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Dr. Larry K. Monteith, Chancellor Emeritus and former Dean of Engineering at NC State University, talks with doctoral candidate Lynne Brock about project FORESEE.
Dr. Larry K. Monteith and doctoral candidate Lynne Brock are working together to evaluate an on-line tutor lesson plan for the FORESEE project.
NC State Chancellor Emeritus Larry K. Monteith, a 1960 NC State alumnus in electrical engineering, retired in 1998 from an academic career that spanned nearly four decades at the university.
But Monteith's friends and colleagues knew he would not be one to sit around after retirement and that he would remain in the heart of academics even after retirement, doing what he always loved best ? working closely with students.
It is no surprise, then, that Monteith immediately began work developing programs to further education and research and mentoring students to help them improve their academic performance.
Monteith is actively pursuing these two avenues as a Senior Fellow at the William R. Kenan, Jr., Institute for Engineering, Technology & Science and as an affiliate to both the university's First Year College and the College of Engineering.
His affiliation with the First Year College, which provides career counseling and academic advising to freshmen, and with the College of Engineering is devoted to improving academic performance in students.
He is also dedicated to the mission of the Kenan Institute, located on the Centennial Campus: to encourage research and teaching in order to ensure the strength and well-being of the nation. Particularly, Monteith is leading a program assessing the environment for technology-based companies in North Carolina.
In addition, last summer he initiated a new project with initial funding from the Kenan Institute.
This project called FORESEE for "Connecting Communities to Create Competence" came about as a result of his experience tutoring a young elementary student in reading first, then mathematics.
It was this experience, he recalled recently, that led him to consider new approaches in tutoring and mentoring students in the lower grades.
For this electrical engineer it was a natural step to seek ways to put computer technology to work in connecting elementary school students with tutors. With the resources and support of the Kenan Institute, Monteith brought together NC State educators, engineers and computer scientists to explore and develop a tutoring system using a computer-based network.
Moreover, NC State engineering and computer science students under the leadership of Dr. Tom Miller, associate dean for distance education and information technologies, and Dr. Bob Fornaro, professor of computer science and engineering, worked in teams to provide innovative concepts in the initial phases of the system.
And thus began the exciting Project FORESEE that links the classroom environment and the home environment through a volunteer tutoring program driven by computers. Teachers, parents, students and volunteer tutors - the entire school community - work together in a unique educational process. Students in the third and fourth grades who need an extra push in gaining competence in mathematics in order to move ahead in their education are chosen by their teachers to participate in Project FORESEE.
"This is not a remedial program, but an effort to reinforce the student's base of knowledge so that he can move up to the next grade," said Monteith.
Monteith noted that when a young student "gets behind early, he gets behind longer." To achieve the project's goal, a partnership has been formed to join various communities in initiating the tutoring system. The partners include:
A student chosen to participate in the program is provided a computer in his home for interacting with a tutor's computer. Monteith explained that tutoring is enabled by a point-to-point phone line connection between the two computers. Voice, video, and whiteboard (an on-screen version of the chalkboard) are used to offer an interactive virtual tutoring environment.
Tutors also communicate with a parent to explain tutoring objectives and to gain their assistance in additional efforts in the educational process. The mathematics curriculum is teacher-driven, enabling the tutoring sessions to extend the classroom instruction into the student's home during after-school hours.
Monteith and Dr. Cathy Crossland, NC State professor of education and psychology and also a Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute, are co-leaders of Project FORESEE. The Project staff includes Lynne Brock, a Kenan Fellow and a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction; Mary Emily McDonald in the same department working on a master's degree in special education; and Brian Krapf, a recent graduate in mechanical engineering.
Monteith pointed out that Crossland is heading up the overall program in terms of academic content and Brock oversees the development of tutor lesson plans based upon classroom objectives. Miller, who has developed the technology for the system, continues to oversee its refinement and expansion.
Roel Cuejillo, distance learning technology specialist in engineering and computer operations, who contributed enormously to the implementation and installation of the tutoring system, is in charge of the system's day-to-day operation.
Currently the FORSEE Project staff is tutoring six fourth-grade students enrolled in Fred Olds Elementary School. Participating are 18 tutors who come from varied backgrounds, ranging from NC State graduate and undergraduate students to local attorneys and engineering faculty. Parents, who are essential to the tutoring process, sit in on the sessions.
Those from the elementary school who give strong guidance in meeting classroom requirements include Dr. Mary Anne Wheeler, principal; Becky Vierson, assistant principal; and Laura Zielenski, teacher representative.
Monteith said of the project thus far:
"We've invested in people. We've invested in teachers and lesson plans and tutoring experience. In the next phase we've got to come to a higher level of performance in the technology of the system."
He added that the overall challenge is "to transfer that technology into the primary school education environment."
Monteith continues to be an enthusiastic force in the educating of young people.
"When I retired I thought I'd settle down and write a book on my family and career experiences," he said. "But that will have to wait until I fulfill my current goals."
He continued, "These projects are the things I want to do now, and I'll still write that book one day."
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