The FORESEE Project: Connecting Communities to Create Competence

This case study describes Project FORESEE, a tutoring system utilizing a computer-based network under development at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, North Carolina. The project is a collaboration among university faculty and students in the Colleges of Engineering and Education and Psychology, teachers, administrators, students and parents in a public school system, and a cadre of volunteer tutors. The interactive system is directly linked to the curriculum and instruction in the classroom to support tutoring in mathematics for a group of third grade students in a single elementary school. Tutoring is enabled by a point-to-point telephone line connection between the tutor’s computer and the student’s computer. Voice, video, and white board enabled by Microsoft NetMeeting are used to provide an interactive virtual tutoring environment (VirTuE). Hardware includes a PC with multimedia capabilities, a 56K modem, a digital camera, Microsoft NetMeeting, and a Cross iPen Pro tablet. The VirTuE server is capable of receiving and directing telephone calls from the student’s PC and functions as a web server for delivery of instructions and resource materials for the tutors. Tutoring occurs with virtual worksheets that simulate pencil and paper on the computer screen. Results of the first phase of implementation indicate students made significant individual progress in the mastery of basic grade-level number facts in a 15-week period of time. Teachers, parents and tutors corroborate through anecdotal information the potential for the FORESEE approach to effective tutoring of elementary age students. The pilot-phase evidence supports the goal of development of a high-quality, low-cost, widely-deployable, interactive tutoring environment that will promote the recruitment of large numbers of persons to be volunteer tutors for schools and students. Future activities include the development of interactive simulation tools that can be manipulated by both the student and tutor, and the application of the technology to other academic subjects in elementary, middleand secondary schools.