TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION DIGEST
Digest No. 1 -- June 26, 1997
A Moderated Mailing List
Steve Wildstrom (steve_wildstrom@businessweek.com), Moderator

Return to Technology & Education

Your concern about the lack of training for teachers is valid. While schools are gradually getting connected to the Internet via NetDay activities and other community-sponsored endeavors, helping teachers learn how to find appropriate resources, modify curriculum, and manage their classrooms to take advantage of this new technology is often neglected.

This is the subject of both my doctoral dissertation (in progress) and my current work project. I am on leave from the classroom to direct an online project which seeks to provide support for teachers who want to use the Internet by providing links to educational web sites which have passed careful scrutiny by an editorial board AND models of their effective use from teachers around the country.

This site is in its infancy, having been launched in early April. We do have several sites featured in every content area and lesson plans and tips from teachers from North Carolina, New York, West Virginia, and Texas already on the site, with new entries from San Francisco and another N. Carolina teacher coming this week.

I encourage you and your readers to visit the site: http://www.EDsOasis.org and to contact me for more information about my research.

Thank you, Terrie Gray

Check out the best in self-paced distance education for K-8. There isn't much competition, but EPGY (from Stanford U) provides an opportunity that no other resource is attempting to provide -- accelerated math instruction for extremely gifted math students. "Regular schools" can't do anything with these kids but shove worksheets at them.

EPGY has a Web page, but you really need to view the K-8 and upper level (Algebra, Calculus, Physics and beyond) yourself. Contact the Stanford folks or one of the regional centers (UNT is our local center) and see if they won't let you sample the course.

My kids have used the course with great satisfaction.

Regards,
S Richards

[I understand that the EPGY materials have been used extensively at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle school in Germantown, MD.--MOD]

I'm currently a Junior at St. John's Jesuit High School, and am basically a network architect/problem solver/monitor. We have one Technology Coordinator, who, along with support from the administration, has encouraged the entire faculty of 65+ teachers to become more Internet-savvy. Computers are daily being connected to the Internet in the classroom through our internal network. These go out on a T1 connection. We have a web site (http://www.stjohns.toledo.oh.us), ftp server, etc... all hosted from a computer I designed, installed, and configured. Internet access is certainly an integral part of classroom life. Every student can access it any time throughout the day.

One of our biggest issues has been students accessing sites which have no educational value... except for biology class. :) To combat this, we've installed a proxy/relay server which logs every web page accessed by the students. These logs are scanned automatically by a program and then scanned by a human (usually me) for unauthorized sites. Based on logs of who logs in, we can determine exactly who is committing these acts.

Withdrawing Internet access from our school would be devastating. Teachers regularly assign projects which rely on some Internet access to complete. Our library circulation is decreasing as computers are invading.

Kevin Miller

Just read your article in Business Week. I am sending a letter that my newphew and I drafted to help a local school in the Phoenix area. Our appeal is as follows:

To Whom It May Concern:

This is an appeal for either funding or computers for Union Elementary School. Located in Tolleson, Union School is the oldest active public school in Arizona.

As all students receive fundamental skills in math, social studies, and science, a familiarity with computers, software and internet technology (as other students receive) is a paramount. Students at Union Elementary School should not be treated as exceptions.

Competing with multi-school school districts for state and local funding, Union is the sole school in the one school district. It primarily serves the Gila River (Indian) Reservation with remaining students (Hispanics) coming from surrounding farms.

Consisting of one building, built in 1925 after a tornado destroyed the original building (circa 1890), and several army barracks, students receive an excellent education from the staff who rely heavily upon their skills and overcoming the apparent lack of resources. Never letting the absence of funding or resources get them down, the students receive basic skills to pass on to upper grades.

Where other schools in larger districts may have one or more computer laboratories, Union is relying upon 2 Apple computers for 109 students, with one computer [currently nonfunctioning] being dedicated to maintaining the inventory of the library and the other, strapped to a cart and wheeled around from classroom to classroom by appointment. To adequately provide for the immediate needs of these students, we are asking one or more of the following:

Funding to purchase 20 current model Macintosh Computers (with educational software and multimedia devices). This would increase student to computer percentage from 2 to 20.

Capitalized and fully depreciated equipment that may normally be earmarked for employee purchase or the secondary computer market.

Additional in-kind funding of software and hardware installation would also benefit the school.

This letter is jointly written by two interested parties who heard about the school and its needs. Being familiar with other school districts, education and the technology itself, we felt that this is a compelling story that should be told and acted upon. The school carries a great heritage, but more importantly, the future heritage to be created by the students can be the best heritage should they be equipped with the right tools to make the future theirs.

Contact: Ken Hunter, Principal and Eighth Grade Teacher, Union School, 602/936-9711

John Stack Infoimage, E-mail John_Stack@infoimg.com and Harry Lamar E-mail hlamar@primenet.com

I have just read your the article "Readin', Writin', and the Internet" (June 9, 1997). I have some comments to add.

I am an employee-owner of a small business Defense Contractor that does, among other things, computer network training for the Navy's C4I engineering center here in Charleston, SC. We are also part of a professional association called the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association (AFCEA). The Carolina LOWCOUNTRY Chapter of AFCEA is currently working on a Technology Summer School for Area Math and Science Teachers.

While working on this Math, Science and Technology (MaST) Program we have discovered some interesting things about putting Computer Network technology into schools.

-There are four major school districts in the Charleston area that are already putting this capability in schools with various degrees of success. One district is ensuring that teachers are involved the design, installation, and training process while another is merely putting the capability in the schools with no teacher input or training. Guess which district is doing better at it?

-The schools that are implementing this technology are doing it with no Federal money, but are using State and local funds along with getting good deals from providers. Internet Service Providers see this as good business.

-The public library, which is supported by County Tax revenue, is installing internet capability that will allow people to use the internet even if they don't have the ability at home. The library is training employees how to use the system.

The computer age is allowing us to have access to more information all the time. Schools could find the internet to be an outstanding resource for students working on research projects. However, it is impractical for the Federal Government to use a "one size fits" all approach to solve this problem. The first paragraph of your article says it best when you point out that post-sputnik science equipment went unused. I propose that instead of a wholesale $2.25 Billion project, this effort should be attacked as follows (this is an oversimplified approach for the sake of brevity):

1. Each Local school district has individual schools assess their own needs. I think that most schools in the grades K-5 would not need this technology at all or only as a teacher resource. Middle Schools (grades 6-8) and High Schools may need this capability in the library or media center with access available to all students.

2. Once the needs are assessed, school district officials should work with local ISPs and TELCOs to get the best bargains. This should then be paid for with local or State funds. If you take money from the Federal Government there are always strings attached. Usually they have nothing to do with what you use the money for.

3. Teachers and administrators must then be allowed to have an input to the process so that they understand the system and can use it effectively.

4. Installations should take place in such a way that they meet the individual needs of the schools with room for future growth.

5. Involve parents to the maximum extent possible.

The last comment that I want to make is about funding. The "scheme" for this is to have the FCC charge a tax on business phone lines and additional (above 1) residental lines. They would then "transfer" that money to the school internet program. This is the absolute surest way to foul this up. I am also suspicious about the money actually making it to the project. Those of us in General Aviation recall that the Airport and Airways Development Trust Fund was established using airline ticket and aviation fuel taxes. These funds were supposed to be used to improve and maintain aircraft operating areas (runways and taxiways) at airports, navigation aids, and the air traffic control system. What they got used for was Terminal buildings, parking lots, and airport consultants. Congress even tried to raid the fund for general revenue purposes such as paying FAA salaries.

I am concerned that the FCC's Internet fund may be subject to the same abuse.

The bottom line to this is that the Federal Government has no business being involved in supporting, or running the Telecom infrastructure of local schools.

Rolland G. Fitch, II
308 Summercourt Dr.
Summerville, SC 29485

This is in regards to your article Readin', Writin', and the Internet. My name is Steve Chilton and I am the technology coordinator/computer teacher at Honoka'a Elementary School on the Big Island of Hawaii....a small (450 students) rural school. I share with you the elementary Sputnik experience...as well as the spelling of my first name.

Well, you asked for email about schools doing an exceptional job....I hope we are! Two years ago, my principal, my wife, my son and myself completely wired our school. Every classroom is connected on a LAN and all have internet access. This was done over about 4 weekends...full days...and on a shoestring budget. We also wired another elementary school nearby. Anyway, since that time my students and the teachers have used the internet frequently and for a variety of purposes. It has mostly been a great research tool for my students to find out more about projects they are working on e.g. information about countries, the states, people, cultures and historical events. It has been very exciting for the students to print pictures and information about things that they are researching....and often this is much more that what they could find in our library. The students have also exchanged email with students at other schools off island. This, too, has been fun, exciting and even inspiring to reluctant writers.

The internet has been a good tool but I do have a few concerns. It is just too much information which makes the right things hard to find. This problem my wife and I are trying to remedy with our own web page ( which we have been working on for about a year)....soon to be out. Also, pornography is a concern. I always watch the kids carefully...even then...when researching acid rain...I was able to stop a child from accessing 'acid rain..the best in nude celebrities'....ain't that just great.

There is more I could say...but if you would like more..just email me. Also, I want to let you know that I read your column every week. You always have very useful information and have influenced some of the purchases for my computer lab.

Thanks!
Steve

Archives of this list are available at www.businessweek.com/bwplus/teched/charter.htm

To subscribe, send mail to listserv@listserv.businessweek.com with the message body: subscribe tech-ed (your name)

To unsubscribe, send mail to listserv@listserv.businessweek.com with the message body: signoff tech-ed