
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, August 26, 1995                   TAG: 9508280026
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN MONTGOMERY: HELLO, MR. CHIPS?

WITH COMPUTERS now in most public schools, a lot of youngsters have at least a passing acquaintance with computer literacy - more so, in many cases, than their parents. Yet, because of the expense of equipment surrounding the computer chips, their full potential as tools of teaching and learning has been barely tested, much less realized, in America's public schools.

Montgomery County wants to do something about that. County schools are seeking a federal grant to establish a demonstration middle school in which computer technology would serve not merely as an adjunct to regular classroom instruction, but as a central focus.

What's more, the proposed school would be a community center: opening its doors at nights and during student vacations to businesses, parents, teachers and others who want and need computer instruction to keep up with rapidly changing technology.

It's a good idea, and it's hard to imagine a place more primed to bring it off. Roanoke city schools, among others in the region, are making significant strides in the use of computer technology. But Montgomery County has the advantages of a computer-intensive community in Blacksburg and the technical expertise of Virginia Tech. Tech's graduate students in computer science and education would be closely involved with the instruction that would be offered at the computer-focused middle school.

Computers are only tools. They're no substitute for acquiring knowledge of history and language, literature and science, math and art. Even so, imagine the educational advantages if youngsters had not only brief encounters with computers, which usually must be shared with many other students, but ready access to worldwide information networks. They could study the history of the American Civil War while plugging into ongoing developments in Bosnia, or learn a foreign language by electronically visiting and meeting students in other nations.

As proposed, the school could also help close the techno-how gap between students with families fortunate enough to have home computers and those who don't. Laptop computers would be available for kids to take home for use at nights and on weekends on a regular basis.

The school, which would draw students from throughout the county, also might reduce some educational disparities by the mix it would bring to its classrooms. The intention is to have so-called gifted and talented students, including those with a special bent for technology, and students with learning difficulties who could benefit from the association with and help of their peers.

Such a school, heavily dependent on state-of-the art hardware and software, will cost an estimated $12 million. Montgomery County school officials, with the backing of Tech professors, local business leaders, Rep. Rick Boucher and others, are seeking $7 million from the federal Challenge Grants for Technology in Education to get the ambitious project up and running by September 1996.

There's no predicting how the grant application will fare, of course. But if Uncle Sam can't see the potential for public education, others may. Montgomery County leaders should beat the bushes for the funds to make this school a reality.

by CNB