|
A most unusual request came to me a couple of years ago from
some fourth-graders here in Oklahoma City. The boys had dug up
a large bone -- a very large bone -- while swimming in
a river near their home. They needed my permission to carry it
on the bus to school.
How deep can four fourth-graders dig? Deep enough, their superintendent
would soon learn, to unearth a 75-pound bone from a prehistoric
mammal. But their digging didn't stop there. Back at school, they
used our district's 100-megabit pipeline to the Internet to find
a University of Oklahoma paleontologist who could help them identify
their find. For the record: femur bone, adolescent mammoth, Pleistocene
Era -- some 25,000 years ago.
The fourth-graders' discovery happened in the small school district
of Western Heights, on the southwest corner of Oklahoma City --
not the kind of place that comes to mind when you think of cutting-edge
technology. We're not wealthy. About three-quarters of our 3,300
students are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches. But in
the last five years, more than 80 percent of the district's voters
have voted yes in four bond issue elections to fund technology
improvements. All totaled, we have invested more than $10 million
in bond issue and E-Rate funds to become one of the most technologically
sophisticated school systems in the nation.
In fact, in his recent book, Business @ the Speed of Thought:
Using a Digital Nervous System, Bill Gates said Western Heights
has created "perhaps the leading technology-driven curriculum
in the country." And Intel Corp. Vice President Mark Christensen
called Western Heights "one of the best technology-enabled school
districts in the world."
Getting started
It wasn't always this way. When we started planning for the
future more than five years ago, we were stuck in the technology
equivalent of the Stone Age with a few silent, dormant, and old
PCs connected to nothing, anywhere. A 24-member advisory committee
made up of teachers, administrators, businesspeople, and others
met with telecommunications and software experts for six months
to create a plan for a state-of-the-art network. We dubbed it
JetNet, after our district name, the Jets. The network's main
artery would be a 17-mile fiber-optic cable linking workstations,
the Internet, videoconferencing, and televisions in every classroom,
library, and lab in all seven of the district's schools.
Just getting ready to get ready to build took two years. We
got help by hiring three consultants: a telecommunications engineer
to advise us on wiring, an architect to help make our older buildings
more computer-friendly, and a specialist in emerging technology
to aid in long-range planning.
The clear vision for the completed project starkly contrasts
with the labyrinthine implementation and construction phase that
followed. For starters, we had to coordinate contracts, permits,
easements, rights-of-way, and construction with the gas and electric
company, the phone company, the city and state, and even the airport
authority and a railroad company.
Then we suddenly faced the task of completing $2 million in
construction work during the three-month summer vacation period
in 1996. Wiring the school buildings was completed by August,
the fiber backbone was finished in December, and by January 1997,
JetNet was up and running.
Building what Gates calls a "digital nervous system" nearly
triggered a digital nervous breakdown a few times along the way.
But with all systems "go," students and teachers at Western Heights
are at last moving "@ the speed of thought."
All aboard
I knew from the outset that teachers had to buy in to the technology
project if we ever hoped to accelerate education at Western Heights
to thought-speed. We trained every teacher and administrator on
computer skills, basic to advanced, including access to networks
and the Internet. Later, any doubts about their enthusiasm were
erased when we offered voluntary videoconferencing training during
the summer. To my surprise, more than 200 of our 230 teachers
signed up -- nearly twice what I expected. Even as we scrambled
to add enough training sessions, I realized our teachers were
on board for the journey into electronic education.
In large and small ways, this project has changed the way education
happens in our schools. Consider that teachers are somewhat isolated
in their classrooms, with little time in a typical day to interact
with their colleagues or with me. Enter e-mail. Taking education
to students' homes is a natural extension of the JetNet. Teachers
can e-mail busy parents about important school events and assignments.
Likewise, parents can check homework, test scores, and progress
reports.
The system has also benefited homebound students. For example,
an 11th-grader on extended medical leave was able to attend virtual
classes -- including his biology lab -- through a high-speed link
to his bedroom. An elementary school student recovering from an
auto accident followed his class via a cable modem.
A middle school teacher wrote to me about another technology-inspired
breakthrough. "Many 'nonacademic' students show successes creatively
or through visual media skills that 'academic' students seem to
have difficulty with," she said. "These two groups of students,
who normally do not talk with each other, end up forming a friendly
and productive alliance, sharing knowledge and skills."
The technology has also helped teachers with classroom presentations.
One of our social studies teachers uses the Internet each day
to show relevant news stories to his students. Then he supplements
his lectures using Microsoft PowerPoint slides, and finally returns
to the Internet for a virtual visit to a museum or historical
site covered by the lesson.
Other classroom innovations using JetNet have included:
* A lesson comparing governmental systems through a videoconference
involving United States senators, British Parliament members,
Western Heights students, and students at a New Jersey high school;
* a virtual mentoring program linking students and employees
of Dayton Tire Company, a leading local industry, for an interactive
session on job interviewing skills;
* ongoing study in math, science, and geography through a link
with a local television station's newscasters and meteorologists;
* an advanced math course that supplements the middle school
curriculum through a videoconference link with the high school;
and
* a cyber field trip to the Liberty Science Center in Jersey
City, N. J., highlighted by a discussion of Hudson River pollution
with environmental experts.
I am convinced that what has happened so far barely scratches
the surface of the potential of our wired school district. Every
day I see teachers further incorporating our remarkable electronic
tools into their lesson planning and course development. We are
quickly moving beyond the "gee whiz" phase. As educators, we are
harnessing technology to drive better teaching. And make no mistake:
We drive it, not the other way around.
The numbers add up
Today we have 1,470 computers for the district's 3,545 computer
users -- 3,300 students, 230 teachers, and 15 administrators.
The student-to-computer ratio compares favorably to the national
average of 13.5. We are accessing 60,000 to 70,000 web pages each
day. We spent about $1,500 per student constructing the JetNet
and more, completing the system with software and ongoing enhancements.
In keeping with our original plan, each classroom is wired for
five full connections to the JetNet. We will add a computer to
each classroom each year until all five connections are in use.
Then the first set of computers will be replaced, and a cycle
of replacing 20 percent of the computers each year will continue.
We were one of the first school districts in the country to
own not only the servers, hubs, switches, and routers of our network,
but also the fiber-optics line connecting our seven schools with
each other and the central office.
When research showed that leasing the fiber-optics network for
such a system would have cost an estimated $750,000 per year,
we made the decision to build our own. We relied on generosity
and support from many corners, but the district is particularly
indebted to our local utility company, Oklahoma Gas and Electric.
As the owner of 80 percent of the utility pole easements in our
school district, OG&E's support was essential. Our agreement
with the utility enables us to use these easements in return for
allowing OG&E to share our bandwidth.
Wired for the future
I have seen technology facilitate real school improvement. It
has empowered teachers to create more student-sensitive instructional
products. Before long, I believe, web-based education management
systems will emerge that integrate all the diverse functions of
a school system -- teaching, testing, learning, and interaction
with parents. With these amazing tools, education will soon occur
whenever and wherever the most and the best learning can happen.
Who among us would deny that technology is the impetus for America's
economic revival? Isn't it logical and necessary that we consider
technology as the potential catalyst for reforming education as
well?
As educators, it is our job to prepare students for life. We
impart knowledge, but that's only the beginning. We must also
teach children how to discover their own sense of direction, to
find their way -- in web language, to search for what they
need to build their futures.
Whatever the future holds, children at Western Heights are poised
to go out and greet it. We have built a technological foundation
that means our children will not have to wait passively for the
future to be delivered to them on someone else's terms. Rather,
they will be able to find -- indeed seize -- their own
future and shape it for themselves.
Joe
Kitchensis superintendent of the Western
Heights Public Schools in Oklahoma City.
|
