
DATE: Tuesday, November 11, 1997            TAG: 9711110498

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY PHILIP WALZER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   91 lines

SCHOOLS HAVE TECHNOLOGY, BUT MANY IN STATE DON'T USE IT

Virginia schools are better-equipped with technology than most of America's schools, said a national report released Monday by the publication Education Week. But that doesn't mean the state's students are using it more than their peers elsewhere.

The reasons for the under-utilization, local and national educators said Monday, range from insufficient teacher training to placing computers in hard-to-get-at spots in school.

The study found, for example, that 79 percent of Virginia schools have Internet access, compared with 70 percent for the nation as a whole. Twenty-three percent of the state's schools are classified as ``high-tech schools'' vs. 18 percent nationally.

However, 57 percent of the eighth-graders surveyed, both in Virginia and the nation, said they never or hardly ever use computers in math classes. The percentage of students who use them almost daily was the same: 12 percent.

At Booker T. Washington High School in Norfolk, nearly every classroom has a computer, said Laura Christianson, a 17-year-old senior. But there, too, most teachers don't push students to use them. ``I don't know what the teachers are waiting for,'' she said, adding that they ``use it for themselves'' in making lesson plans.

Christianson is taking an elective course in computer applications to get up to speed. She said such courses should be required to give students high-tech expertise.

Lan Neugent, Virginia's acting assistant superintendent for technology, said the state's new Standards of Learning will do just that.

Schools will be required to teach students how to use technology and link it with subjects - for instance, using the Internet to find historical facts. Students will be given state exams at the end of the fifth and eighth grades to test their computer proficiency.

But Cheryl Lemke, executive director of the Milken Exchange on Education Technology, said the standards are not the total answer.

``Mandates are necessary, but I don't think it's enough,'' she said. ``You need incentives; you need good models.''

National experts offered a variety of reasons for the under-use of computers. ``It could be a teacher training issue,'' said Virginia Edwards, editor of Education Week.

Kathleen Fulton, a professor at the University of Maryland at College Park, agreed: ``Most teachers still don't have a good idea of how it's a resource in math instruction.''

Virginia is among the 26 states that require technology training for a teacher's license in both elementary and secondary grades, the study said.

But ``it's a continual process of keeping up to date,'' said Melody Copper, president of the Virginia Beach Education Association.

``Yes, we are getting the hardware into the buildings for use, but along with the hardware you have to have the training and the staff development, and that's the piece that's always slower in coming.

``Virginia Beach, specifically, is doing a great job of continually offering courses, but it's a matter of when people have time to take them.''

Paul Houston, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators in Northern Virginia, said it's also a function of where the computers are. ``For a teacher to use them, he might have to take them (students) to the lab. Or if there's one or two in back of the classroom, it's very difficult for students to have access.''

Neugent was surprised that Virginia ranked slightly above average in computer availability.

``I think we're right in the middle of the pack,'' he said. ``From my perspective, I'd like to see us be at the top of the pack.''

The study, he said, might reflect the influx of state money for computers. Gov. George F. Allen and the General Assembly approved about $100 million in 1996-98 for technology, as well as other ``infrastructure'' needs in schools. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

COMPUTERS IN THE CLASSROOM

Virginia schools generally have greater computer capabilities

than most U.S. schools.......

% of schools % of schools % of schools % of schools

with videodisc with cable with satellite with Internet

players TV access access

Virginia 71% 82% 30% 79%

U.S. 55% 74% 28% 70%

\ But Virginia students, like their peers, are not using them

much.

Eighth-grade student survey

Never/hardly ever Use them once Use them once Use them