District Finalizing Policy Before Students Go On-Line

Shadle Park junior Khoi Nguyen cruised the Internet in his advanced computer class, searching for inspiration on a New Jersey high school page and another for the Spokane Symphony.

The class, one of a few in the area that uses the Internet daily, teaches students programming for the World Wide Web, the global computer network of pictures and text.

“We can say everything in life is a phone call away,” said Nguyen. “Soon we can say everything in life is an e-mail away.”

Next month, thousands of other students will join Nguyen on-line when the Spokane School District finalizes an Internet-use policy.

When it does, the district will flip on access to e-mail and the World Wide Web in every school library and in many classrooms.

“The Net is like the Library of Congress, 10 times over,” said Don Story, Nguyen’s teacher. “Drop the four walls of the library and you can go anywhere, find anything.”

Education experts predict every classroom in the country will be on-line by 2010, although only three percent of Washington state classrooms have access now.

Like many school districts, Spokane approached the issue cautiously, debating as much about using the Internet wisely as about on-line smut and foul language.

A computer magazine recently estimated that 15 percent of on-line information is illegal for underage youths, and concerns about pornography and foul language prompted Congress to pass an Internet censorship bill.

“We could turn on the Internet in the classroom tomorrow, but we are going very slowly,” said Joe Austin, Spokane School District’s computer chief.

Other districts are taking the same approach. The Central Valley board will consider a policy by early April. Committees in Mead, West Valley, East Valley, Nine Mile Falls, Riverside and Deer Park school districts are defining what information their students can get from the Internet.

Educators are asking many questions. How can teachers tap into the dizzying amount of information on-line without getting bogged down in the worthless - and very prevalent - junk? Should courses be tailored to the Internet, or should on-line information supplement existing materials? Educators confess they have few answers.

“In the age of (German printer Johann) Gutenberg, people probably felt the same way that we feel now,” said Barbara Clark, a Gonzaga education professor who teaches a computer class. “All of a sudden, they had access to so much more information that changed the way they thought, the way they communicated. It’s pretty scary, especially since we don’t have the conventions in place to deal with it.”

For some answers, the Spokane School District turned to a handful of teachers who, like Shadle Park’s Story, use the Internet daily. The teachers will help administrators train staff this spring and summer in both technical skills and in alternative teaching methods.

“It is not as easy as taking it out of the box and putting it in the classroom,” said Austin. “It’s going to take a lot of training, a lot of collaboration. People expect you wave a wand and things start happening, but it is time consuming.”

Still, the opportunities are many.

Story’s Shadle Park students created one Internet site on rain forests for elementary schoolers. They set up another for Shadle Park alumni from the last 30 years. That site has received responses from Singapore and Germany.

The school district will screen out most known pornographic sites and limit access to newsgroups where four-letter words are common.

But the district cannot screen out all inappropriate information because thousands of new sites appear daily.

Story admitted his students have “probably gone where they shouldn’t” during class, and scolds them when he finds out. But he argued that on-line responsibility should be part of instruction.

“If they know where it is, they can go home and look,” said Story. “You teach them responsibility, and hope that it sinks in.”

Austin said teachers will have to act as techno-baby sitters in some cases, and administrators will deal with problems as the policy is implemented. He said many problems arise when students are left to cruise the Internet, so students on-line would have specific tasks and teachers would point them to specific educational sites.

“We can block access from the server, but we are putting the responsibility on staff and students,” said Austin.

Specifics of the policy - including penalties for locating on-line smut - weren’t available from the district. School board members have requested last-minute rewrites, Austin said.

Ruth Dearing, parent of a Rogers High School junior, said she is concerned about on-line smut and supports efforts to censor the Internet. But the technology is too important to keep away from her son.

“I think it would be a real shame to not have our kids use that, but it has to be carefully monitored,” said Dearing.

Willard Elementary teacher Tom Shaw said using the technology creates a whole new set of benefits and liabilities. When his students research reports on countries, they first check books in the school and city libraries, then go on-line, where information is usually five years more current, Shaw said.

When they have a question about science, they e-mail NASA scientists. “It gives the student a more genuine interest in what they are learning,” said Shaw. “Rather than say, ‘here is a book, read it’ … and then have them say, ‘I have all these questions that I can’t get answered,’ I have a person on the other end of the line who can answer them.”

But Shaw, like many Internet users, sees the potential for wasting time. His students like to “slip off” to play at Mortal Kombat or Sega sites when he is not looking.

“The appropriateness and use of this tool as an educator is something that is going to have to be addressed,” said Shaw. “The voice has to come from the community, the parental involvement has to go on.”

Story agreed, but says the district should be careful not to stifle student creativity. He is amazed at what students can do when left to work independently. One student was hired by a local computer company immediately after graduation.

“My educational premise is to put the best educational tools into their hands and get out of the way,” said Story.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: COMING MONDAY While Spokane schools look to turn on the Internet, students in rural Oakesdale are already plugged in at a level rarely seen.