Schools making progress with technology, but more work needed

01/18/05 -- U.S. schools are making enormous strides in using technology, yet more needs to be done, particularly in the area of training, states the National Education Technology Plan, released by the U.S. Education Department Jan. 7.

Toward a Golden Age in American Education reports that virtually all schools have access to the Internet, and the student to computer ratio has reached 5-to-1.

“Yet, we have not realized the promise of technology in education,” the report states. “Essentially, providing the hardware without adequate training in its use -- and in its endless possibilities for enriching the learning experience -- meant that the great promise of Internet technology was frequently unrealized.”

“In the realm of technology, the educational community is playing catch-up,” the report states. “Industry is far ahead of education. And tech-savvy high school students often are far ahead of their teachers.”

Too often, the report says, “computers are enclosed in computer rooms rather than being a central part of the learning experience.”

“The problem is not necessarily lack of funds,” it says, “but lack of adequate training and lack of understanding of how computers can be used to enrich the learning experience.”

Things are changing, the report says, and often, it is the smaller districts leading the way in embracing technology to redesign the curriculum and organizational structures.

One example cited in the report is the Chugach school district in Alaska, which has made remarkable gains in student achievement and received a Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2001.

Technology, a key factor in the district’s success, was used to improve the efficiency of the districts’ academic and administrative operations, as well as enhance student learning.

In California, teachers in the Poway Unified School District, outside San Diego, use a data warehousing system to get immediate, up-do-date information -- current and historical -- on the performance of individual students and a whole class, as well as data from human resources, special education, and other departments.

The Henrico County, Va., school system has become a leader in using laptop computers to enhance student learning. Students use the laptops to access primary sources for research projects, take online assessments, take advanced courses, and communicate with their teachers.

The National Education Technology Plan includes the following recommendations and action steps:

• Strengthen leadership at the school, district, and state levels. Administrator education programs should be retooled to provide training in technology decision making and organizational change. Creative technology partnerships should be formed with the business community.

• Consider innovative budgeting. Districts should restructure their budgets to realize cost savings and maximize their spending on technology.

• Improve teacher training. Every teacher should have an opportunity to take online courses and should know how to use data to personalize instruction.

• Support e-learning and virtual schools. About 25 percent of all K-12 schools now offer some form of individualized online learning.

The report recommends that every student and teacher have access to e-learning. It says e-learning options should be used to implement the No Child Left Behind requirements on highly qualified teachers, supplemental services, and school choice.

And it calls for quality measures and accreditation standards to be developed for e-learning courses.

• Encourage broadband access. Most public schools have access to high-speed, high-capacity broadband communications, but more needs to be done to ensure that it is reliable and that it is used for data management, online assessments, and e-learning.