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| Digital school days Technology’s role in classrooms becomes bigger every year By EMILY ALPERT of The Chronicle If you walked to school in bobby sox, took the bus wearing love beads or even skated in, dripping ’90s grunge, the 21st-century classroom might throw you for a loop. Gone are the finicky Scan-tron tests, the cumbersome card catalog, and runty would-be planet Pluto. The librarian shuns encyclopedias, the students craft computers and all around you, the Internet flits through the air. Welcome to the Dufur School. The year is 2006. “Twenty years ago, when I came here as a teacher, we had two Radio Shack TRS-80 computers,” says Superintendent Jack Henderson, walking the halls of his 285-student schoolhouse. “Now we have something like 150 computers linked to our network.” At that time, says Henderson, a TV in a classroom was a luxury. Today, teachers use DVDs and streaming video from the Web to enhance their lessons. It’s flashier, but more importantly, it’s just plain easier, says sixth-grade teacher and network administrator C.S. Little. “The beauty of that is, you can stop it whenever you want,” explains Little. “You can project it onto a dry erase board, and write on it.” Computerized projectors are also handy for students, who often use PowerPoint, a program that creates multimedia slide shows, to enliven the age-old in-class report. The high-tech frills might seem frivolous, but Little argues that computer literacy, for both teachers and students, is an increasingly vital skill. “It’s pretty important,” says Little. “For them to be successful in the workplace, we need to provide these tools.” As he speaks — literally — regional technology specialist Marty Willie is busily installing wireless Internet in the background. The web has revolutionized schooling, says Henderson, especially at a small school like Dufur’s. In the past, if a sophomore yearned to take psychology, for example, which Dufur School doesn’t offer, the school couldn’t spare the funds for a new instructor. Today, principal Bert Wyatt purchases online courses from COOLSchool, an Oregon-based “cyber-school” that provides electronic lessons, taught by licensed teachers, at $250 to $300 a pop. Students complete and e-mail assignments to their teachers, who evaluate them and submit grades to an adult contact. “It’s a more student-directed form of learning,” said Wyatt, “which is part of the experience.” But it’s not effective for every student, or every subject, he cautioned. One student, who opted to take American Sign Language via COOLSchool, had to submit videotapes for assessment, a process that made the student feel self-conscious and discouraged. Nonetheless, COOLSchool “allows us to have a richer curriculum,” said Wyatt. “We don’t have a child development class, for instance, and they have a more in-depth political science class than what we offer here.” The Internet has also transformed the school library. The clunky card catalogs of years past have gone extinct — or rather, gone online — and the deluge of online information has flooded out older print-based sources. “Encyclopedias are pretty much outdated,” said librarian Louise Walkowiak. “Magazines, too, are going out, because by the time we get a magazine that’s been published a week ago, they’ve looked at it online.” State testing has gone digital as well. Instead of sharpening their No. 2 pencils, students file into the computer lab, log in, and get instant results on math, science, reading and social studies assessments. At nearby The Dalles Wahtonka High School, vice principal Nick Nelson says computerized testing is “a huge change. “In the past, it was all paper and pencil and it was a real nightmare to manage it,” he said. “Now, it’s instant.” The Dalles Wahtonka, with 900-plus students, might be expected to furnish 21st-century amenities: The school recently installed a brand-new computer lab as part of a $324,000 technological upgrade plan approved by the North Wasco County School Board in June. But how does a tiny school like Dufur fund 150 computers? Student sweat, answers Henderson. Students Recycling Used Technology (StRUT,) a program also in use in The Dalles, teaches students to refurbish donated computers for use in the classroom, diverting e-waste from the landfill and honing computer-savvy students. Henderson estimates that the program saves Dufur School $50,000 every year in equipment costs. “It’s more than huge. It’s colossal,” said Little. “Technologically, we’d be behind at this point, if we’d purchased computers at market rate.” “We’re dealing with kids, not professionals, so it takes us a while,” said Don Sperry, a technology teacher at The Dalles-Wahtonka. “Our response rate isn’t real fast, but then again, neither is waiting a year for a computer.” As computer skills gain classroom time, some might worry that other subjects are feeling the pinch. But the high-speed technology coincides with an increasingly turbo-charged education, said Henderson. “We’re teaching things in kindergarten today that 10 or 15 years ago were taught in second grade,” he said, attributing the change to increased pre-school education and state requirements. “Teachers just request more of the kids — and kids respond.” The only thing that’s suffering in the 21st-century classroom, says Henderson, is penmanship. “It’s still a very important skill, but we worry that people might lose it,” he explained. “Kids are on the keyboard all the time.” Back to Top Local News Home |
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