Electronic School: E-Wire

• Commission calls for broadband.
• Court battle looms over filtering.
• Riley leaves an ed-tech legacy.
• Traditional educator opens online school.
• District sanctioned for destroying Internet logs.
• Costly computers?

The Next Big Thing: Commission calls for broadband and more

It's no longer enough to have a computer -- even a computer with Internet access -- in every classroom. Schools should now strive to have broadband networks and technologically savvy staffs.

That's the word from the Web-based Education Commission, a bipartisan group of government officials, educators, and industry leaders who are urging the Bush Administration and Congress to put e-learning at the center of the nation's education policy.

The commission, established in 1998 and headed by then-Sen. Bob Kerrey, also endorsed more research on online learning, the development of high-quality educational content on the web, better protection of online learners' privacy, expanded funding, and the replacement of outdated regulations with "approaches that embrace anytime, anywhere, any pace learning."

Who can argue with such lofty goals? Lots of people, it turns out. Several prominent educators have questioned whether wiring nearly every school was the best way to spend $8 billion. And William Rukeyser, coordinator of Learning in the Real World, a California group that studies the effects of computers on kids, told Wired News that the commission's 163-page report "sure looks like it was written by a commission that was viewing the World Wide Web through rose-colored glasses."

There's no denying the commissioners' enthusiasm for technology. "We must immediately put to rest the notion that full development of web-based technology for education is a choice," said Kerrey. "The Internet is revolutionizing all parts of society, but its impact on education is just beginning to be understood. We believe that a national mobilization is necessary to ensure that the tremendous potential of this new technology is harnessed to benefit all learners, whether in our nation's schoolhouses, college campuses, corporate training rooms, or at their kitchen tables."

For more than a year, the commission investigated the problems and the potential of web-based learning. Hundreds of people, including experts in education, technology, and publishing, testified in person and by e-mail. The commission found that 90 percent of U.S. schools and 71 percent of U.S. classrooms are now connected to the Internet, but schools spend only $200 per student on technology -- compared with the $5,500 per worker spent by a typical corporation.

The commission was also troubled by the education establishment's reliance on ancient regulations and financing systems that prevent schools from using the Internet to its fullest potential. The report calls for a "wholesale rethinking of the regulatory foundations governing our education institutions."

In the K-12 arena, this means reexamining timeworn rules regarding everything from teacher-certification policies that inhibit the growth of online instruction beyond state lines to attendance-based financing requirements that complicate the funding of distance learning. "The legacy of the one-room schoolhouse is holding back the potential of the one-world classroom," according to the report.

The commission set seven goals for government, industry, and educators:

• Provide all learners with new Internet resources, especially broadband networks that allow instant access, real-time interaction, audio, and full-motion video.

• Provide "continuous and relevant training" that provides "just-in-time, just-what's-needed training and support" for teachers and administrators.

• Build a comprehensive research, development, and innovation framework for web-based learning.

• Develop quality online content that meets standards developed by the education community.

• Revise outdated regulations that impede online learning but ensure accountability by developing "common and appropriate policies" regarding such issues as accreditation, licenses, and faculty compensation.

• Protect online learners and ensure their privacy by creating noncommercial, high-quality "safe zones" on the web and by developing programs that promote the "safe, wise, and ethical use of the Internet."

• Expand funding initiatives -- such as tax incentives, public-private partnerships, and a "learning technology trust fund" -- to pay for some of these efforts.

The complete report, titled The Power of the Internet for Learning: Moving from Promise to Practice, is available online

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Robofly -- or might be in the near future. Using a set of fly-size robotic wings dubbed "robofly," a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has solved the mystery of how insects fly. The researchers found three distinct wing motions that not only allow insects to stay aloft, but also let them steer and execute amazing acrobatic maneuvers. The team's discovery could help speed the development of small flying robots, which might be pressed into service as tiny spies or minuscule space explorers or sent into earthquake sites to search for survivors. Uncle Sam has put $2.5 million into the project and hopes to see squads of roboflies airborne by 2004.

Court battle looms over filtering

Civil liberties groups are promising a court battle over a new law requiring schools and libraries to begin using Internet filtering software to protect children from pornography or risk losing vital federal technology funds.

The Children's Internet Protection Act was linked to a $450 billion federal spending bill passed by Congress late last year. Civil liberties groups immediately protested, saying the measure wouldn't catch all the harmful sites and would run roughshod over the First Amendment. In mid-January, the American Civil Liberties Union announced it would file suit after President-elect George W. Bush took office.

"This is a mandated censorship system by the federal government," said ACLU lawyer Chris Hansen. After the law takes hold, Hansen said, "no adults [will be able to] read what they want at the library."

Supporters of the law said it would withstand a court challenge and provide a reasonable way to protect children from Internet smut.

"We drafted it to make sure it was constitutional," said John Albaugh, chief of staff for Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Okla., who helped push the measure.

Some conservative groups also objected to the bill, saying it takes local control away from communities that run schools and libraries and doesn't provide new money to buy or maintain the filtering software. In 1999, for example, Holland, Mich., decided in a local referendum not to use filters in its library. The federal legislation would override that vote.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., a cosponsor of the bill, said it gives localities considerable discretion in choosing appropriate materials for their schools and libraries. The law "allows local communities to decide what technology they want to use and what to filter out so that our children's minds aren't polluted," McCain told the New York Times.

Filtering software has been a divisive issue for public schools (see "Censorware," January 1998). Opponents say the filtering programs don't work, blocking more web sites than they should while letting some pornography sites through. Recently, anti-filtering groups have shown that top filtering programs block out such sites as a digitized copy of the classic novel Jane Eyre and sites belonging to the human rights group Amnesty International and House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas.

"This technology is so clumsy and unintelligent and so badly conceived that it's inevitably going to create tremendous problems no matter where it's implemented," said Patrick Burkart, a board member for the Texas ACLU. Public schools and libraries in Texas would risk losing as much as $123 million in federal money if they failed to comply.

Lost lunch money isn't a problem in Pennsylvania's Penn Cambria School District. The district is testing a fingerprinting system that lets students pay for French fries, pizza, and other cafeteria offerings without carrying cash or ID cards. Each student's fingerprint is scanned, turned into a computerized record, and then discarded. In the cafeteria, a small scanning device matches students with their fingerprint records and subtracts the cost of their meal from an established account. Using the system has sped up the lunch line, said Milton Miller, district director of food services: "The other benefits? One, no lost cards; two no one can access another person's account with a lost PIN number; three it's good for the parents ... [who] know that the money is only being spent on school lunches."

Riley leaves an Ed-tech legacy

In a parting shot as secretary of education, Richard W. Riley called on policymakers and educators to put technology "at the core of the educational experience, not the periphery."

To show how, he released the education department's new national technology plan -- e-Learning: Putting a World-Class Education at the Fingertips of All Children -- along with a tech-progress report that praised the progress made in wiring the nation's classrooms over the past eight years.

"Leadership is required to renew our commitment to the future," Riley said. "I invite Congress and the new administration to continue to support state and local education leaders in harnessing the best of the information age for education. This is an opportunity for our children that the country cannot afford to miss."

Specifically, the plan sets five goals:

Provide all students and teachers with access to the latest technology. At the moment, according to the plan, that means "network infrastructures -- wired or wireless, desktop or handheld -- that allow multiple devices to connect simultaneously to the Internet throughout every school building and community in the nation."

Train all teachers to use technology effectively to improve student achievement. The plan calls for better technology training in colleges of education; more time, quality, and coherence in professional development programs; and better instructional support for teachers who use technology.

Provide students with technology and information-literacy skills. The plan urges states and school districts to include such skills in state and local standards, develop new assessment tools, strengthen partnerships with industry, and make sure students use technology responsibly.

Support research aimed at improving the next generation of educational technology applications. The plan calls for a systematic agenda of research and evaluation and the dissemination of research-based information to improve teaching and learning.

Use digital content and networked applications to transform teaching and learning. This last grand idea includes everything from requiring administrators and policymakers to be technologically literate to supporting "the integration of digital content and networked applications into state and local standards and curricular frameworks."

Riley presented these goals as a continuation of the 1996 Technology Literacy Challenge that set the goals of providing technology training to teachers, equipping classrooms with multimedia computers, connecting every classroom to the Internet, and including software and online resources in every school's curriculum.

"We've made remarkable progress," Riley said. The department's new Progress Report on Educational Technology shows the number of schools with Internet access grew from 35 percent in 1993 to 95 percent in 1999. During the same period, classrooms with Internet access grew from 3 percent to 65 percent.

Increased connectivity has put more teachers on the web. According to the report, 85 percent reported using the Internet in teaching in 2000, compared to 65 percent in 1998.

The national plan, along with the state-by-state progress report, is available online.

Traditional educator opens online school

An outspoken advocate of traditional education has launched a decidedly nontraditional venture. Former Education Secretary William J. Bennett announced in December he was starting a new online school that will begin enrollment next fall.

"Education is what America cares about the most, and technology is what we do best,'' said Bennett. The for-profit school, K-12, will enroll students in kindergarten through second grade and promises eventually to offer lessons in all grades from math and science to arts and sex education. Costs will range from $25 for skill tests to about $2,000 for full lesson plans and software for a year.

As a past critic of education technology, Bennett once gave schools' efforts to increase use of computers in teaching an F-minus. Yet he is joining companies and school districts that are willing, even eager, to sail into uncharted cyberspace despite skeptical child development experts and the spiraling rate of business failures in the dot-com world.

The American Federation of Teachers reacted to Bennett's announcement with a statement from its president, Sandra Feldman: "We have serious questions whether K12 will offer the proper in-person content and technical support," said Feldman. "We will have to wait and see if the quality of this particular product is as grandiose as Mr. Bennett's quotes."

The going has been bumpy for some online schools. Teachers have to keep up student interest with interactive lessons, guard against student cheating, and do without body language or verbal cues to tell them whether students understand lectures.

The lessons in the K12 curricula will follow Bennett's 1999 book, The Educated Child: A Parent's Guide from Preschool through Eighth Grade. The company intends to market the school to parents of home-schooled students, charter schools, and public schools looking to add online components to their curricula.

The marriage of education and technology is needed, say educators who believe teaching is becoming more difficult in today's environment. Growing enrollments and shrinking budgets are leaving less room for one-on-one, hands-on learning at the side of an attentive teacher.

As Bennett put it, "We shouldn't be stuck with one model."

Nicole Thompson's third-graders can tell you all about the penguins and killer whales in Antarctica or the tea that grows in Darjeeling, India. Thompson, a teacher at Greenbriar Academy in Bahama, N.C., launched a global geography lesson with a simple e-mail message. In December, she sent a note to about 100 friends and relatives, asking them to forward it to people in other states or countries and urge them to write to her class. In just six weeks, the class received more than 20,000 responses -- messages from all 50 states, 87 countries, and each of the seven continents. The students want to collect messages from every country recognized by the United Nations, and with more than 1,000 e-mails arriving some days, it's probably just a matter of time until they do. "The kids are thrilled with this," said Thompson. "They just can't wait to get to class."

You might want to talk to your school attorney before deleting any of your district's Internet logs. A New Hampshire school district was found in contempt of court in January for destroying computer records that were involved in a lawsuit.

Rockingham County Superior Court Judge Gillian Abramson ordered the Exeter School District to pay legal fees and to reproduce Internet history files for a parent who wanted to use them to determine whether students were visiting unsavory Internet sites on school computers.

Abramson said the information in the deleted files "was unfavorable and embarrassing" to the district and that the deletions had occurred between the time the lawsuit was filed in June 2000 and the trial in September.

James Knight, a father of four whose children attended Exeter schools until recently, won a legal battle against the district in November 2000 when Abramson ordered officials to give him copies of the schools' Internet history logs.

Knight, 44, wanted the logs because he didn't think school officials were doing enough to keep pupils away from the Internet's seedy side. He filed the suit after educators decided to use spot checks by teachers instead of filtering programs.

In court papers filed after the Nov. 2 verdict, the district said its files "no longer date back to 1998," when the district first made Internet access available to pupils. School officials said the deletions were part of standard maintenance.

Knight asked the court to sanction the district, saying officials deleted the files while they were subject to a lawsuit and failed to tell him or the judge.

In sanctioning the district, Abramson said officials' explanations didn't make sense. "The court finds the [district's] claims to be untenable and replete with contradictions," she wrote, referring to differing testimony about when the deletions began. "None of the [district's] explanations add up mathematically."

The trouble started in 1999, when Knight became concerned by school officials' decision to monitor pupils' Internet activities with supervision instead of using filtering software. The filtering programs, which have been criticized for their lack of accuracy, are designed to block access to objectionable Internet sites.

School officials said handing over such logs would violate the children's privacy and federal law. They also questioned the reliability of filtering programs. But Abramson disagreed, saying the school could delete personal information from the records before giving them to Knight.

Teachers in Michigan's public schools will be getting laptop computers this year. But school officials are worried that the upkeep of the computers might cost more than they're actually worth.

"There are hidden costs no one anticipated," said Superintendent Steven Gaynor of Royal Oak Public Schools. "Over the course of three years, each district may spend more money per laptop than the cost of the laptop."

Officials worry that the maintenance bills, insurance, software, and licensing fees for the new computers could exceed the amount allocated by the state per teacher. Gaynor said his district did not anticipate these additional costs when drafting its budget.

"When we buy our own computers, we have these same costs, but we plan for them," said Gaynor. "We haven't budgeted for this state program."

Some school officials, however, are more worried about the quality of the computers. Though districts will be able to choose computers from a variety of companies -- including IBM Corp., Apple Computer Inc., Compaq Computer Corp., Dell Direct Sales, and Gateway 2000 -- some educators have questioned what they would be getting for $1,200 per unit.

In fact, some districts are thinking of leasing computers to get better-quality machines. Superintendent James McCann at Lampere Schools in Madison Heights, for example, has suggested that schools join forces to lease laptops.

"A $1,200 laptop probably won't perform all the functions you need, but if we lease them we might be able to get, say, [a] $1,600 [laptop]," said McCann.

But Jamey Fitzpatrick, who oversees the program, said the state was getting quality machines. Fitzpatrick believes it's premature for districts to worry about maintenance and warranty costs. Some officials, however, remain unconvinced.

"We try to stay on the cutting edge, and a $1,200 computer is a giant step backward for us," said Superintendent Craig Younkman of Lake Orion Community Schools. "When you consider the speed, memory, and usability with our network, $1,200 isn't even in the game. That's like handing our teachers a Model T."

E-Wire is prepared with Associated Press (AP) reports.