Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, December 9, 1993 TAG: 9312100294
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-13 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: By PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
Three years ago, county voters equipped students with computers when they passed a $2 million bond issue to put computer labs in every county school.
``The $2 million was quite a commitment for our county. Still, that's only a beginning,'' said Joy Colbert, director of research development and technology for the school system.
``People may think that, once you've made an acquisition in technology, you've done what you need to do,'' she said, but technology advances demand continuous training, upgrades and expansions.
Colbert, along with Jim Sandidge and Isabel Berney of the school system's research development and technology arm, presented their recommendations to the School Board for transforming county schools to meet the educational needs of the next century.
Ideally, they would like to see a portable computer in the hands of every teacher.
But conscious of financial realities, they submitted a scaled-down plan that calls for:
Demonstrating a computer laboratory at Northwood Elementary with computer communications throughout the school by January; buying 21 laptop computers for supervisors and leadership educators for tapping into a national communications network by February; buying one laptop for every 10 teachers by March; and buying two multimedia science and mathematics work stations for each school by October.
The Northwood Elementary project is on track. Computers from Jefferson Elementary, which closed this year, were shifted to Northwood for distribution to every room in the school.
Sandidge recalled watching someone check on a student's absence one day and get an instant computer response that the absence had been checked and the student was ill. ``Just that simple little management tool, it's opened worlds for them,'' he said.
Superintendent Bill Asbury said one of the first things that has to happen is providing teachers with computers. ``We've got a whole generation of teachers to educate and bring aboard.''
The purchase of a laptop for one in 10 teachers is not the ideal, but the best that can be done at this stage, he said.
One way to get computers to teachers more quickly might be shared ownership, Asbury said, where the school system would pay part of the cost and teachers could pay the balance over a five-year lease-purchase arrangement.
School Board member Sybil Atkinson said some teachers may already have home computers that could be used with a school system network.
But the laptops envisioned in the 1994 action plan could be plugged directly into larger school computers. Teachers could prepare entire lessons on them at home the night before a class.
``That's the tool the teacher needs, and it will change the teacher's thinking about delivery of instruction, I guarantee it,'' Sandidge said.
``I just think we're at a crossroads,'' said School Board Chairman Ron Chaffin. ``We're developing plans right now for the next generation. . . . Funding's the key, there's no doubt about it.''
Berney said the school system is already moving toward linking with high school libraries by computer.
Asbury noted that Pulaski County is one of the localities involved in Rep. Rick Boucher's project to link school systems with colleges and universities by fiber optic telephone lines for computer and communications uses.
The technology plan recommended committing 1 percent of future School Board budgets to the support of technology in the classroom, and 1 percent to improvements and license fees for its systemwide computer labs system.
``Which really is meager, again, compared to what you need,'' Colbert said, for the support of technology. ``It's the vehicle we're going to drive into the next century.''
by CNB