|
|
|
"Teachers strive to show what adding technology
to classrooms can mean"
Published Tuesday, Nov. 28, 2000, in the San Jose Mercury News
BY
KATHERINE CORCORAN
Math teacher Pam Ensign thought a computer program was the last
thing she needed for middle-school students who still were struggling
to add and subtract. But, desperate for new ideas, she signed on
to help develop and test classroom software.
Six years later, the San Jose teacher is beyond convert and bordering
on zealot. Every year her Herman Intermediate students, even those
lacking basic skills, use computer-aided design to plan dream homes
and Antarctic research stations, and eagerly tackle algebra, decimals
and fractions in the process.
The change in Ensign's thinking reflects a national shift in the
debate surrounding technology in classrooms. While some still question
whether computers belong in schools, most educators say computers
have become so widespread that the issue no longer is whether they're
used, but how.
The computer-drill programs that many schools continue to use to
teach reading and math actually hurt test scores, according to some
studies. And the ubiquitous laboratory setups that allow students
to get onto computers just a few times a week are inadequate, according
to a growing consensus.
But programs such as Ensign's show more promise. When used as an
educational tool rather than a classroom toy, proponents say, computers
can spur projects that teach students teamwork, problem-solving
and critical thinking, as well as increase their enthusiasm for
learning.
``I've had kids who would come in at lunch and say, `I've got to
get this done,' '' Ensign said. ``I've had kids I couldn't get out
of the building at night.''
Such programs are rare, however. Bay Area initiatives such as the
research-station project are among just a handful nationwide recognized
by the U.S. Department of Education as the right way to use technology
in the classroom of the future.
Because there is very little time for teacher training, and more
than 80 percent of technology money is spent on software and machines,
most educators continue to teach the computer to children, rather
than using the computer to teach.
‘`Too many schools are still doing it the old way,'' said Judy
Powers, manager of technology/curriculum for the Santa Clara County
Office of Education, which each summer trains nearly 400 teachers
how to develop multimedia projects like the Antarctic research station.
Locally, ``I would guess 10 to 20 percent of teachers know how to
use technology effectively, and that percentage wouldn't be far
off nationwide.''
You've got the computer-- now what?
Schools have come a long way since the days when Apple IIe machines
on audio-visual carts rolled from classroom to classroom. The past
five years have seen a tremendous push to increase technology in
the classroom, including lowering the ratio of students per computer
at each school and wiring campuses for the Internet.
Public schools spent an estimated $5.67 billion on educational technology
in the 1999-2000 school year, an average of $121.37 per student,
according to a report this month by Market Data Retrieval, a Connecticut-based
educational research firm.
But there is a growing concern about how that computing power is
used. In a 1998 report on technology, Educational Testing Service
researcher Harold Wenglinsky lamented that with the ever-popular
students-per-computer statistic, ``We don't know how many (of those
computers) are behind locked doors, we don't know how many are broken,
and we don't know how many teachers really know how to use them.''
This fall, the technology-in-schools debate raged anew after Alliance
for Childhood -- a national group of educators, doctors and child-development
experts -- issued a report calling for a moratorium on more computers
in schools. The group contends that billions are being spent on
something that is unproven in its ability to boost learning. Meanwhile,
the report said, computers rob young children of creativity, human
relationships, hands-on learning and the fun and frolic of childhood.
Rather than a moratorium, however, the report prompted advocates
to rally in defense of technology.
Jim McCarthy, who teaches a combined third and fourth grade at Oak
Ridge Elementary in San Jose, contends that technology can help
students understand things they would be unlikely to see on their
own.
His students use the Internet, PowerPoint presentation software
and ClarisWorks spreadsheets for group reports on California regions
and weather patterns.
``You don't learn from the computer,'' he said. ``You have to take
the information and do something with it.''
Oak Ridge Elementary is among the 45 Bay Area schools participating
in the Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project sponsored by Joint Venture
Silicon Valley and the San Mateo County Office of Education. The
project is one of only two nationwide that the U.S. Department of
Education recently recognized as ``exemplary'' for using technology
in schools.
The research-station-design program in Ensign's class was one of
only five ``promising'' programs the education department said appeared
to use technology effectively for learning, but required more study.
It is part of the Middle-School Mathematics Through Applications
Program developed by the Institute for Research on Learning, now
part of the WestEd research group in San Francisco.
The Challenge 2000 project provided grants and training for teachers
to develop their own classroom technology projects that are curriculum-based,
have a real-world connection and allow students to work in groups,
make decisions about what they're learning and use the technology
during a weekslong
period.
In kindergarten through high school classrooms across the Bay Area,
the five-year, $6.6 million program has transformed everything from
the old two-page report and classroom skit to the beginning biology
lecture on cells.
Many steps to learning
At Miner Elementary in San Jose, Elaine Imada's sixth-graders wrote
and produced a report on earthquakes using HyperStudio presentation
software. The project not only involved researching the science
and history of earthquakes but scanning photographs, creating sound,
making page links and patching video of a simulated earthquake,
which the students staged in a Barbie Dream House.
``If we had done this project on paper, I would have put all this
information out and not remembered any of it,'' 12-year-old Shera
Iosefa said. ``Because we did it on the computer, it was much more
interesting.''
Santa Teresa High School Spanish teacher Eric Balochie used to assign
his students two-page reports on topics of Hispanic history, culture
or civilization. But in his Challenge 2000 project, he taught them
Adobe Page Mill, and students built their own Web sites, complete
with photos, sound, Quicktime videos and links to other students'
Web sites.
Balochie also gave them an online take-home test, requiring them
to visit sites other than their own to answer the questions.
In just a few weeks, ``they learned more than I could teach them
in a whole school year,'' he said.
The project allowed junior Hannah Sim, who loves art but is shy
about speaking Spanish, to stand out. Her El Salvador Web site included
an erupting volcano, Salvadoran music and an interview with a woman
who survived a brutal death squad massacre of her family and village.
`’The thing I liked about the project is you can put a variety
of ideas on the page. I can use my creative side,'' Hannah said.
Teachers and an SRI International study agree that with Challenge
2000 projects, students were more motivated and more involved in
their own learning.
When Santa Teresa teacher Linda Sparling assigned her desktop publishing
students to design a brochure on the Alaskan Iditarod, one asked
if he could design a Web site as well.
``Anytime a classroom teacher presents a project and the student
comes back the next day above and beyond anything in the unit, you've
won,'' Sparling said.
Challenge 2000 students also were far more likely to collaborate
in small groups. Teachers were less likely to lecture and more likely
to encourage students to solve problems independently, according
to the SRI study, which compared a group of Challenge 2000 middle-school
students with a group that was not in the program.
But studies on technology's effect on student achievement are mixed.
A 1999 study of West Virginia fifth-graders showed that the longer
they participated in a computer-education program linked to state
standards, the more their standardized test scores increased.
At the same time, Wenglinksy's ETS study on the effect of classroom
technology on National Assessment of Educational Progress math scores
showed that students actually scored lower if they used the computer
for drill and practice. The study also shows that the positive effect
of technology is great on middle-school children, but negligible
on fourth-graders, supporting the Alliance for Childhood contention
that computers are unnecessary in lower grades.
The SRI study compared groups of middle-school students who created
a brochure on issues of homeless students. While the groups using
technology outscored their counterparts in content, design and thinking
about their audience, SRI researchers found the vast majority of
students in both groups failed to fulfill the assignment.
And when researchers considered the grade level of the students
involved, the statistical advantage of those using technology disappeared
in all areas but design.
Bill Penuel, SRI senior education researcher, sees those results
as promising, not mixed. The problem is that standardized tests,
the current arbiter of student achievement, don't measure skills
gained from using technology, such as teamwork and active learning,
he said.
``The complexity of the kind of work was greater,'' he said of the
multimedia projects, ``and reflected more of the kinds of activities
people are expected to do in the workplace.''
To teach, you have to learn first
Teaching with technology also is limited by money, teacher training
and time. Federal money for Challenge 2000 dried up this year, just
as the government named it an exemplary program. Forty-five percent
of 30,200 schools in the Market Data Retrieval study reported that
at least half their teachers can't use a computer well enough to
integrate technology into the curriculum.
Teachers who venture into technology tend to be self-taught or spend
summers and weekends in training classes.
The multimedia projects themselves take a tremendous amount of planning.
Teachers not only teach the subject matter, but they must include
lessons on computer programs and steps to planning a multimedia
project such as storyboarding, videotaping and script-writing.
``I'm motivated because of the excitement it creates with students.
That gives me the initiative to continue, because it's difficult.
The planning of it is time-consuming,'' sixth-grade teacher Imada
said one recent afternoon as teachers from the Blossom Valley Learning
Consortium streamed into her classroom for yet another after-hours
technology planning meeting.
According to her students, that excitement doesn't end with her
class. Shera, who worked on the earthquake project, now has Ensign
for seventh-grade math. Hearing she might be designing an Antarctic
research station, she raised both hands in the air.
``I know I can nail that,'' Shera said.
Contact Katherine Corcoran at kcorcoran@sjmercury.com
or (408)
920-5651. ©2000 San Jose Mercury News. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with permission. Use of this material does not imply
endorsement of the San Jose Mercury News.
|
-
SJ
Mercury