TECHNOLOGY & EDUCATION DIGEST
Digest No. 3 -- July 2, 1997
A Moderated Mailing List
Steve Wildstrom (steve_wildstrom@businessweek.com), Moderator

Return to Technology & Education

As a teacher, I agree that training to use this tool called Internet is essential for success, and that money spent on technology will be wasted if the teachers do not know how to use it. However, teacher training itself would be a waste if there is no technology to use.

I have tried to go beyond that, but find that the time invested in moving course materials to the web is still greater than any benefit I have yet been able to document in improved grades. There is certainly strong student interest in my site and many favorable comments. Measuring the success of this technology however remains anecdotal, as is often the case is education. For example: students have emailed questions to me while studying for tests, then I post my replies to the web site. Students often download class handouts to their home computers to complete. Students have set the course home page as the default page on their browser software so they can check out new information as soon as it is posted. The web site is used as a link on home pages produced by student teachers. My classes have used the computer room to learn about new data such as the recently released Arctic ocean data from US and Russian military research. Students have said they look up assignments on the web when they have lost their own assignment books.

I would welcome your opinion of my class web site: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/7639/INDEX.HTM

In addition to the web site, my school has a new computer lab with Internet access, staffed by two excellent teachers eager to promote use of the Internet.

What technology training preceded the use of the internet with my class? Many hours of my own time sitting at my home computer using html guides from the internet to convert my own documents, or searching the internet for other peoples' work to use. Duplicating my own self-taught course of study for every teacher in my district would bankrupt them. Could I have used the school equipment to do the same thing? No. While the equipment in school is better than my own, the only time available for my self training was after the next days lessons are prepared, the papers and tests are graded, the memos, forms and reports written, and the demands of family are completed.

And yet, many teachers are anxious to do the same thing I am trying to do. What do they need to move education forward with this technology? They need the technology. The end of the school day is roughly the middle of the work day for me. Is it so far fetched to provide each teacher with a laptop computer they can use both in school and at home where they do about half their work? This practice is commonplace in business when staff expects to work at home. Traditionally, teachers do half of their work at home.

Even though we like to pretend that education is a priority in our society, schools have never had a leadership role. In the business world,if a new technology promises to increase productivity, the company can go out and buy it. In education, if I think something will improve education, I put it in my budget the following October. If three levels of administrators agree, the Board of Ed comes next, then it goes to the voters in May. If they agree, I may be able to order that something on July 1 if I want to stop by the school in the summer to do the paperwork. In September, I can start learning how to use my new technology.

School systems will use the Internet more and more as they are able, but as is the case with all changes our society, schools will follow the society in general. Teachers will slowly adapt to the internet if it becomes clear that the resources of this new tool are superior to, and can replace other resources. As Mr. Wildstrom wrote in his article, student access to the World Wide Web is useful, but not as useful yet as access to a good library. Access by teachers, trained to use equipment available to them at times when they are able to use it, will however accelerate the pace with which we prepare students to use technology already common in the business world.

Tony Mitchell Earth Science Teacher Lewis Mills High School Harwinton/Burlington CT tjamitch@snet.net

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 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

[How do others handle the problem of providing open Internet access while keeping the kids out of harm's way? Suggestions welcome.-MOD]

Mike Menchaka (chaka@csus.edu) writes:

It is certainly true that schools are being inundated with something they are often ill-trained to utilize. However, programs and training are popping up all over to attempt to remedy that "what do I do with it now?" situation.

At the end of your article, you expressed an interest in finding out both good and bad programs for teacher training. I can tell you of a particularly good one.

The San Juan Unified School District in Sacramento County does extensive teacher training in the area of technology and the Internet. A particular program, the Alliance for Excellence (funded through an Eisenhower Science and Technology grant), does an outstanding job. The Alliance holds regular after-school meetings in which teachers are trained in the usage of technology and of its integration into their current curriculum. The program allows for very personal attention to each teacher in the grant cycle so that support can be tailored to individual needs. In addition, the San Juan district works to bring in both technical and community persons to help brainstorm novel uses for technology. Finally, each summer the Alliance, in partnership with California State University, Sacramento and the Sacramento County Office of Education, holds an intensive eight day Institute on integrating technology (especially multimedia and the Internet) into the curriculum. We have a waiting list of willing participants which seems to indicate that teachers want the training. We have found that intensive training is the best way to get teachers involved in utilizing technology on a daily basis.

Mike Menchaca School of Education California State University, Sacramento chaka@csus.edu

Mr. Wildstrom, I am writing this message because I just red your article of the June 9 edition, " READIN', WRITIN', AND THE INTERNET". I found this article very interesting because of the importance that Internet is having and going to have in children. Also, because I am doing a research paper tittled "Online Marketing for Children" for my class CUSTOMER-DRIVEN MARKETING MANAGEMENT. I am a MBA student at the Western Michigan University. Recently I started my MBA program, I did my bachelors in business administration in Costa Rica (though I am from Colombia).

I have chosen this topic because I consider that Internet is a very useful tool for children education, and that it can be very important if it is handled in the right way. Companies must understand the present trends so they can efficiently market products and services oriented to the children market.

I have many ideas in my head, and I am trying to project a little how the future is going to be, and what companies should do. But I have been sitting here in the computer lab for two days, and I have not been able to materialize and organize these ideas. This morning I read your article, and it got my attention. Also you offered the Email for Questions and comments I would appreciate very much if you could give a lead, references or ideas.

I know that you are very busy (even my self I feel to have no much time in some occasions),but if you would be some kind and give a hand, I would appreciate and be very thankful.

Sincerely,

Hector E. Sanchez

I would like to let you know that the Paterson School district(NJ) appears to be way ahead in terms of getting the kids onto the internet. Not only have they educated the teachers, but they have a state of the art technology backbone(Facilities/video to intranet system up and running). I work for KeySpan that is deploying with Metricom their wireless network in the Northeast and we will be demonstrating the wireless internet capability at the Paterson school system this fall. The reason I think they are doing such a good job is that they are planning the next stage of student learning using the internet. That is to use laptops anywhere to do homework/research projects and more importantly, get the PC's home so the kids can learn in a quiet environment. (Our product will let it happen cheaply and not require a second phone line)

Wildstrom asked, "Do you know of schools that are doing an exceptionally good--or exceptionally bad--job?" Well, I do.

I'm a volunteer in the Latona Elementary School Computer Lab, which has around 30 Macintoshes, including a web server. Latona is part of the Seattle School District.

Like everything involving the Seattle schools, the lab is always strapped for cash. They even have to go so far as to tell the kids not to use too much color, lest the lab run out of printer cartridges before the semester is over. In spite of this, they do and excellent job, mostly because of the resourcefulness of the two people who run it. They have a clear idea of what kinds of software is actually useful (things that resemble actual productivity software like KidPix) and what is nothing more than a babysitter. They are also amazingly resourceful--like finding second hand video tape at a Boeing surplus sale so that the kids can record their multimedia projects and take them home.

They haven't put any children's web pages up yet, but they have put up pages describing the history of the school, and also describing the Revena Creek project, an environmental reclamation project that some of the classes are involved in. They've also done some "web browsing" classes, focusing on NASA and weather sites. There's a lot of neat stuff out there.

James Jennings

(Latona's web server is at http://latonak5.ssd.k12.wa.us/Latona/ You probably should print it. They only have a 56k connection.)

E-mail Address: jennings@halcyon.com (James Jennings)

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