This project is designed to improve student learning through technology integration. The proposal describes a potential collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Platteville, Milwaukee’s Audubon Technology and Communication Center, and three southwestern Wisconsin, rural school districts (Benton, Cuba City and Southwestern), commonly referred to as the Tri-Schools.

Technology can be used to improve student achievement if used effectively, i.e., "by engaging students in authentic, complex tasks within collaborative learning contexts." The Department of Public Instruction has recommended that teachers have skills at a Level of Technology integration (LoTi) of Four to provide rich context for students’ understanding of pertinent concepts, themes, and processes.

The Tri-Schools (Benton, Cuba City, and Southwestern) have conducted technology use profiles. It has been found that 85% to 89% of teachers in these districts are not meeting target levels of technology integration. Even Audubon, one of the top 100 most wired schools in the country, though it has higher performance in teacher technology skills, is not meeting target levels. According to the National Business Education Association “recent studies have found a strong link between technology, academic achievement, and classroom practice.” All of the participating schools, Audubon, Benton, Cuba City, and Southwestern, have studied the WKCE results for the recent years and have established curriculum priorities (e.g. in mathematics or language arts). The Wisconsin Model Academic Standards in these content areas and in technology provide for clarity of expectations and the potential for technology to support meaningful engaged learning.

To improve teacher skills in technology is to improve student achievement. Collaboration is the centerpiece of this process, and action research is the vehicle. The process has far-reaching impact due to built in recycling of teacher and professor action research projects. The proposed activities include action research in technology integration and instructional design, as well as the implementation, evaluation, and dissemination of that research. By repetition of the action research cycle over the course of three years, 27 teams (54 professors and teachers) will have been trained.

Outcomes include ongoing collaboration between the UW-Platteville and the school districts, reaching target levels of technology integration in education, and improving student achievement over all.