ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 9, 1996 TAG: 9609090088
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RINER
SOURCE: LISA APPLEGATE STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Above
A rural elementary school in Montgomery County has received the first installment of a $700,000 federal grant to install computers, both in the homes and classroom of 24 fifth-graders as part of a study that could bring the small school national attention.
The grant is for a three-year project, coordinated by Riner Elementary School administrators and Virginia Tech, that will test the theory that computers improve learning - at school and at home.
Although Montgomery County teachers and administrators actively pursue technology-based education - such as distance-learning classrooms and Internet access - this is one of the largest research projects they have ever conducted in partnership with Tech.
The study will have a national impact, according to Melissa Matusevich,a county instructional coordinator.
If test scores improve and families become actively involved in learning, she said, educators will have the proof they need to continue integrating computers into the classroom.
If not, exactly how students benefit from using computers will still be in question.
Two years ago, Matusevich developed the idea with Tech computer science Professor Roger Ehrich. Because Riner Elementary had the necessary high-speed fiber-optic lines, they involved Principal Keith Rowland in designing a plan.
Final approval from the U.S. Department of Education came Tuesday, just one day before the school met with fifth-grade parents to discuss the grant. A lottery drawing determined which 24 children out of the three fifth-grade classes would switch into the class.
"It was nerve-racking," said Linda Burcham, whose daughter, Pamela, couldn't sleep until she heard that her name had been picked for the class. With a computer at home, Burcham said, her daughter already knows how to "surf" the World Wide Web.
"But I'm hoping that through this project, we'll all get better at using the computer as a tool," she said. "It's an experiment. We don't know what will happen, but it's such a great opportunity."
The curriculum is based on the same active-learning style as Montessori schools. Teachers, Ehrich explained, will act more as tour guides than as lecturers.
While they will cover the same topics as other students, pupils will be free to pursue interests on a topic, using research, writing and math skills to find answers.
"This is not going to be a free-for-all," Matusevich said. "It's going to be very thoughtfully planned. It's not the technology that's important, it's how you use it."
Fifth-grade teacher Susan Hood said where once she might have suggested using an encyclopedia, she will assign research projects using the computers as the main resource.
Pupils will write homework assignments on their home computers, and parents and children will have a computer "chat room" to hear from other families in the class.
Parents who volunteer to be in the study must agree to supervise their children if using the Internet, keep a weekly log of who uses the computer, be willing to be interviewed, agree to communicate with the school and other parents through e-mail, and of course, take care of the computer.
A research consultant assigned to the class will train each family and make home visits to work through any bugs.
If they successfully complete the three-year project, parents can keep the computer and color printer. It's "the ultimate carrot," said Rowland.
"We didn't just do this for the kids," he said. "The idea was to provide the community with the opportunity to become computer literate."
About 320 pupils attend Riner Elementary, which sits on winding, two-lane Virginia 8 as it heads out of Christiansburg toward farm land and eventually to Floyd County. With the sprouting of new housing developments on local dairy farms, the school houses a mix of farm kids and urban newcomers.
Rowland said the lottery selection provided a mix of learning levels and backgrounds - precisely what the project needed for accurate research.
The hope is that pupils, whose performance often plummets during middle school, will achieve and enjoy learning more as they move up through the grades.
"We want to determine any impact on the family, too, even on younger siblings," Matusevich said. "We'll look at things like: Do television watching habits change? Is there any effect on career movement for the parents?
"I'm even curious about, if I were one of these kids, what am I going to ask for Christmas now that I've got a computer?"
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: GRAPHIC: Chart by staff: PCs for families grant. color. KEYWORDS: MGRby CNB