It’s hard to come back from vacation, especially when grammar, chemistry and math await you.
But the return to school can be easier if students have the right tools.
Paper, pens, a ruler and scissors? Necessary, but not enough.
As technology becomes more popular as an educational tool, teachers are encouraging the use of computers, the Internet and personal digital assistants to help students improve their grades.
Technical advancements include wireless campuses, notebook computers and hand-held devices–even for 5-year-olds. E-books are replacing heavy textbooks, and instant class polling can let teachers entertain students.
Consolidated High School District 230 in Orland Park believes in the power of PDAs. It bought 2,200 Palm devices last year. They complemented other hardware devices like desktops or laptops connected to the school’s wireless networks through wireless cards.
“Students use Palm computing in class. They write on them, and when they finish their work they transmit it to an infrared printer and have the work printed for the teacher,” said Darrell Walery, director of technology at District 230.
Though the district provides the devices now, in coming years parents will be responsible for buying them. “PDAs will be one of the tools students will need to take to the class just as paper and pens today,” Walery said.
In Illinois, the Clinton-Gore administration invested $458.4 million in educational technology between 1995 and 2000, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Across the country, more than $8 billion was invested.
Furthermore, 71 percent of the state’s classrooms have at least one computer with Internet access. And at 66 percent of the state’s schools, more than half of the teachers have an e-mail address.
Although data is scarce at this point to conclude that technology in the classroom improves grades, teachers say the hardware and software options allow students to build and enhance their skills.
“Using technology, we see much more involvement and excitement from kids, because they just do things they didn’t know they could do,” said Bruce Howell, a social studies teacher at Lisle Community School District 202 who has worked on online projects using Bellevue, Wash.-based Apex Learning Inc.’s virtual classrooms software.
“Technology not only helps students improve their grades, but it’s also useful to improve their self-confidence,” he said.
Walery said he is not aware of studies showing how PDAs improve students’ grades, but he believes the results would be similar to improvements found by previous surveys regarding technology. “Those studies, done after some schools said to the tech promoters, `Show us the proof,’ found that technology improved kids’ ability to read, write and solve math problems,” he said.
With technology around, kids feel they are in control and want to do more, said Denise Woloszyn, a social studies teacher at Sward Elementary School in Oak Lawn. She’s using Brisbane, Calif.-based Classroom Connect products with her 6th grade kids.
At Elgin School District 46, students use video conferencing to communicate with one another from school to school. They are wirelessly connected through Palm Pilots and global positioning system software.
“We also have three weather stations in the district schools, and we’ve set up four TV studios in each of our high schools,” said Jim Ege, instruction technology coordinator at the district.
In elementary school, technology is used as a tool for exploring the world and communicating, said Catherine Davis, a senior producer for Yahoo Education.
“They’re learning language and numbers, so books on CD-ROMs can help them interact with the story. They are not a substitute for the real experience of playing with blocks, but they’re a good complement,” she said.
On college campuses, some schools are installing wireless networks. “This enables students to move from the library to the classroom with their laptops and work on their assignments from anywhere on campus,” said Dan Costa, editor in chief of the College Buying Guide, a magazine for college-bound students.
One advantage: Professors get real-time feedback during their lectures.
“Students may type in their notebooks that they don’t understand something. The professor knows that students are not getting what he’s explaining, and he can try some other way. Students don’t even have to raise their hands,” he said.
The technological movement also includes electronic books, which have been slow to catch on with consumers. Publishers are looking for niche markets, like textbooks. “It’s starting to become popular at some universities. Professors are using them and posting links to Web sites on the reference materials,” Costa said.
But more computers do not necessarily mean a better education.
Despite large expenditures by many schools for computers, most teachers, at best, only occasionally have students use computers during class time, said Larry Cuban, author of “Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom.”
After studying several kindergartens, two ethnically diverse high schools and a university, all in California’s Silicon Valley, Cuban concluded that, even in the heartland of the new technology, classrooms run much as they did a generation ago. “They just have new expensive toys in the corner,” he said.
“From my inquiry into Silicon Valley schools, I have concluded that computers in classrooms have been oversold by promoters and policymakers and underused by teachers and students,” he said.
If someone fell asleep 25 years ago and woke up today, he would probably find it hard to recognize his workplace and his house, but his school likely would look the same, said Rem Jackson, vice president of professional development at Classroom Connect.
“But that is starting to change,” he said.
Still, schools have a long way to go before technology is as common as backpacks.
“There are kids that don’t have a computer at home, and we still have reluctant teachers. They can’t give the kids homework to be done using the Web if the kid doesn’t have a home computer,” said Elgin’s Ege. To introduce students to the benefits of technology without pushing them to buy expensive devices, some schools have entered into partnerships with corporations.
Chicago’s Hancock High School initiated such a program with Sears, Roebuck and Co. Hancock students get the chance to participate in information technology projects for Sears and design their own presentations.
“We didn’t ask for money. Sears is giving our students their expertise,” said Hancock Principal Jim Iles. After the experience, several students are planning careers in IT, he said.
The program was conceived when an executive from the Hoffman Estates-based retailer participated in a citywide program in which senior executives served as principals in public schools for a day. Sears Vice President Gael Hanauer was so impressed with the level of interest of Hancock’s students that she developed a program that would give them hands-on professional experience in corporate IT.
“The eight students who participated have learned a tremendous amount about information technology, the different functions that exist within that discipline and how they fit into a larger corporate network,” Iles said. “Sears has made a difference in the lives of these students.”
Sears is exploring ways to enhance and expand the program into more schools.
