AP Photos/Left: Doug Mills, right: Eric Draper
On the campaign trail, presidential candidates George W. Bush
and Al Gore have been trying to one-up each other on the education
front. This time the talk is technology. Both candidates have
promised to address the digital divide and achievement gap that
plague America's urban and rural schools with elaborate proposals
to increase technology use and access to technology.
Bush recently unveiled a five-year, $400-million education technology
program. The plan would eliminate the Federal Communications Commission's
Schools and Libraries Division's E-rate program and consolidate
eight Department of Education (ED) programs that focus on technology.
Replacing these programs will be a $3-billion "Enhancing Education
Technology" fund. In addition, two new programs will be established
at ED. One will provide $64 million a year for research on which
methods of education technology actually boost student achievement.
Another will give $15 million annually for an Education and Technology
Clearinghouse that would provide schools nationwide with information
on effective technology programs, best practices, and research.
The plan has one stipulation: Each state that chooses to use
the federal dollars must establish accountability measures to
demonstrate how technology has improved student achievement.
"We can harness technology to close the achievement gap, but
technology alone cannot make children learn," said Bush, who --
taking a stab at the Clinton administration's goal of wiring each
classroom for the Internet -- went on to say that "behind every
wire and machine must be a teacher and a student who know how
to use that technology to help develop a child's mind, skills,
and character."
But Bush's plan has been harshly criticized by the Gore camp,
which says that the plan would eliminate the administration's
"100,000 new teachers" initiative and that it lacks any real methods
for recruiting new teachers. Because we are "at the dawn of an
information revolution," Gore said, "more than rhetoric" was needed
when it comes to the nation's schools. "We need clear plans and
a clear commitment," he said.
"In front of the cameras, Bush talks about putting a qualified
teacher behind every computer, but he has no real plan to get
the job done," said Gore spokesman Doug Hattaway.
In contrast, Gore's plan for education technology includes continuing
the Clinton administration's initiative of wiring every classroom
and library to the Internet, as well as recruiting and training
1 million new teachers. The teachers will have training in effective
use of the Internet in the classroom. Gore's plan also includes
a major initiative to achieve computer literacy for every child
by the end of the eighth grade and a program to provide new educational
software to all schools. In addition, Gore hopes to use members
of the AmeriCorps national service program to help teach and promote
the Internet in schools, libraries, and technology centers.
What's the difference between Al Gore and George W. Bush? No,
this isn't a trick question; it's what you'll find in a FamilyEducation
Network report that outlines the presidential candidates'
positions on school choice, technology, failing schools, and nine
other school-related issues.
Tech standards
for teachers
For the better part of the past decade, rookie teachers have
entered classrooms baffled about how to infuse technology into
daily lessons. More often than not, they wondered: "What am I
supposed to know and be able to do?"
In June, the International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE) set
out to provide some answers with its release of National
Educational Technology Standards for Teachers. The document
shows how teachers should infuse technology into teaching, beginning
with what they're supposed to learn about educational technology
in their teacher-education programs.
Not surprisingly, the general consensus is that the nation's
teachers have a long way to go to meet the standards. Part of
the problem, educational technology advocates say, is that schools
of education are doing a poor job -- if they're doing anything
at all -- in preparing teachers to know how and when to use new
technologies.
"There are very few, if any, teacher preparation programs that
can immediately meet the standards," says Peggy Kelly, codirector
of the standards project, which has also outlined technology standards
for students as well as recommendations for how to connect curriculum
and technology. Better teacher preparation, she says, will require
"collaboration by all involved in teacher preparation -- the university
as a whole, colleges of education, school sites hosting student
teachers, and districts employing first-year teachers."
The standards are organized into four stages: General Preparation,
Professional Preparation, Student Teaching/Internship, and First
Year of Teaching. The first stage prepares teachers-in-training
to use technology to support the teaching of core academic subjects;
Professional Preparation outlines how technology connects to learning
theories, classroom management, and different teaching styles;
and Student Teaching/Internship gives prospective teachers an
opportunity to put this theory into practice. The final stage
-- First Year of Teaching -- addresses how teachers use technology
to communicate with parents, teach lessons, and assess students.
The standards report also illustrates ways some education professors
are showing future teachers how to use technology. In a course
at Arizona State University, for example, future middle school
teachers design miniature parachutes and attach them to toy gorillas,
then drop them from a fourth-floor window. Using ultrasonic motion
detectors and graphing calculators, the prospective teachers study
concepts such as free fall, friction, and accelerated motion.
"The power of technology for student learning doesn't come from
the presence of classroom computers or the Internet," said Tom
Carroll, director of a U.S. Department of Education program called
Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology. "The real power
of technology in education will come when teachers have been trained
well and have captured the potential of technology themselves.
Teachers must model the behavior students are expected to learn."
Teacher advocates echo Carroll. "The best predictor of technology's
effectiveness in the classroom is the degree to which teachers
are prepared to use it," said Merchuria Chase Williams, vice president
of the Georgia affiliate of the National Education Association.
"We must make a commitment at all levels...to ensure that all
teachers arrive ready to use technology fully."
Ten Chicago-area high school students have something worthwhile
to report in response to the age-old question, "What did you do
on your summer vacation?" These kids spent three weeks in Peru
as CARE Youth Corps participants, working on self-help development
projects with Peruvian families who are trying to improve their
lives. Students who stayed home can join in the adventure via
CARE's
Virtual Field Trip site, which features an online photo album,
background information on the country, and day-by-day journal
entries.
Day 1: "Today the villagers are learning how to treat straw
with molasses and fertilizer, so that it will have enough nutrition
to sustain their animals during the long, dry season ... Erica
picks up a machete and begins to help the villagers chop the straw.
Soon, the other Youth Corps members join her."
Day 2: "The villagers are growing avocados, wheat, and yucca,
which have flourished, for the most part, despite the dry season.
As the Youth Corps members work alongside the villagers, the band
plays festive tunes to help make the work more enjoyable."
The students are home now, but their adventures -- and the educational
resources of the site -- are still ripe for online exploration.
The E-rate is
helping
Now in its third year, the E-rate -- the national fund to help
schools and libraries get affordable access to the Internet --
has been successful in bringing technology to students and their
parents, according to a report
by the Education
and Library Networks Coalition (EdLiNC).
"This report confirms children, educators, and parents across
the country are utilizing technology to enhance education and
foster learning for everyone," said U.S. Secretary of Education
Richard Riley. "The E-rate is helping to eliminate the digital
divide and to raise standards of learning in every school and
classroom."
The report highlights 46 communities that have received the
E-rate discount and are developing high-tech learning centers.
Some of the communities are using the money they've saved through
the discount to provide training programs for parents. Telecommunications
companies have put $3.66 billion into the fund so far.
Key findings of the report include:
- The E-rate program is increasing involvement in and opportunities
for learning. The E-rate is encouraging teachers to integrate
new technologies and is sparking a remarkable growth in distance
education. It is transforming libraries into centers for digital
learning and communications.
- The E-rate program is fostering greater parental involvement
in children's learning. Many parents are using Internet tools
(including e-mail and school web sites) to monitor their children's
progress and to communicate with teachers and school administrators,
and many schools are opening their doors at night to teach technology
skills to parents and others in the community.
- The E-rate program is spurring demand for and deployment
of the Internet. Because of E-rate funding, many schools and
libraries in underserved areas are leading the way in gaining
access to the Internet and obtaining high-speed connections.
These new community Internet access points are, in turn, spurring
demand for Internet access in the rest of the community.
- E-rate discounts are leveraging new investments in technology
in schools and libraries. The E-rate is dramatically expanding
these institutions' ability to meet and even exceed their technology
goals. Savings realized from the discounts are being reinvested
into other technology needs. Moreover, the E-rate is serving
as a catalyst for states and private foundations to increase
their technology assistance programs to schools and libraries.
- The E-rate program is fostering partnerships among diverse
community institutions. E-rate participants are building new
community partnerships with businesses, community colleges,
museums, and senior citizen centers. Students are training senior
citizens in the use of the Internet.
EdLiNC is a coalition of national organizations created to make
sure school children and communities have affordable access to
information technology through their schools and libraries. Coalition
members include the National School Boards Association (NSBA),
the National Education Association (NEA),
and the American Library Association (ALA).
Forum calls for investing in digital
content
So your schools are wired for the Internet and you have computers
in all your classrooms. Chances are, however, you aren't fully
integrating technology and its possibilities into your curriculum,
according to a partnership of education groups and businesses.
The CEO Forum
report, The
Power of Digital Learning: Integrating Digital Content,
suggests it's time for schools to turn their focus away from hardware,
Internet connections, and basic technology skills. Instead, they
should put their attention on digital learning, an educational
approach that integrates technology, connectivity, content, and
human resources.
"Having our schools wired with high-tech capabilities in the
classroom is only part of the battle," said John Hendricks, forum
cochair and founder of Discovery Communications, Inc. "We must
invest in digital content, and it must be deployed in a way that
will improve the 21st-century skills of our children."
The CEO Forum is a partnership between business and education
leaders. The Power of Digital Learning is the third in
a series of reports on education technology.
Public schools spend approximately $6.8 billion each year on
instructional materials, according to the report. Only 10 percent
is spent on so-called digital content. The report describes digital
content as content that is randomly accessed, relevant, and authentic;
explored on many levels; interactive and engaging; able to be
manipulated; instantaneous; and creative.
Some states require districts to spend a certain amount of their
budgets on textbook purchases. The forum recommends that schools
have the flexibility to use up to 100 percent of their instructional
material budgets on digital content, if that best meets their
instructional needs.
Other recommendations:
- Schools should perform a digital content inventory. Find
out what digital resources are available in your school's current
catalog of learning tools, and make sure everyone on campus
-- library, classroom, and administrative staff -- knows how
and when to use these materials.
- Increase investment in new technologies and software. Give
faculty and staff members time to research and identify new
sources of digital content. Be willing to work with companies
to develop educational products, and be prepared to train and
retrain staff and teachers.
"The overriding technology crisis in schools today is a lack
of clear vision for the future of digital learning," said Anne
L. Bryant, executive director of the National School Boards Association
and CEO Forum cochair. "This is the first report describing such
a vision."
SHOPPING FOR COLLEGE
It'll take a heap of shopping to earn college tuition, but a
new venture called UPromise
offers to help families build a college savings fund. The program,
will work like this: When a consumer buys a product partnered
with UPromise, a rebate of up to 5 percent of the purchase price
will be put into a tax-deferred education investment account.
The ulterior motive is to build brand loyalty -- the more you
buy, the more you earn. Every little bit counts, but as critics
point out, it isn't the big spenders who really need help paying
for college.
High school news and
sports
Mississippi is the latest state to turn to an Internet company
to provide news about high school sports and extracurricular activities.
In July, the Mississippi High School Activities Association
struck a deal to allow Kentucky-based iHigh.com
to provide high school news. So far, the iHigh.com network includes
California, Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts,
New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas,
and Wyoming.
It is the only site approved by the National Federation of State
High School Associations to publish stories on school sports and
extracurricular activities. Beyond high school news and sports,
it offers opportunities for high school kids to network with each
other on everything from academics to music to careers. "This
site is about high school students, for high school students,
by high school students," said iHigh.com CEO Rick Ford.
Students create and maintain iHigh.com sites under the direction
of a teacher or coach. The service is free to high schools and
allows schools to advertise local businesses on their iHigh.com
web page and use those advertising dollars for school programs.
Student reporters from individual schools file stories for the
site. "We are looking for reporters in each school to provide
us with sports scores and stories," said Ennis Proctor, executive
director of the Mississippi High School Activities Association.
"I think it is a great opportunity to draw more attention to the
many things that are going on in our schools."
Smile, you're on web cam
While most school districts fret about how to prepare students
for the real world, the Wilcox High School Class of 2000 in Santa
Clara, Calif., will be recording it live.
The 400 seniors who graduated this past spring were handed a
little something extra when they marched in their caps and gowns.
Along with their diplomas, the graduates of this Silicon Valley
school each received an Internet Video Camera. Now close friends
and best buddies won't have to wait until winter break to catch
up with each other. They can keep in touch through online broadcasting
using their new web cameras.
"It's as close as can be to being there," said Wilcox graduate
Chelsea Nelson.
The Quickcam Internet videocameras were donated to the school
by Spotlife,
a company based in San Mateo, Calif., and Logitech,
an interface device maker. The companies also provided the students
with free web space that will allow them to stream live footage
or post stored video and audio images.
"I see the students giving a tour of their dorm room or introducing
their friends," said Trinka Dyer, vice president of marketing
for Spotlife.
The company also plans to give away two $10,000 scholarships
to the Wilcox graduates who have the most creative online broadcasting
sites.
Montana
Nessie, the elusive Flathead Lake monster, now has her own
web site where people can report sightings and share family lore
and fish stories about America's version of the Loch Ness Monster.
Summarized information, collected from submissions to the "not-quite-official
Flathead Monster sighting data bank," will be reported periodically
on the site. The last documented sighting of the purported monster
was in 1998. How much it looked like the cartoon character that
graces T-shirts available on a related site is anybody's guess.
Internet helps ease teacher shortage
South Carolina is using the Internet to find new teachers and
to bring more classes to students despite the statewide teacher
shortage.
With a few clicks of the mouse, the state's 86 school districts
have access to a wide range of prospective teachers and their
references through an online application at the South
Carolina Department of Education site.
"Anyone in the world can apply to teach in South Carolina,"
said Randy Vaughn, assistant superintendent for Greenwood District
50, who helped create the application. He recently had his choice
of about 700 applicants to fill 24 positions, thanks in part to
the online applications. "We were really hurting this time last
year," he said. "We're getting a lot of applications from out-of-state.
I even hired an English teacher from England."
Vaughn worked with the South Carolina Teacher Recruitment Center
to launch the web site, which allows teachers to fill out a four-page
application and send it to any district in the state or to all
of them.
The program soon will be able to include college transcripts.
"It makes it so much easier now," said Virginia Everman, who helps
recruit teachers for the Charleston County School District. "Most
of the younger teachers are so computer savvy now."
Technology has helped with another problem spawned by the teacher
shortage in South Carolina. When 575 high school students enrolled
in summer school in Rock Hill, the math courses filled up so quickly
that many students were put on waiting lists or turned away. The
district offered an Internet math course, and 13 students signed
up.
"The shortage of teachers this summer prompted us to do something,"
said Rock Hill associate superintendent Gwen Kodad. The district
is offering the class through Class.com. The Internet company
offers 150 courses through the University of Nebraska's summer
high school program. Students work at their own pace and send
questions to an instructor at the university through e-mail.
Report says computers fall short
Students who use computers in classrooms at least once a week
did not perform better on a reading achievement test than youngsters
who used the machines less frequently, according to a report,
"Do
Computers in the Classroom Boost Academic Achievement?" from
the Heritage
Foundation in Washington, D.C.
Heritage policy analyst Kirk A. Johnson compared reading scores
for fourth- and eighth-grade students from the National Assessment
of Educational Progress (NAEP).
He looked at several factors, such as the socioeconomic status
of the students, their parents' education level, whether there
were reading materials in the home, gender, and computer instruction.
For fourth-graders and eighth-graders alike, the two factors
that had the most positive effect on reading achievement were
the parents' education level and whether reading materials were
available in the home. Being poor or from a minority group, the
study found, was correlated to lower scores. According to the
report, computer instruction did not make a difference.
"This report does not suggest there is no place for computers
in the classroom," said Johnson. "It does, however, demonstrate
that computers may not have the effect on academic achievement
in reading some might expect, even when they are used by well-trained
instructors."
TAKE A TECHIE TO LUNCH
You don't have to wait until Oct. 3 to appreciate technology
professionals, but that's the official date of TechiesDay
2000, a nationwide initiative to address the increasing demand
for a qualified technology workforce. This year's effort features
two major initiatives: a partnership with Tech Corps to match
tech professionals who want to volunteer with K-12 schools that
are seeking volunteers, and a national competition to recognize
tech professionals for advancing technology education.
Coming: State ed info online
Education has become the top priority of politicians at every
level -- not just candidates who want the nation's top job. In
response to the growing commitment to education at the state level,
Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper, who chairs the National Governors
Association's Center for Best Practices, has established an innovative
initiative to share education achievements among states.
The Delaware Democrat is launching an electronic "education
clearinghouse" where states can go online and learn about the
initiatives, practices, and ideas that have raised student achievement
in other states across the nation. The online clearinghouse will
focus on some of the best practices in America that have raised
student achievement, identify educator compensation systems and
funding opportunities, and be a source of solutions for education
questions. This new electronic initiative will also help build
leadership among schools and districts.
"The education clearinghouse promises to provide governors and
education leaders in their states with the most updated information
on cutting-edge issues in raising student achievement across the
nation," said Carper at the NGA's annual conference. "With this
education clearinghouse, solutions to these emerging issues will
be just a few mouse-clicks away."
The online site will cost $1.5 million over the next five years
and is expected to be up by this fall.
E-Wire is prepared with Associated Press (AP) reports.
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