple Valley, Washington. For this project each student in Ms. Duby's class portrays a fictitious character from the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and, likewise, each student in the partner class depicts characters from Newportia Colony, a fictitiously based on a middle colony in Pennsylvania. Each classroom community describes their colonial charter, participates in colonial town meetings and issues and responds to challenges posed by their partner class. An outline of this Internet Project, complete with character profiles examples of challenges and responses, is posted at (http://lee.boston.k12.ma.us/d4/curr/rev/colsim/colonial.asp).
An example of a challenge that the Massachusetts Bay Colony issued to Newportia Colony revolved around the theme of witchcraft. Ms. Duby's class posed a situation in which characters in the Newportia Colony were accused of being witches. Warrants for arrest were issued to specific members in the Newportia Colony:

Warrant 1: The Magistrates of Newportia Colony order that Elizabeth Smith be brought to Newportia Jail until she is examined, brought to face her accuser and finally brought to trial for witchcraft. Marion Blue accuses Elizabeth Smith of looking at his cow wrongly. The next day the cows would not eat. Elizabeth Smith is accused of witchcraft!

The class in Washington responded to this challenge by sharing what happened to the characters as a result of the warrants. In an exchange posted on the web we learned, for example, that Elizabeth Smith escaped from jail on the day of the trial, and that there were reports that she took ill and was being nursed back to health by Quakers in a nearby colony.
In addition to participating in this Internet Project, each fifth grader uses technology to enhance their study of the American Revolution by creating a PowerPoint slide on their assigned character. Each slide includes a digitized image of the student dressed as the character being simulated, along with a written description of the character. On the day of my visit students worked in the computer lab revising their slide using a rubric that Ms. Duby provided.
Between bites at lunchtime, Ms. Duby explained that she uses technology as a tool to achieve a variety of curriculum objectives. Technology plays an important, but not necessarily a central role in her program. Because an area of focus for this year is on writing, she created an American Revolutionary Period writing web page:

Here one can find writing challenges pertaining to the Revolutionary theme. Additionally, she uses technology to encourage writing by providing her students with e-mail accounts. Once again through simulations, students are challenged to correspond with each other and to characters living in England (these messages are received and answered by Ms. Duby, herself!) in the persona they are depicting.
Ms. Duby uses her web site as a way of gathering resources for her students to use. Just as teachers gather library books and other material, she posts interesting resources on her web page for student review. And like Miss Rumphius, the intent of her web page is to share it with other educators. Her overall site for the Revolutionary period is at (http://lee.boston.k12.ma.us/x1/revper.asp). When you visit this site you can gain access to an extensive lists of primary, secondary and Intenet resources which even include links to field trip sites.

Who are the Looney Lobsters?

At the end of the day, Ms. Duby called a class meeting. She removed two fire engine red lobsters (stuffed, not real!) from a box and announced that these crustaceans would be visiting a class in D.C. Ms. Duby invited her class to write an entry into the log that would be accompanying them.
"The Looney Lobsters" are the characters in an Internet Project that Ms. Duby developed in which these two classroom mascots travel to various schools across the United States and then eventually return back home. The original purpose of this project was to gather various types of information about the places they were visiting. Some of the educational activities that Ms. Duby's class engaged in for this Internet Project include: 1) computing of how far and where the Looneys have traveled, locating the longitude and latitude of each destination, 2) noting time zones of various destinations, 3) observing the weather of the host school as compared to Boston weather, 4) obtaining suggested literature for read alouds to lower grade Book Buddies, and 5) reading regional literature. Ms. Duby posts the collected information on her web page (http:lee.boston.k12.ma.us/d4/trav/lroot.asp ). As I left Ms. Duby's classroom a student who escorted me to the door volunteered that Miss Duby is a teacher who always has a smile on her face and something good to say. Following in the tradition of "Miss Rumphius" Ms. Duby works to make the world a more beautiful place, not only for her students but for colleagues as well.
Envisionments for Literacy and Learning
Leu, Karchmer & Leu (1999) refer to a process termed "envisionment" in which teachers and their students dream of new possibilities for literacy learning and teaching, use technology in ways which help to create this new vision, and then share their work with others. This issue spotlighted three technological pathfinders each with their own unique envisionment. In the sharing of their work, resources, strategies, Ms. Pandiani, Mr. Woznicki, and Ms. Duby clearly demonstrate the "Miss Rumphius Effect" by planting seeds which serve to enrich our instructional worldview.
References
Kamil, M.L., & Lane, D.M. (1998). Researching the relationship between technology and literacy: An agenda for the 21 st Century. In D. Reinking, M. McKenna, L.D. Labbo, & R. Kieffer (Eds.), Handbook of literacy and technology: Transformations in a post-typographic world (pp. 323-342). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Kurkjian, C., and (1998) Software in Context: HyperStudio Projects. NERA Journal, 34(1), 23-28.

Leu, D.J., Karchmer, R.A. & Diadiun Leu (1999). The Miss Rumphius Effect: Envisionments for literacy learning that transform the Internet. Reading Online, http://readingonline.org/electronic/RT/rumphius.html

Ogle, D. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570.

Children's Literature References
Cooney, B. (1982). Miss Rumphius: Viking

Collier, J. & Collier, C. (1974). My Brother Sam Is Dead: Delacorte

Fritz, J. (1980). Where Do You Think You're Going Christopher, Columbus?: Putnam

Reynolds, P. (1997). The North Star: FableVision Press

Reynolds, P. (1993) Fizz & Martina in the Incredible Not-for Profit Pet Resort: Tom Snyder Productions, Inc..