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Mickey McClurg has a computer in his house in tiny Alcoa, Tenn.,
a town with three schools and 1,300 students. He checks his e-mail
regularly and knows how to browse the Internet.
Still, the chairman of the Alcoa Board of Education admits,
he's not as proficient as he should be when it comes to technology.
"I've got a computer in my house here, but I'm scared of it,
too. And we've got board members who are not nearly as proficient
as some of our second- and third-graders," McClurg says, laughing.
"But that doesn't mean we're not supportive. We know it's the
real world, and we want our kids prepared for it."
A high priority
McClurg's views are reflected in the findings of a survey conducted
by the National School Boards Foundation and the Illinois-based
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (NCREL). The survey
of board members from 216 districts shows that they consider educational
technology initiatives to be among the most important in school
systems today.
Larry Friedman, who was in charge of the survey for NCREL, says
the survey reaffirmed some beliefs he had about school boards
and their approaches to technology.
"This study is a confirmation of some things that we suspected,"
says Friedman, who is director of policy at NCREL's Education
Technology Center.
"Technology has become a big deal for school boards," he says.
"What is interesting is that we didn't get much difference between
the approach of urban and rural school districts, even if their
resources vary widely. They're all pretty much the same, at least
according to how they view the importance of it."
One city that puts a high priority on educational technology
is Portland, Ore. With 70 percent of homes having Internet access,
Portland is the "most wired city in America," according to Wired
Magazine. So it makes sense that the school district is following
suit, with a computer-to-student ratio of 6 to 1 and every classroom
in its 94 schools wired.
Marc Abrams, a member of Portland's school board, says the district's
approach is based on the theory of "solid common sense." A bond
referendum passed four years ago has made the majority of Portland's
improvements possible.
"It's no longer a question of whether you should have technology.
It's a question of which technology," Abrams says. "We need to
understand that it's our kids who need this, and I'm pretty comfortable
that our district does understand that. The question we need to
ask is whether we are getting the right technology at the right
time as opposed to getting just any technology."
Abrams' views reflect those found in the survey, which show
board members believe technology is not, as Friedman puts it,
a "one-dimensional issue" for school districts.
"We hoped that they were not looking at it that way. It's not
just a matter of equipment, not just a matter of funding," Friedman
says. "I was glad to see that they see a lot of things as being
equally important and that need to be addressed."
Friedman notes that board members also say they are willing
to spend more time learning about technology issues affecting
their districts. For Abrams, a lawyer who works out of his home,
the best way to keep up with the issues is through e-mail.
"To me, e-mail has changed the way we do business, far more
than the other exotic applications of the Web," he says. "It's
the way we as board members will learn and communicate, and it's
very clear to me that it has created an expectation of the public
about the immediacy of communication.
"Frankly, that puts more pressure on us as board members, but
we should expect people to reach us so we can serve them better,"
Abrams says. "And we do."
For further study
Board members' answers to the survey questions (see sidebar)
provide researchers with "protein" for use in future research,
Friedman says.
"Technology issues and how school systems feel about [technology]
are not just one-dimensional pictures, but complex pictures, and
it's good for us to see this," he says. "This survey is outlining
the training for us, and it gives us some new directions to consider
in developing products and services as well."
Leah Burns-Atkins, director of the National School Boards Foundation,
says the joint effort with NCREL will lead to further studies.
"This particular survey is a good start, but we need to do more
to see how the landscape changes over time," says Burns-Atkins,
adding that future studies should look at "what rural districts
need" to be up to speed on technology.
"In an urban market, you have vendors who are willing to come
in and offer products to a district because they're hoping for
a bigger contract," she says. "With the smaller rural systems,
that's not often the case because the industry is not there. Rural
districts are different. We need to find out and understand what
their differences are so we can best help them to get prepared."
Rural districts might not have the resources of major urban
areas in terms of vendors and interest, but that doesn't have
to stop them from implementing technology. Alcoa's McClurg says
the funding challenges his board faces are like those of any other
small rural district; what makes his district different is its
commitment.
"I've been on this board 14 years and seen several board members
change, and I don't think we've ever had a vote where we were
purchasing new computers or doing something for technology that
has ever been opposed by a single board member," McClurg says.
"Our board supports technology, and we've been fortunate that
we have had a good staff and superintendents who are forward thinking.
"We may be small, but I think we've been on the cutting edge
of technology all along," he says. "It's the world we live in
now. That's what we do at work every day. We have to do everything
we can to be supportive of it."
Glenn Cook
is managing editor of Electronic School.
The survey, "School Board Members' Technology Priorities and
Preferred Ways of Learning About Them," was conducted by the Illinois-based
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory and the National
School Boards Foundation. The telephone survey reached board members
in 216 school districts; of those, 58 were urban, 75 suburban,
and 83 rural. One board member was randomly surveyed from each
district.
The survey focused on four questions:
• What do board members think of educational technology
in their districts?
• How important is educational technology in relation
to the districts' overall improvement efforts?
• What do board members think about their districts'
specific educational technology priorities?
• How can board members best learn what they need to
know about educational technology to make good policy decisions?
Among the findings:
• Board members surveyed say educational technology issues
are important. Almost half call technology issues among the
most important in their districts and predict that this will
remain true five years from now.
• Critical areas identified in most districts are staff
development and funding, followed by planning, acceptable and
safe use, facilities, and curriculum enhancement.
• Board members generally have similar pictures of their
districts' education technology initiatives, no matter the district's
size, location, or student-teacher ratio. Priorities varied,
but the top six are technology capacity, technology equity,
funding, curriculum enhancement, student assessment, and facilities.
• Almost all the respondents say they are willing to
spend an average of four hours learning about educational technology
in addition to their board work. Preferred ways to learn include
technology sessions at conferences, preconference workshops,
reading downloaded articles and journal articles, video conferencing,
phone/online conferences, e-mail lists/discussion groups, and
one-page e-mail briefs.
The survey
and its results can be found at the laboratory's Web site.
-- G.C.
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