The high-tech industry in California has crashed and burned. Could the same thing happen to technology in California schools?
Some say it will take a virtual miracle to obtain badly needed funding for technology in the face of the biggest budget cuts in the state's history. Others criticize the large sums of money schools have invested in technology on the grounds that doing so takes away limited funding that could be better spent on fixing aging school facilities, reducing class size or improving teacher salaries.
California classrooms have had computers for nearly two decades, and many have been wired to the Internet for close to a decade. Indeed, schools have come a long way since visionaries vowed to "connect every classroom to the Information Superhighway" with high-quality computers, creative software and well-trained teachers able to integrate curriculum with technology.
However, in the rush to get the latest and greatest gadgets, schools have fallen short in using technology as a tool for teaching and learning. The potential for technology in the classroom is still untapped at many schools: Even with the latest technology at hand, educators are not always given the training to make the best use of it.
In 2001, California ranked dead last among the states in terms of student access to the Internet, with 10 students per Internet-connected computer, according to a report by the American Electronics Association, "CyberEducation 2002."
According to the "2002 California School Technology Survey" released by the California Department of Education (CDE), 96 percent of California schools were connected to the Internet, up from 80 percent in 2000; 84 percent of classrooms were connected to the Internet, up from 58 percent; and the ratio of students to Internet-connected computers had improved to 7 to 1.
While the state has made progress, it is still at or close to the bottom of the national ranking, according to the CDE.
The so-called "digital divide" between students living in poverty and more affluent students seems to be narrowing. Eighty percent of high-poverty classrooms had Internet access in 2002, compared to 39 percent of such classes in 2000.
The gap, however, has not disappeared entirely. In 2002, schools with affluent populations reported that 93 percent of classrooms were connected to the Internet. In schools where nearly all of the students were living in poverty, only 80 percent of classrooms reported having Internet access.
In a 2002 nationwide study by Market Data Retrieval, 33 percent of high-poverty schools reported that the majority of their teachers were beginners in using technology, compared to 18 percent of teachers in more affluent schools.
"The gap between the haves and the have-nots is narrowing, but it still exists," says Nancy Sullivan, director of the CDE's data management division.
"We have found technology to be the great equalizer," says Robert Joplin, a teacher at Buffum School and a member of the Teachers Association of Long Beach. "Many of the skills we teach are not known to anyone in the class. Technology can level the playing field between poor kids and experience-rich kids."
Studies show technology can have a positive effect on student attitudes toward learning, as well as self-confidence and self-esteem, and can improve school attendance and decrease the dropout rate.
But computers in California's classrooms are aging - and there may not be enough money to maintain them, replace them or upgrade them in the future.
"Data shows that the newer machines are in high schools and that older machines tend to be in middle schools and elementary schools," says Sullivan. "A lot of districts get new machines and deploy them in high schools, and push the older ones down to middle schools and elementary schools."
The now-defunct Digital High School program provided a large cash flow for high schools - the distribution of one-time grants of $300 per student for technology and staff training totaled $500 million over four years - but California never made the same commitment to middle or elementary schools.
The age of a computer, notes the state study, "is an important dimension of long-term technology planning as computers reach the end of their average 'life cycle' and need to be replaced. As computers become more commonplace in schools, they will need to be replaced not necessarily because they have become obsolete (as in previous years) but rather because they've simply 'worn out.'"
In 2002, 28 percent of computers in California classrooms were more than four years old.
Unfortunately, the state has cut funding for most technology programs, including grants for installing technology and providing professional development for grades 4-8.
This year's budget does not include funding for schools that applied for the second phase of the Digital High School Education Technology Grant Program, which was supposed to provide $45 per student to fund tech support, teacher training, software licenses and replacement of aging computers.
Because of the dire budget situation, schools will have to depend mostly on federal funding to maintain existing technology and professional development programs, says Sullivan. Since California has so many high-poverty Title I schools, it gets the largest share of the federal grants under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 2001 (also known as the No Child Left Behind Act). Districts must apply for grants and submit plans for using technology over the next three to five years to get the money.
It will help, says Sullivan, "but it is not as much money as we had at one point in time." And schools that don't have a predominantly high-poverty student population are not eligible for the federal funds.
"When the economy is bad and schools suffer from a lack of funding, one of the first things that's looked at is educational technology, because people see it as a frill," says Ellis Vance, the executive director of Computer-Using Educators (CUE). "Until the budget situation improves in California, we are going to continue to struggle in terms of expanding, improving and maintaining educational technology in schools."
Schools have also been impacted by the collapse of the high-tech industry, which offered schools more in the way of grants, assistance and partnerships in happier times. "Large companies like Cisco and Hewlett-Packard used to give money and equipment; now they are giving less," reports Jan Half, chief education officer of Nonprofit Programs for K-12 Schools and a member of TECH Corps. In Silicon Valley, these companies are offering more time to assist teachers in technology planning and implementation, but once-visible dot-com companies no longer have a presence at schools in low-income areas, such as East Palo Alto and eastern Menlo Park.
As for nonprofits that assist schools with technology needs, including TECH Corps, CUE and Resource Area For Teachers (RAFT), "donations are down, participation of employees is less because they have heavier workloads, and grants are there - but much harder to find."
As money has gotten tighter, tech support has become stretched to the limit in many schools. In some districts, tech positions were among the first to be cut.
Ginny Howery, president of the Mother Lode Unified School District Faculty Association, says it typically takes weeks for computer repair, because the tech support person who once served her district alone now serves several districts. When the Blaster worm hit, things became even more backed up.
"Most of our computers are three to five years old and some are older, so they frequently need repair," she says. "But there isn't funding for them to stay updated."
"While there is a critical need for trained technicians to repair and maintain computer equipment in schools, system and network administration staff are often lured away from public schools by higher-paying jobs in the corporate sector," notes the CDE study.
When teachers were asked to estimate the time it typically took for support staff to respond to their needs, 47 percent estimated repair and support response time at two to five working days, 33 percent said it took more than a week but less than a month, and 9 percent estimated it at a month or more.
Cutbacks in tech support and funds to replace or upgrade older equipment are bound to impact classrooms at increasing rates as equipment continues to age.
Schools are scrambling to hold things together with less money, but it isn't easy. In many school districts facing cuts, computer teachers have been reassigned to regular classrooms, leaving regular teachers to fend for themselves in computer labs.
In the Westside Union School District in Antelope Valley, the computer program for elementary students was eliminated. Before the cuts, students had computer instruction with certificated computer teachers who integrated instruction with classroom curriculum, says Kim Collins, president of the Westside Union Teachers Association. Now regular classroom teachers are trying to fill the gap, but it's difficult.
"I predict that the computer labs are going to sit empty, because there is nobody to schedule kids in and teach them on a regular basis," says Collins. "I also predict an overall decline in computer use and technological literacy in students. They come to us computer-literate in eighth grade and can do a report in PowerPoint if we ask them to. But that will probably change."
In Temecula, it's a similar story. Elementary school computer teachers who conducted classes in computer labs while regular classroom teachers got prep time have been put back in the classroom at many school sites. Aides are trying to give computer instruction, but many don't have the training to integrate technology with curriculum.
"There has been no money put into technology at our school for the past five years," says Jan Whittaker, a first-grade teacher at Black Butte School and president of the Black Butte Teachers Association. "Our classroom computers and computer lab equipment were purchased in 1997. Our equipment is old and overworked, and things are going wrong. The printers are wearing out and some computers are starting to freeze up."
It's frustrating for schools in rural areas, adds Whittaker, because students are isolated and use the Internet as a window to the outside world.
Putting technology to the test
The following websites are designed to help teachers use technology in the classroom.
The Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) website [www.ed.gov/free] makes it easy to find learning resources from more than 40 federal organizations. For example, its education technology link takes you to such resources as the National Archives' searchable database of the nation's cornerstone documents. It has more than 100,000 digitized copies of significant manuscripts, photographs, maps and drawings, as well as information on teaching with documents under the Digital Classroom initiative.
The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) Consortium offers access to lesson plans, curriculum units and other resources available on various federal, state, university, nonprofit and commercial Internet sites [thegateway.org]. The database includes more than 24,000 education resources across more than 400 websites.
The California MarcoPolo Resource Center [marcopolo.k12.ca.us] provides no-cost, standards-based Internet content for the K-12 teacher and classroom. Online resources include panel-reviewed links to top sites in many disciplines, professionally developed lesson plans, classroom activities, materials to help with daily classroom planning, and a search engine. It includes information on how classroom teachers can utilize the MarcoPolo resources to teach to the California Academic Content Standards.
New Horizons for Learning [www.newhorizons.org/] is a non-profit, international network of educators focused on identifying, communicating and implementing the most effective teaching and learning strategies at all ages and abilities. The organization was set up to explore and help implement ideas that have not yet reached the mainstream.
OWL.org , an online professional resource and community for NEA members, is devoted to educators helping educators. It includes practical tips, strategies, tools, materials and access to Web resources. Believing the healthy exchange of ideas and opinions is essential for the survival of any online community, OWL.org includes discussion boards and other interactive features where members can share their knowledge, experience and opinions. A service of NEA and its state and local affiliates, registration is free to members.
For more links, visit CTA's website [www.cta.org].
