Be Sure Teachers Have Computer Skills

I was talking to a woman who sells computers to schools. “We ask the school people what outcomes they’re trying to achieve,” she said. “They always say, ‘We want technology.’ We say, ‘What are you trying to do?’ We’re thinking: Do they want to improve reading? Raise math scores? They say, ‘We need technology.”’

It was a flashback to an elementary school open house. Spotting two Apple IIs, I asked the teacher how students were going to use the computers.

She explained the sign-up procedure.

I said, “But what are they going to do with the computers?”

She explained the sign-up procedure in more detail.

Finally, a father asked, “Once they sign up, what are they going to learn?”

The teacher didn’t know. She was waiting for the kindergarten teacher, who was married to a programmer, to give her some ideas.

Computers can be a learning tool. Or a waste of money and space.

Last week, the National Information Infrastructure Council called for tripling the national investment in information infrastructure in schools and libraries. The KickStart Initiative calls for networking all schools, and putting computers in every classroom.

Here’s a key sentence in the report: “Unless teachers are properly trained, the technology and connections … will not be used to their fullest potential, or worse yet, left in the corner to gather dust.”

When high-tech parents networked Palo Alto’s Jordan Middle School, they spent months talking to teachers and learning about the school before they pulled the first wire, says Brian Reid, who co-chaired the parent-staff committee. They asked: “What problems are we trying to solve? What’s the best use of the money?”

Now sixth-grade English/history teacher Paula Hundley uses computers to expand students’ research opportunities. When her class was studying archaeology, students used the Internet to find information on current digs, and pictures of artifacts the archaeologists were discovering. “You wouldn’t believe the excitement it creates when you can see the real thing,” Hundley said. “They can talk on line to an archaeologist.”

Spanish teacher Christina Sterrett has her students exchanging letters via e-mail with students in Spain.

In Leslie Goldman’s art class, students are illustrating stories sent to them from a class in the East, then sending back the finished version. Goldman also designed a web page for Jordan (http://www.jordan.palo-alto.ca.us) that will feature exemplary work by students. Instead of writing for just the teacher, students can write for the whole world.

The network has improved communications within the school, and with parents. Hundley’s homework assignments are on line every night. “Communications with the parents in my team is at an all-time high.”

The three teachers have been training their colleagues, showing them how to use the school’s technology to foster learning and communications. They learned by doing. Reid, director of Digital Equipment Corp.’s Network Systems Laboratory, hired Hundley and Sterrett to work at DEC over the summer. Goldman joined them without pay. “The magic key is getting teachers to work in industry to get up to speed both technically and culturally,” Reid says. “I didn’t want to start with math or science teachers. I wanted fuzzy studies, so it would be the most brazen experiment.”

The teachers took their computers to DEC, so they’d learn on the technology they’d be using. They started by fooling around, Hundley says. “The engineers said, ‘Here’s Netscape. Play. When you want to know something, e-mail us.”’ When the teachers asked for help, “Two or three engineers would run to our elbows and show us what to do.”

The teachers went to DEC’s weekly staff meetings. “It’s real easy to look at the tech world and think: Oh, it’s just a bunch of toys,” Hundley says. “I discovered the bottom line was helping people communicate with each other, as often and as deeply as they could. It wasn’t just wires and boxes.” The topic of conversation wasn’t profits, or what’s the Dow doing? “It was: How can we help? How can we get things done?”

Silicon Valley engineers want to help the schools, Reid says, but they don’t know how. “Lots of companies have tried donating equipment, but nobody uses it because they don’t know how. What you really need to donate is expertise, time, attention.”

Hiring teachers for the summer is an easy way for Silicon Valley companies to help schools use technology effectively, Reid says. “Training people is vastly more difficult than running wires.” But it pays off.

Hundley, Sterrett and Goldman pull in most of the Jordan staff, even for optional training sessions. It’s because they can link technology to teaching.

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