Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 24, 1993 TAG: 9302240310
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN LENGTH: Medium
FUTURES TASK FORCE REPORTS THURSDAY TO SCHOOL BOARD
In Pulaski County classrooms a few years from now, a student is likely to be using electronic technology for team studies with someone from a different state - or even a different country.The teacher will not be standing in front of a class giving out uniform directions. Lots of different things will be going on at multimedia stations clustered around the classroom.
Homework will change, too. A student could well bring home assignments on a lap-top computer, a "smart notebook."
All that and more will be covered in a one-hour session Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in Pulaski County High School's Little Theatre. The Futures Task Force will report to the School Board and public on how it sees education changing in Pulaski County.
Pulaski County already is in the forefront nationally of computer instruction, thanks to its citizens approving a bond issue to equip every grade level with computers.
Thirteen months ago, the school system also named 22 business people, educators, government leaders and others to look at global trends that will affect county schools in the near future.
"I mean, there's no question that we're going to change. . . . That choice is really out of our hands," said Joy Colbert, director of research and development for county schools.
"The only question is are we going to try and manage that change?" she said. "Now, how we change - we've got some possibilities of talking about that."
All those attending Thursday night's meeting will get a booklet put together by the task force citing how globalization, the changing nature of work, technology and mega-learning each affect education, including opportunities to make it better.
A video drawn from examples of schools and communities that have started this educational restructuring process will be shown.
"Nobody has done it because it's a process. You never really arrive," Colbert said. "That's the message, that the only constant will be change."
The task force will approach this not as an educational project but a community one. Business, for instance, has a stake in all this because it will be continually re-training its work force in the coming years.
Colbert said it is necessary now to think about how to structure education "if learning is going to be a life-long process . . . and if it is also true that we are preparing people for jobs that don't even exist yet."
Big companies like General Motors and Sears are finding themselves unable to match some of their more lean and flexible competitors, she said.
"They can't change fast enough, the bureaucracy is so large," Colbert said. "Schools find themselves in that position. . . . They really have to be prepared to hold everything up to re-examination. They can't afford the luxury of saying anything is sacred."
That includes such basics as the school day and year, and the content of curriculum.
Colbert recalled a recent ABC News special on education in which it was disclosed that educational systems in 50 states all claimed statistics to prove that their students were performing above average.
"We can continue to try and make ourselves feel good or we can have a reality check," she said.
Expert teachers under the old system find themselves needing to re-tool.
"We've learned so many things about how people learn that we didn't know when I was in school," Colbert said. "We aren't telling teachers anything they don't already know."
Society is communicating in ways that did not exist five years ago. Fax machines have changed the way business is done "and yet the average teacher doesn't even have access to a telephone line," she said.
Competing systems will use computers and television technology to offer educational opportunities right in the homes of people who can afford them, Colbert said. If public schools do not fill that gap for all students, the result can only be technological haves and have-nots.
"When you engage in challenging activities and really learn, you literally change the structure of your brain," Colbert said. The process adds dendrite connectors that allow connections and patterns to be transmitted. You literally "grow brain," she said.
"If children are not engaged in challenging and stimulating activities, they won't grow brain. It's what people in physical education have known for a long time: Use it or lose it."
The task force has been studying all these factors and how they will impact education in Pulaski County. "We had so much fun with this thing," Colbert said. "It took us literally a year to shape this thing up, and now we've got plenty to say."