On Wed, May 08, 2002 at 08:08:16PM -0500, John Joseph Trammell wrote: > > Ditto -- seems like the first problem lies in finding a school > district that wants our help. The only person I can think of > on this list is Tim Wilson. Tim, any ideas? Hi everyone, I've been meaning to throw in my $0.02 on this. Do schools need help with technology? Absolutely, but there is an important distinction to be made. You have to ask whether the school needs help with infrastructure or with actually using technology. Obviously I'm most familiar with Sibley, but my sense is that most public schools have decent infrastructure. Every room in my district is wired with an Internet connection (our WAN will be upgraded to gigabit fiber this summer and we'll get connected to the I-net), but we do have a shortage of workstations for teachers to use. Our student to computer ratio at the high school is probably about 12:1. Most districts are shooting for something like 5:1. School districts are coming to realize that there is no way to keep up anymore. Some districts have passed technology bonds, but it's pretty crazy to borrow money for 20 years to buy machines that will be unusable in 5 years. (Yes, I know that 5-year-old machines aren't really unusable, but after 5 years of use by students the machines are really beat up and they become quite a burden to support.) We have approximately 1,500 workstations and 15-20 servers in the district with 4 techs including the guy in charge who doesn't do much direct tech support anymore. Naturally, lots of our library staff and other tech savvy teachers do informal tech support all the time. The really important question, beyond a simple computer:student ratio, is whether or not technology is being integrated into the curriculum and making learning better for students. Larry Cuban, a Stanford University professor, wrote a pretty stinging critique of how technology is used in schools [1]. He found that although teachers are not particularly technophobic (they are frequent technology users at home), technology has not made a difference in their work. Interestingly, he compares this result to two other professions, medicine and engineering, and finds similar results. In other words, despite the wide availability of technology that *could* make a real difference, doctors are treating patients in pretty much the same way they always have. Cuban falls just short of calling for a moritorium on computer purchases for schools. So if computers are available and teachers aren't afraid to use them, why haven't they made much of a difference in schools? The bottom line is training. Teaching with technology is very different from the sort of education most of us on this list received. I'm talking about a pervasive use of technology here, not just offering more programming classes. We all know that there's a big difference between using technology to accomplish a particular task (think word processing) and being a technology expert that is able to use the technology tools to solve complex problems creatively. A group from NCREL suggests the following stages of technology use: * print automation (essentially doing on a computer what could be accomplished in essentially the same way on paper) * expansion of learning opportunities (making a Web page instead of writing a paper, or example) * data-driven virtual learning (more real-world focus, doing things that would be impossible without the technology) [2] The *vast* majority of technology use currently is in phase 1. This is why technology hasn't made much of a difference yet. (Is doing research for a paper on the Web *really* all that different from the old way of doing it?) The key to moving to stages 2 and 3 is training. In other words, infrastructure is necessary, but not sufficient if the real goal is improved learning. So what can a bunch of geeks do about it? 1. Help with infrastructure if that's what's needed. Find out who's in charge of technology in a particular district and find out what they need. Maybe you've got some expertise they could use. 2. Volunteer to provide after-school technology training for the teachers. Get in contact with the building principals and/or district staff development folks to find out what's needed. 3. Enter into a mentor relationship with a teacher or student. These are just off the top of my head, there are certainly more. You might also want to look at the Seul-edu[3], Schoolforge[4], and Open Source Schools[5] Web page. I'd be happy to continue any discussions on this topic. Obviously, it's something that's important to me. References ========== [1] Read it online at http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/CUBOVE.html [2] http://www.ncrel.org/tplan/cbtl/toc.htm [3] http://www.seul.org/edu/ [4] http://www.schoolforge.net/ [5] http://www.opensourceschools.org/ -Tim -- Tim Wilson | Visit Sibley online: | Check out: Henry Sibley HS | http://www.isd197.org | http://www.zope.com W. St. Paul, MN | | http://slashdot.org wilson at visi.com | <dtml-var pithy_quote> | http://linux.com