TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION DIGEST
Digest No. 2 -- July 1, 1997
A Moderated Mailing List
Steve Wildstrom (steve_wildstrom@businessweek.com), Moderator

Return to Technology & Education

Michael Pitch (70671.2234@compuserve.com) writes:

I am the state coordinator for Tech Corps Wisconsin.

Tech Corps, a national non-profit supported entirely through corporate donations, brings volunteers with technical expertise into schools across the country to assist with technology-related projects. Tech Corps is receiving widespread support and endorsement from both the business and educational communities. Tech Corps chapters are now organizing all across the country in 36 states and the D of C. To learn more about Tech Corps, visit our national Web site at: http://www.ustc.org.

TECH CORPS WISCONSIN is a statewide, non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing K-12 teaching and learning through the effective use of volunteers to integrate technology into the educational environment. It is built on the grassroots concept of public-private partnerships with the goal of preparing students and teachers technologically for the 21st century. TECH CORPS volunteers address the above issues by offering technical expertise in hardware, software and wiring, mentoring one-on-one with students and staff, working side-by-side with teachers in the classroom, serving in advisory capacities and assisting in teacher training.

Here in Racine, schools are stuck on Apple II's and a mentality that has them putting Apple II cards in the Mac LC's. They continue to buy a limited number of underpowered and overly expensive Macs despite the voiced concerns of parents, children and businessmen.

We are doing some good things in various parts of the state where people understand the importance of computers for children, but this is the exception and not the rule.

We attempt to repurpose donated 386's into the schools here despite an opinion that _nothing_ is better than _something_ (DOS computers).

A lot of the problem that I see with technology in schools has less to do with getting it, than it does with teacher attitudes, union politics and bureaucratic incompetence.

Mike
*************************
Michael F. Pitsch
State Coordinator
Tech Corps Wisconsin
70671.2234@compuserve.com

"We know, purely and simply, that every single child must have access to a computer, must understand it, must have access to good software and good teachers and to the Internet, so that every person will have the opportunity to make the most of his or her own life." (Pres. Clinton)

Enjoyed your "Readin, Writin" colum in this week's issue.

I have been involved in education technology issues since june 1994 when Istarted the United States Tech Corps (http://www.ustc.org)... I was also about 10 feet to the right of the Prez and VP at the Netday shot you ran with your article.

If you log on to the tech corps www site, click on our Hawaii chapter. With distance learning such an important part of their education infrastructure, I am certain our chapter leaders in Hawaii can give you good examples.

Another you might wish to visit yourself in cyberspace is the Electronic High School (http://ehs.uen.org) This is an electronic learning effort I came across on an education technology visit to Utah in late April.

Gary Beach
Senior Vice President, IDG
Computerworld Global Brand Manager
617-534-1200

Re your Readin', Writin', and the Internet, how refreshing to read an educational technology article that tells it like it is. The business community (read telecommunications services providers, and hardware manufacturers) are so obsessed with capitaliziing on the school/home learning market that they have perpetuated the myth that access is the problem. School administrators readily "buy" this fable because computer hardware provides tangible evidence to others that their school / school district is on the leading edge in utilizing technology. In many businesses, hardware consumes 15%, or less, of the overall life-cycle costs of information systems and communications. The big money is spent on training, technical support, software, and to a lesser extent service and upgrades. In K-12 education this ratio is most often reversed with fully 85% of technology budgets spent on hardware. It is no wonder that there is no shortage of technology door stops in schools.

Here in Indiana we have been operating a pre-cursor to the "NETschools concept" for almost ten years now. It's called the Buddy System Project and the goal is to extend learning into the home through the use of technology. Seven thousand families of 4th through 6th graders in some 64 schools across the state have been equipped with personal computer technology, compatible with what is found in the loal classroom and connected to a state-wide Intranet that links home and classroom. The emphasis in this project is not on the hardware however, it's on optimizing the learning experiences for kids and their families through the use of the technology. Regional facilitators work wih classroom teachers to integrate the technology into the curriculum and extend it's use to the home. An itinerant Family Technology Trainer assists schools in planning and holding evening workshops for families. Licensing arrangements with major educational software publishers allow Buddy to distribute the best educational software to participating families at a fraction of the retail cost. A system of regional servers permits free access to the network via a local telephone call for all Buddy families. Each member of the family has their own Internet mail address and parents can permit children to browse the educational content of the network, without concern. The Corporation for Educational Technology (the not-for-profit that runs Buddy) also operates the Indiana Technology Learning Center in partnership with the Indiana Department of Education and Butler University. A wide range of free technology training is open not only to teachers but to Buddy families, pre-service teachers and faculty from local schools of education. In the summer months a series of Buddy Technology Camps are attended by teams of kids parents and teachers. Our teachers, on average, with some of the best support and training anywhere, take up to five years in the project to fully integrate technology into the curriculum and make full use of the technology in the home.

Unless school boards learn to invest heavily, and on an on-going basis in training and technical support for teachers, the Vice President and the telephone companies can keep their wires. The regional baby bells and others who push the concept that "access" is the answer will live to rue the day. Schools have a very limited budgets left after salaries and benefits are paid. Taxpayers and school boards are not going to support technology projects long-term that don't show results. Let's do it right the first time and make sure kids and teachers don't suffer because of greed on the one hand and gullibility on the other.

Alan Hill, President
Corporation for Educational Technology

I read your article in the June 9 publication of Business Week. Percipient offers a turnkey solution for network and communication systems. We deal with many school systems, and one in particular is Summit School in Winston-Salem, NC. They promote higher technology for their students as well as teachers. Chris Culp is instrumental with this project, and does a terrific job. His phone number is 910-722-2777. Thanks in advance for any help that can be contributed to this school.

I very much enjoyed (and appreciated) your article, "Readin', Writin', and the Internet," in the June 9 edition of Busines Week. Special kudos on two fronts: First, it's all too rare to find emphasized at least a commensurate measure of concern for the importance of integrating technology into school work as there is for integrating it into school buildings. Your article did just that. Second, it's equally rare to see one's own programs described with such clarity, succintness and fidelity. On that score, your description of Co-NECT also passed with flying colors.

Thanks.

Bruce Goldberg

Bruce Goldberg
Director, Co-NECT, & Divisional Scientist Educational Technologies Dept. BBN
70 Fawcett Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Voice: (617)-873-2683
FAX: (617)-873-2455

I read your article on "Readin', Writin', and the Internet" in the June 9 edition of Business Week. At the end you ask for pointers to schools that are doing an exceptionally good, or bad job.

I commend to your attention the Smart Valley Smart Schools initiative. A great deal of information is available through the Smart Valley Web site:

www.svi.org

The board of directors, of which I am a member, is chaired by John Young, retired CEO of Hewlett-Packard. Smart Valley is a non-profit organization with a staff of about 12 people and annual budget of about $1 million cash.

We have managed three Smart Schools Net Days in the past 18 months and connected 78% of the 500 K-12 schools in Silicon Valley. This includes LANs in almost every classroom (I think the count is 10,000 classrooms), Ethernet cards, RAM, teacher training, curriculum development and sharing, and so forth. On the site you will find the technical guide we developed to help schools plan their networks and a how-to guide for planning a Net Day.

We also manage PC Day - a program to provide new, multi-media PCs to our schools. The first event gave 3,000 PCs to about 461 teachers. More PC Days are in the works.

For more information you should contact Kathie Blankenship, Smart Valley's director of communications - 408-562-7795, kathieb@svi.org. She can put you in touch with some of the teachers who have successfully worked the Internet into their curriculum.

Smart Schools is a very impressive program. I think you will find some good material on how the Net really can help our educational system.

Seth
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Seth G. Fearey Collaborative Economics, Inc. 415-614-0242 fax 415-614-0240 350 Cambridge Ave, Suite 200 main 415-614-0230 Palo Alto, CA 94306 USA fearey@coecon.com http://www.coecon.com

I hope you may be willing to let people know about The Concord Review, the only journal in the world for the academic work of high school students. Since 1987, we have published 330 exemplary history essays (average 5,000 words) by high school students in 22 countries. Our website (http://www.tcr.org) has 24 sample essays, an index of the first 29 issues, information on our $2,000 Emerson Prizes, a form to accompany essays, and other useful information. If you would like a free copy of a recent 200-page issue with eleven essays, please send me a mail address.

Will Fitzhugh, The Concord Review, http://www.tcr.org

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