|
NIE Exit Interview Questions
Personal
- Do you have the access you need to the Internet?
- Yes, we have good access to the Internet, we have a direct connection
- I do.
- Yes, I do.
- Yes, I do.
- Yes, the Central Office staff have provided ISDN lines.
- Yes, I do have good access in my office. I wouldn't balk if someone
were to put in a t1 line.
- Have one professionally but not a computer at home.
- yes
- Well, yes and no. One access that I dohave to the Internet is having
e-mail-I use that professionally 3 to 5 times a week.Quick and ready communication
with other teachers and colleagues. I am modem connected and would like
to have speedier access with the WWW because I try to use it as frequently
as possible with research with the students I'm working with.
- I have the computer system that has been refurbished.
- How do you use the Internet?
- Almost exclusively for email. Also to download programs (Texas Instruments
CDL calculator based laboratory). Also for a project with Stuart Laughton
- on-line discussion for students (a peer review system)
- I use it a lot. The class uses it every morning for their assignments
-- for example, they've been using for an 'animal unit' ... and they really
like the sports figures and things like that. They use Yhooligans as their
search engine.
-
- e-mail
- reference material
- download lesson plans
- upload lesson plans
- surf
- professional development through a couple of new Listservs; work
something out with Electronic Consulting for professional development.
- For me personally, I use the Internet with my job this ear to locate
sites, help teachers when they need aditional sites. I use it to find
information for myself, to correspond with and to publish on the web.
- Working in HTML, authoring homepages for the Montgomery County Public
Schools.
- I make extensive use of the Internet.
- At home, not that much different than what I do at school. Obviously
e-mail. My freshman son has used it a lot this year for reports. My husband
is a pharmacist - he has gotten info about drugs. Also looked for a network
of free clincs out there - so he used it for his business. I haven't used
e-mail before this year and I communicate a lot all over the state with
English teachers.
- Information for students.
- I cannot be disassociated from professionally. I'm using it professionally
which is also personal because that is part of my living, breathing life.
I use it for research. I will on my own time find research about the Bubonic
Plague and print it out. It is difficult because of time to have kids
do a lot of surfing themselves. It was too frustrating and teachers are
immediately discouraged by this. I have one student involved in a science
project and subscribed to a scientific listserv about dolphins and international
concerns about dolphins. I use it for e-mail. Time allowing, I would use
it to communicate with my supervisor about meetings, about concerns at
my school, about resources, what not...my colleagues, other resource teachers
and coordinators, students. I have a class account on Virginia Pen so
students are receiving information from experts from around the world.
It's been amazingly beneficial.
- The bulk of the time I've used the mail option. I use it with my students
together.
- How has your Internet use changed since August 1994?
- Prior to 1994, only used AOL for e-mail access.Now I use it to look
up programs and try to find stuff to download for my students
- I wasn't hooked up until fall of that year, it definitely increased
it a whole lot, just tremendously. It seems such a natural thing now ...
just go to the Internet and find the information you need.
-
- before 1994 I only used e-mail and newsgroups
- I use the Web now and have had kids post pages on the Web
- before 1994, ftp took too long now the point and click download
ability has been a big change.
- I have a new job! That has changed tremendously. Prior to that, I didn't
have any Internet access. Prior to Auburn having access, we had none.
I was unfamiliar so it has changed by leaps and bounds
- Tremendously, before Va Tech most of the use was through VaPEN which
is purely text-based and has some real limitations. PPEN is still used
by teachers and staff in the system.
- I use PEN for email but I seek resources on the Internet.
- It's changed trememdously. My students just completed social issue magazines,
one group was studying the death penalty. They hooked up with someone
on death row thru the Internet and wrote to him. They got all this information
from and it made it so personal for them. They had questions he wouldn't
answer, but it was neat. We use it almost all the time.
- My students do an English/Science project which is an all year long
project. One requirement - personal interview with someone with expertise
in the area being studied. This year, we allowed them to have e-mail interviews,
and built up an amaging network of contacts with people.
- Before my use was exlusively Virginia Pen. We had a couple of projects
where we would sponsor a project or two for other school children. We
talked about information about islands, famous eople kinds of games.
With BEV having the availability of the WWW, it has opened up the world
for the students and some of the teachers. It has personalized learning.
It has made social studies, science, you name it, more personalized and
real world for me and the students. It gets us in touch with primary resources.
For example there were students studying a novel called Julie of the Wolves
by Jean Craighead. The students wanted to learn more about the Inuit people
and we did a search on Inuit people. We found a man who manages web pages
in the artic region. He communicated, we looked at his articles, art,
folktales, story telling and poetry. He wrote this group and told them
things like "Don't use the word Eskimo.. it's derogatory." Personal
kinds
of things gave them invaluable resources and made their learning so meaningful.
They used his information and published with Hyperstudio for sharing with
their class and teaching other kids.
- What effect has computer networking had on your professional development
since August 1994?
- Harder to measure. I feel more comfortable looking for things on the
net -- I'm more comfortable just getting out there and looking for it.
... It's given me more of a reason to just really seek out the best options
for things that I'm looking for.
- I've been able to access different libraries and articles. I use newsgroups
quite a bit -- if there is a workshop available or start my own programs
and offer them to teachers. I did write a home page, but I never put it
on the Internet -- I just didn't think my page was quite ready for that.
-
- not much (contradicts question 2)
- now electronic instead of going to journals at Tech and looking
things up
- Well, it developed into a new job, one I really enjoy because I enjy
computer work. I enjoy working with teachers whose lesson plans come alive
because of the computer work.
- Web authoring was one thing, but I was initmiately involved in the development
of VaPEN and running the Radford node. I have gotten involved in a lot
of professional development activities, which is certainly growth that
I would not have been involved in earlier.
- (no response)
- Its much more convenient now. With VaPEN, it was really hard to do and
it was so primitive to us. Both H and I are on the State English course,
so we communicate a lot over the state with English teachers. We're involved
with conferences and things like that.
- making homepages for us. Dr. Simonetti in the Physics Department liked
the questions our kids had asked so he made a FAQ homepage of kids questions.
He created the resource so someone else could use this, so it was a year
long project. Stewart Lotman was our mento last year so we started our
homepages for BMS last spring. It takes an enormous amount of time and
we just don't have the time. It was good learning proccess for us. We
knew nothering about the Internet and certainly didn't understand what
a homepage was or What web pages were. It took us a really long time to
understand HTML. We think that is what's happening with our students.
You teach it in little dribbles and drabbles and so it takes a long time.
And they get so confused and baffled initially and we know how to deal
with it because we have been there.
- Very much. I've grown professionally during this time. By having that
tool available (it's been frustrating because of hardware problems) the
potential is so wonderful. It lures me back even though I have 15 minutes
with these kids and we can't spend 10 or 15 minutes trying to get online.But
it has been so rewarding, when kids are researching on the web, the thrill
of the learning that's going on, to find all this wonderful information
about magnetic levitation trains with a group who were fascinated about
future travel.
- Have you had the technical support you needed to keep your computing facilities
functional?
- Yes, I have. I have had some problems, but my county has always been
there to take care of it.
- Yes. That's been very good. This last year it was more closely monitored,
when VA Tech came out and when we had a camera (CU-SeeMe) connection.
And you know -- without the support, I wouldn't have been able to set
the camera up - I just don't know how.
- Yes
- Ahh, that's a tough one. For the most part, for the majority of the
time. There have been times when it hasn'tbeen as fast as I would want.
Being unfamiliar with some aspect of the equipment, trying to fumble through,
trhing to figure out on your own, that takes time. So at times it has
been frustrating, but for the majority of the time, yes it's been there.
- I am able to pull a lot of technical support off the web. We have added
to our staff who have been able to assist us in providing technical support.
- We have good support here. People are always available to provide help
when I need it.
- We have 2 computers down at the moment. We received our computers 5
years ago, more like 7 years ago and they are used all day long, every
peoiod. The hard drives crash. They start to wear out.. It's slow, Our
service department is overwhelmed. We are adding more and more technology,
but don't have the personnel to keep up with it. There's a little technology
money trickling down from the state. We have a lot but is is not because
the county just came in and gave it to us. We had to figure out a way
to get it.
- I would say not. I would say everything I have learned I had to learn
on my own. Or I sought advice. I would come over to the New Media Lab
in the library and get wonderful help from students working in that lab.
The second year I had a young man who is a technician and wants to be
a school teacher. He saw my home pages on the web and he contacted me.
He spent 8 weeks at the end of the year which has been great.
- Have you had the training you need?
- Yes and no. I know what I need to know but I had to get there on my
own. ... It would have been nice to have more training about how things
like fileboxes work, Fetch and HTML. ... I'm just now at a point where
I'm ready to do some authoring. But with more training, I think I could
have been there a year ago
- Well, not really for the camera part, but for the Internet, yes. It's
been very good.
- I think I have.
- Well, I have had training. There are probably areas that would have
been more helpful. I've learned from my peers, colleagues and my contacts.
There is always room for more training.
- The efforts of the Tech faculty have been extremely useful to us. Usually,
if I have a question or problem I can find someone at Tech who can help
me.
- Yes, I think so. We had training on how to create web pages. We had
a session at the Auburn Lab where administrators got to explore the web.
There is an informal network where we exchange ideas and URLs.
- We could always yse more help but Stewart was wonderful!
- Steward logged a lot of time with us. We didn't have any training other
than Stewart. We already signed for a class this summer at Radford U.
- I have had training, but not enough follow-up. For example, HTML writing,
I have learned to go over to Virginia Tech and have students help me.
I requested that once a month have a day inservice in a T1 lab where we
could really be working on our homepages. There are 2 wonderful technical
support people now. They're there to put out fires and come help if something
crashes.
- How have you learned about your computer and networking?
- Mostly digging on my own and talking to other people. My students will
give me ideas and come to me and say, "You've got to go look at this
web page, it's really neat, it's got some great physics stuff."
I would be interested in more formal types of training. I don't know how
to use my computer to listen to a sound on the Internet, or to see video.
I don't really know what types of media can be presented on the Internet.
If I wanted to offer something, it would be plain text with some images.
I know there is more you can do, I just don't know how.
- At VA Tech, we had several sessions of getting started and Larry Arrington
offered a lot of classes and Susan Lester has been helpful to me. Just
about, you know, I could send a message to somebody and they would come
and see what's happening or what's wrong.
-
- a lot on my own
- sought help via e-mail or calling someone: county technician, graduate
assistant at Tech, technology coordinators from county
- A lot on my own. That's how I am here I am today because of my interest
in jumping in and learning on my own.
- question omitted from interview.
- no response
- Anything else we have done withot Stewart has been on our own. You have
to find time, create time. It takes a lot of time.
- I've learned by trial and error. Sticking to it because I just love
it and I see it's enormous potential for education. I love having quick
access to information. I'm always wanting more information about myriad's
of topics.
Classroom
- What is the status of Internet access for your class? For your school?
- I have a PowerMac 6900 and it's plenty quick. It is very sufficient
and reliable for us. Students have their primary access through the computers
in the library. They use 5 or 6 Windows machines, mostly 386's and 486's.
- Students can access and enter my Mac quite easily and I do have an IBM
compatible. It's a little harder to access the IBM, it doesn't connect
as well as the Mac -- they can connect to the Mac in a flash.
The school has a T-1 line because of the grant through VA Tech. I think
there is a computer in every classroom and maybe three in a lab that we
have.
-
- any day students are in my room, they have access-T1 line to classroom
- if it can be arranged, we go across the hall to the library
- status: very good
- not all teachers have a T1 connection, but they're working on it.
- most teachers have an Apple 2e or 2gs, Macintosh or IBM. All teachers
have access to the laboratory and to the library. There are T1 connections
there.
- For our school-trememdous. We started with 2 computers accessible to
the Internet. Then gradually added computers. When I was in the business
lab we added 10 computers and I thought it was the most wonderful thing
to have 12 computers. The library was added and has grown by leaps and
bounds since then.
- 4 t1 llines which feed 5 schools
5 out of 20 schools are running at t1 speed.
Our goal is to have all our secondary schools running Frame Relay. Our
goal is to have a WAN all connected to the Internet and to each other.
- (no response)
- Well at the moment I have 5 LCs in my room, on the Internet. I am having
trouble with four of them and one is down. I think its memory, I can't
get in.
- I have three computers but one is crashed. It might take a couple of
days to a couple of weeks to have someone come. Sometimes they fix it
when they come, sometimes they just go away.
- Very poor. The wiring is promised to us this summer or by next December
is the dream. There will be a fiber-optic line in the 2 schools where
I have worked the last two years. And then an ISDN line hook-up which
will be much better than phone. None of the teachers have any computer
stronger than a Mac LC and more of them have IIGS's so you see the limitations.
Teachers don't use the internet in the classroom. Maybe 10% of all the
teachers that I work with at those 2 schools. 10% would use at most Virginia
Pen minimally.One teacher had students writing to their parents that had
e-mail.
- How do you use the Internet in your classroom?
- I had students use the 'peer review system' previously mentioned. ...
The kind of software that I'm using is not necessarily Internet stuff.
But just looking at computers, you collect your data and immediately enter
it into computers, you make your graphs and you analyze your data. The
Texas Instruments program I was talking about actually will update the
data directly into the computer. ... To do this I would prefer to have
12 computers in my room, 2 kids per computer.
- It depends on their assignment. They generally use it to find information
-- students had to find: different states to write about, types of animals,
information on oceans.
-
- research for background information/ideas
- build html documents and solicit feedback<
- use it as a presentation tool with the html documents-publication
of student work
- inspires student creativity and teaches then a skill they can use
later.
- I used the Internet last year for lesson plans. Students, for career
development, had tosearch and 5 different colleges, describe admission
requirements, cost, how to apply and when to apply. It was an awakening
experience to find there are some colleges that require applications 2
years in advancd. It was very useful and I liked the reactions from the
students.
-
- communicating with other schools and experts. (Also Teach to Teacher
communication to build leson plans.)
- Research involved in their classes
- Group publishing - students posting their work for peer review.
- (no response)
- Even 45 minutes sometimes isn't enough. No more than 5-10% of our students
have access at home.
- It's tricky with just 5 computers. We have a project day one day a week
and we found kids have to take time to wait their turn. You have to help
kids with fine tuning what they put in so they don't have a topic that
is too broad. Its so frustrating. Some of them will go to the library
and do it.We have more and more with acess at home. It's a small percentage
of our overall student population
- Teachers were happy for me to use it with groups of students. We would
post notices on bulletin boards for example for research..health care
in medieval times and social historians would write that to the kids on
Virginia Pen. I use the computer for multimedia purposes, too. Gathering
information from CD ROMS or laser disks and writing Hyperstudio stacks
- Has the Internet changed your teaching style? How?
- I wouldn't say it's changed my style ... it has just given me new ideas.
Things that I would have never thought to try and opening my mind to things.
... I'm not a lecture person, so I fit pretty well with it.
- Yes, I think so. It has put more information at my fingertips and I
have faster access to this information. For example, we did a big unit
on the Olympics. We posted greetings from around the world on the Olympics
and different athletes ... which was pretty exciting for students.
-
- NO. Already did desktop publishing and hypercard stack development
- more demanding than HTML
- Internet has opened up another window of access information. Hasn't
changed me.
- It changed it trememdously, it moved me right out of that classroom
to a technology position. So it definitely changed my teaching style and
even when I was in the classroom last year, yes it did change. (How did
it change) More student oriented and less teacher. Even though being in
a vocational area, business, where you deal with a skill anyway, so I
wasn't a lecture type teacher, but this put it more with the students.
- We have in the past pretty much taught as we were taught. The technology
equipment and access to the Internet is the Key to change for many of
our teachers.
- I have used the network to send out on-lone projects to G&T students.
One project was "Who in the world" and another "Where in
the World" to teach some geography.
- No. I haven't used a textbook in 10 years teaching English. I was doing
these things with traditional research methods. We are already there with
our teaching style.
- I think we were already free from textbooks. It is one more way to get
information. I do think it makes interaction with another person easier
than having to pick up the phone. There have been some pluses but in terms
of our approach to how we teach and how we think kids learn best, I don't
think its been dramatic.
- I don't think it has influenced the teachers I work with. I think they
would be interested in having their teaching style influenced by the world
Wide Web, that is yet to come.I'll sit with students talking about Dolphins
and go to Sea World. I would have 2 if not 3 times a week where I would
try to get online and couldn't dial in, no response, or get in there and
it would crash.
- I'm not sure it has changed my teaching style that much. I've always
seen myself as a teacher who was a resource. I was a guide that that could
direct the kids more than some teachers. I see the Internet as another
way to interest kids in reading and writing. It's just another tool for
me.
- Has Internet access affected what you teach in your classroom?
- Yes. I would have never done the peer review project had we not had
the Internet. In this project students wrote up the pros and cons, the
supporting and unsupportive sides of an issue. ... Each small group then
posted a few web pages so there are 60 issues available from a table of
contents. I would never have taken the time to do this without using the
Internet.
- That's kind of hard. I try to follow the SOLs from the state. ... I
guess the Internet can help me see something and I can go deeper than
I used to.
- biggest influence is to have students as producers of things that go
on the Internet.
- [my class] is a bit more contemporary because more timely resources
available on the net
- Because even with the skills, we could apply our skills with using the
Internet. So, it did make a difference.
- No.
- It is just an added plus, an added tool, making access easier for children
- It has affected what I teach. When I had 8 weeks with the Tech technician
I wanted an independent project with these high ability kids. We spent
some time brainstorming and they identified future travel. That is a topic
I would not have dealt with but I was thrilled. They studied future roads
and interviewed someone on the phone about the smart road.
- I don't think it has changed my curriculum. I've had to insert certain
vocabulary . I had to teach them simple things like what if you loose
a window, how to load software, how to find the programs.
- What effect has computer networking had on your students?
- I don't know. They're more computer literate and more comfortable with
computers. ... Students are more comfortable with complex tasks on a computer.
It used to be you had to show them every step, open a file, do this, do
that, and now you can just give them general directions. They seem less
intimidated by the technology.
- They really like it. They feel at ease with the whole thing. It's made
them much more aware of the whole world.
- good and bad:
Good: many will see it as a useful tool, will take time to track things
down or will see it as a useful way of presenting their information
Bad: 1. a disappointing number of students haven't developed good search
strategies; we must work on that; they spend more time than they should
2. if students can't find something, they don't realize the information
is there yet and they need to turn back to traditional resources; must
avoid mentality that the only useful thinking is on the Internet.
- It has opened up the world for the students. Make them realize the opportunities
and information out there. They're not living in a little shell here at
Auburn H.S.
- Provided them a connection to the outside world, which is vital in our
rural areas. We want to see it integrated into every thing that happens
in the classroom.
- It gives G&T students real on-line mentors, communicating on-line,
had an impact on research skill. This gives them the kind of resources
they need.
- Now, that's different. They love to get on the Internet. Very motivating.
We have found that computer access has been a motivator to kids that don't
have as much or the kids struggle because it is not the easiest thing
for them.
- Not at school, but at home. They have computers with America Online,
BEV net, CD ROMs. They are way ahead of the schools. Of a group of 10
students as many as 7 or 8 had a computer at home. Three others had it
in their moms and dads office and they could get to it. They could go
there and were motivated now because of the work we were doing. Some of
the kids did use it in the public library.
- I can't help but think we're helping them for their future careers.
It gives them a sense that this something they are going to be able to
do and they have no fear of it. We went to Tech to the English class that
we're kind of partners with and taught them about the Internet because
part of her class was in the lab. We taught them how to use e-mail Netscape.
- Have you made use of the Busch educational pages on the WWW or the materials
from Scholastic?
- Not at all. They gave us an AOL account which I opened but never use.
Their material has such as strong elementary orientation to it -- it's
not that usable at the high school level -- it doesn't seem to fit.
I haven't seen the Physics materials they have developed. On-line presentations
may have some potential. ... But I would be very skeptical because students
can see through the fluff. If it's lacking in content or presented in
a way that's 'gamey' (like follow the steps to the end), then they can't
jump around and search and discover on their own and they wouldn't like
it. If it is presented in a way that's informative and does not leave
out the details, because kids want the details, then they will go for
it.
- Yes, I have. We used the Busch Garden things for most of the ocean unite
we just finished. The Scholastic, is that the network you're talking about?
(interviewer - I think it's America On-line). Okay, I haven't used it
much this year - I did last year. I'm not on America On-line as far as
I know.
- Never got access to the Scholastic materials - we needed America online
-never got that working
from time to time, students doing research on Zoology will use some of
the Busch information
Busch information is a really good database for certain kinds of information
I was going to use the Busch database as a model for my students to build
a database.
- Not as much as I probably could have. I find that most of their material
is more science oriented. Maybe that I lack understanding of what I could
have done with, from a vocational stand point.
- We are members of Scholastic and I didn't use it much this year. We
had a hard time logging on, and last years the authors that were online
were tremendous. My students have been published, I've had publishers
from New Yoourk calling them at home, discussing their stories with them
to be published on the Internet.
- Oh yes. Scholastic accounts were things that were supposed to happen
but I never got any results. It never was activated.
- The Scholastic account never worked out.We tried to access it, we were
still of the modem and the passwords didn't work and it was just a mess.
I did go to the Busch pages. At first there wasn't a lot there to be used,
but we did use them a few times. The pages didn't relate very much to
the curriculum that second grade uses.
- Do you see Internet access as a resource for incorporating the new SOLs
into the curriculum?
- Yes. I think it is almost required. ... Since they specially mention
we need to "incorporate technology" into the science area. My
interpretation is they have to comfortable with computers. One way to
require them to type on a computer, ... but I can also create assignments
that force them to use the Internet. ...When we ask past graduates, "What
could we have done more for you?", they always talk about computers.
They feel like they need to be more comfortable with them and need to
know how to program them. ... I don't think bringing technology into the
classroom means using cute little fancy electronic boxes in the physics
lab that do funny things, that's not technology, that's just cute little
fancy boxes. Computers are technology.
- Yes, very much so. No problem with doing that.
- no, it's just a tool like a good textbook, good laboratory manual or
woodstock print library
- Oh, most definitely.Teachers need to look at the new SOLs and realize
the opportunities there and not realize that it's not another burden but
it's there as a help.
- Teachers are struggling to put together new academic units and there
is a great deal of academic material on the web written by people asssociated
with universities. Teachers are going to be stressing that students should
be self-directed in their learning.
- We have done it in the area of social studies and math. Used the net
to link with students in Los Almos in a map project.This summer a group
of Gifted and Talented are getting together to develop SOLs that would
be appropriate for high ability students.
- Of course. How could it not be, With the quickness of the Internet,
I see it as essential to learning in general. The graphics are motivating
factors involved.
- Definitely. With the new SOLs have a whole thread of technology and
I think the WEB is going to be the place we're going to e able to find
information. I've been searching and there is very little at the 2nd grade
level. I am thinking about all the SOLs not just the technology ones.There
are some art resources that will be helpful.
- Are there emerging technologies that you think will be important to you
in the next few years, such as digital libraries or collaborative applications?
- Well, the collaborative program being done by Jack Carroll. I think
collaboration is definitely a big area. ... Kids need to have access to
peers, to mentors, and it used to be in order to have a mentorship program,
you had to be near a university. Now through collaborative programs on
the Internet, anybody can do it. That's the biggest thing to a science
student - they have to be able to do research or to be able to work collaboratively
to do research and the Internet is the way to go.
- I'd like to use the 'camera situation' a lot more that I have been able
to this year. This morning we had a civil war speaker -- we put together
a little speech ourselves with the teachers. If we could have someone
from a university or somebody that had some things to show us. And I don't
know a lot about the scanners and things like that. I would like to be
able to scan in some of the math designs we've made to let other people
see them.
- the emerging technology would be the computer interfaced laboratory
and field studies.
- I'd say there's a whole lot that's going to be important. I think collective
learning will be a very important aspect. The project emerging already
be classes here, classes in other countries, classes in other states.
- We would love to have digital libraries, and systems where students
can work on one project from several sites would be great. In the future,
we see students carrying something to class with them. We will probably
have wireless capabilities to plug them into the technology of the network.
- Digital images is what I am working on now. We are taking pictures of
all the art teachers and their art work. We are storing those digital
images to use in presentations about our use of technology.
- I would love to have collaborative writing with another school somewhere
else in the country. Technology is growing so fast we can't keep up with
it.
I wouldn't mind laptops for every child...just for word processing.
- Collaboration. There is a gap between how researchers practice with
what we practice in terms of where each group is coming from. It's been
a revelation to some that middle school kids are really, really different
from high school seniors the way the class is run.
People are always asking us what is the best way to do this? A computer
lab? In the classroom. I'd rather have them in the classroom, in a remote
location so I have flexibility. I don't think you need one computer for
each kid.
- Not really. I'd love to have collaborative technologies or collaborative
applications. I'd love that because Iinstinctively I know kids will love
it. I had students who studied a novel unit about Futile Japan and we
working on that when the earthquake hit in Kobe Japan. These kids got
on the internet and got an address of somebody and wrote to the person.
He wrote back and gave them information about the earthquake data. The
kids knew the number of deaths (and it was changing all the time) before
the newspaper did.And they ended up organizing a school project art project.
He said to send up children's art work because it's a universal language.
And we will distribute to these refugee kids just to cheer them up.
- Yes, I do think so. But even digitized cameras are going to be a real
boon for us. The last yearbook was totally camera ready. No film to buy,
processing time. We did it all on the computer. We scanned the children's
art work. We were totally satisfied.
- Have you observed any other effects of networking on school programs or
policies, such as gifted, inclusion, or curriculum reform? Could you elaborate?
- Only with the gifted students. In some of the advanced classes, there
have been assignments that are 'doable' on the Internet. ... In the social
studies class students were asked to find out about the Executive Branch
of the government. The best way to do this is through the Internet because
there is so much of that kind of stuff on the Internet. I think students
can use the Internet to cross some barriers, some cultural barriers. ...
Using a computer is something anybody just needs to do and those kids
who don't have them at home -- it's their only shot at school. You can
take some people who don't have them at home and you can lift them to
another cultural level. Maybe once they see they can be successful with
something as complicated as a computer, it might encourage them to go
further -- as go to college or go into trade school rather than just getting
a job.
- We get students started by kind of forcing the child to complete a certain
little task on the computer. ... I would like to see more availability
of computers, say -- a lab at school that someone could come to after
hours if they had research to do -- the Internet is such a fantastic tool
to do research with, it's so easy.
- I've not seen a whole in the sense of curriculum reform. If you consider
Standards of Learning as curriculum there is an inserted SOL for the middle
school and it's a technology SOL. So teachers could ignore technology
but now it's explicable stuff so I think that's an impact.
Is special ed inclusion? I don't see a big impact, it's not jumping out.
As special ed kids, they use web browsers, use the net search , word processors
and desk top publishing in the framework of what they are capable of doing.
We had an adaptive keyboard, an adaptive problem and an adaptive word
processor they were using with some students.
With gifted kids it's certainly a tool to expand their capabilities or
possibilities of where they get information, and present their understanding
of it. The most successful kids as far as hypermedia production are the
gifted. That class of students has been most productive so I don't know
if it had anything to do with their ability or technology, it's probably
a combination.
- Well curriculum reform, most definitely, because the U.S. goals reflect
the technology and certain aspects that have to be a career.
With our gifted program, those people probably use the Internet more.
They publish student work which should be used for everybody, not just
the gifted. I find our gifted resource people like to do the html writing,
actually do student home pages. So it (Internet use) is increasing along
those avenues, increasing with everybody.
- Probably too soon into the project to get a good answer to that. Changes
in school systems don't happen quickly.
- Our summer school classes, enrichment classes, have been spin offs of
networking. Sessions on creating Web pages have drawn applications from
over 60 students. Parents are amazed we are shipping kids off to Auburn
for clases this summmer. It has been good - some of our parents did'nt
know where Auburn was.
- One of my first experiences was with Scholastic and the Internet. I
got it for a year, free. The first student who put her writing, folk-tales,
was one in the bottom quartile. I have a hard time with just a select
few getting to use it.
- If you have limited resources, books to computers, what I see sometimes
the gifted kids are given access to these resources. While they certainly
deserve them, we put students in groups to work on projects and everyone
benefits.
- I have such high hopes for this with the gifted program. I encouraged
this to be used with Special Ed. teachers also. Technology in general
because it would be such high motivation for them with their students
and their learning. It didn't work. I sympathize with their reasons..feeling
overworked, they're plates too full, I can't take this on.
- I would say the biggest impact that I've seen is it opens up our communication
lines better for those that have access. I kknow that our resource people
who are online easier, I e-mail them and they get back to me right away.
I had half my class this year and last year accessible through e-mail.
I mailed them at home or work.
- Have you observed any effects of disparity among your students related to
their access to computing and networking?
- I don't think I observed it but it's just a feeling I have that there
has to be a difference. ... I think students can use the Internet to cross
some barriers, some cultural barriers. ... Using a computer is something
anybody just needs to do and those kids who don't have them at home --
it's their only shot at school. You can take some people who don't have
them at home and you can lift them to another cultural level. Maybe once
they see they can be successful with something as complicated as a computer,
it might encourage them to go further -- as go to college or go into trade
school rather than just getting a job.
- I think as you go on, that could get lighter and lighter. This particular
group of students are mostly gifted, so most of them are on the same plane.
But there are a few that are lost because they just don't use a computer
that much.
- Not at school. You can generally tell students who have access at home
because they are much more comfortable with it. If there is a long term
product they can work at home. There are some students who are involved
with the facilities and then tell me "we've got a computer at home
now, we have BEVnet or SWVnet or NRVnet or something. There are parents
who recognize it as a valuable tool and resources to make those kinds
of investments. As far as access out of school - it could impact on the
comfort level that sudents have. So that's where they impact how efficiently
they use them in school.
- No. All students have the same aspects of being able to access the Internet.
It doesn't make any difference whether you are gifted or an average student,
you still have the access.
- You bettcha. We have a real disparity right now. We know we haven't
covered certain schools and they are way behind. Technology is expensive,
we are committted but there hasn't been and money the last couple of years.
There is disparity created by the kinds of home our students come from.
Those who live in Blacksburg tend to have more access in the home than
other parts of the county.
- There is disparity between the schools because of access. Tried to bridge
the gap with high powered laptops for G& T teachers who are traveling
to schools without hardware and network access.
- When a student has a computer at home, word processing can be done there.
That makes time open for the ones that don't have it at all.
- Absolutely. The kids who have computers at home for word processing,
the kids who have access to internet and e-mail are definitely in a better
place than the kids who don't.
Students can go to the Media Center in the Tech library and many of them
can work on their parent's computers after work. But you have to have
parents who will take the child to the library. Some kids have to ride
the school bus because of their parents work schedule. A lot of our lower
performers have to ride the school bus.
We have had a little bit more, beginning to get this e-mail communication
with parents who want to hear about their kids.
- It discourages the use of it(Internet). It's not a high, it's not motivational
if you don't have ready access to computers. There is disparity among
the schools.
The kids who hat it at home or in parents office were motivated.The student
who published the most on the web had it at home.
- Yes I have. With one computer and the fact that I am having to teach
somewhere else the kids who have one at home are the most comfortable.
The ones who don't have one at home ask questions, how do I get on, where
do do this now, how dod I do that. The others just go and do. Here's a
new piece of software, try it out and tell me about it when you're done..
Sociological:
- Has networking had any effect on your relationships with the families of
your students?
- Oh, absolutely. I have often exchanged email with parents rather than
phone calls, its so much easier, so much more casual, it's guaranteed
to work. Because it's so hard to get in touch with parents at a time that
is convenient to both of us.
- I can't really say that, I don't know.
- No. None whatsoever. I don't believe we have enough people with access
out there. There's not an infrastructure set up, no resource facility.
We do have the Montgomery County Public School web page, but I understand
the big scheme is to try to have a kind of cascade tree effect where more
people have more access often by the Internet.
- I haven't observed that in the past as much I think it will. Last year
it was such a new thing for a community and then a lot of the parents
still understand and we got acceptable use policy. Parents signed, but
they really didn't understand what they were signing.
- Yes, parents are pleased with access being provided. Great successwith
offering free night time sessions on how to use the Internet. Hope to
move to having open lab nights where parents can come to use whatever
technology they want.
- Yes, I get a low of email from parents of G&T students. Parents
are accessing our homepages. At meetings I have a handout on testing and
eligibility for the G&T program, but many prefer to download it from
our homepage.
- My syllabus has my name, home phone number and e-mail address. I prefer
to sit down and get a note from a parent, saying how's so and so doing.
It takes 2 seconds to write back and then they feel better. I have one
that Ilve communicated with all year long.
- It seems people are a little more efficient with their use of words
when they are e-mailing each other. People don't worry about punctuation
and grammer. It is better than the telephone when you can ramble on and
before you know it you've spent 30 minutes on the phone. On the phone
we seem to say the same things over and over again.
- On the families, I don't communicate with families through e-mail. Other
teachers (the exception had her kids writing their parents) don't use
email to communicate with families.
- At least 50% of my class this year and last were online. I just made
a class nickname and when I found things on the Wev I thought would be
of interest to them I would send it out to the class. I write pretty regularly.
And the kids write back to me. So we were able to communicate even when
we are not in school. I had two students where there were some behavior
problem and once the kids figured out that I had that kind of access to
their parents.We just snuffed that out. The parents knew before their
kids went home. What the problem was and in fact we even put the kid on
to write. Tell mom what happened. The parents wrote right back and took
care of it. We never had to leave class. Never had a big production.
- Has networking affected your relationships with your colleagues locally
or elsewhere?
- Probably not. I use email mostly for friends and family.
- Probably had a positive influence there. For example, people saying
'how can you do this, how can you do that?', 'did you see that on the
web?'.
- Yeah, definitely. Much more communicative talk with other teachers from
Australia, Washington State, California, West Virginia, down the hall.
We'll find something on the net and bounce it to somebody else. Once again
that's mainly e-mail or newsgroups.
There are excellent web sites that have a lot of lesson plans and resources
built by teachers for teachers.
- Colleagues are becoming more used to using the internet, wanting to
use the Internet and are actually a little more open about asking for
help. At some poine in time we learned that if we ask for help that we
weren't a good teacher or instructor. That is not the case with networking
and the Internet. We ask for help now.
- Email is used to communicate with teachers throughout the district.
The network is also useful in seeking answers to technology problems,
and suggestions from coleagues on meeting the new SOLs. Every School board
member has a computer and email access.
- We bounce things back in forth. Not many principals are on line as I
would like. Only about 50%. I have emailed school board members.
- Elsewhere. I talk to people all over.
- Absolutely. I am constantly checking email from my colleagues and sending
them information I am constantly getting information from the gifted listserv.
I've gotten wonderful references of curriculum to use, books, whatnot
from people all over the country.
- In a way, the colleagues that are in this with me, we've become closer.
But the colleagues that have not had access have had some animosity. I
got the grant and I got the second computer and it'slike nobody should
have two houses until everybody has one.
I have a close relationship with a 2nd grade teacher in Australia. We
communicate daily professional and personal things.
After a presentation at VSTE, several teachers have e-mailed us and asked
for advice.What a neat feeling for us to have that they see us as kind
of their mentors in this area.
- Do you think that networking has had any effect on public support for education
in Montgomery County or on community involvement? Has it had any effect on
the political processes in the county?
- I don't know. I don't know how I would measure that. I know that of
all the things we do -- that's one those things that would hopefully be
most likely to be noticed. ... If I could do a project that would put
information on the net produced by students -- I think that would be noticed
a lot more. I think the potential is there for parents to be able to click
on Blacksburg High School and really feel they know what's going on there.
There isn't enough now about BHS that would draw them in. As a teacher
I should be offering web pages about my classes. But you know I haven't
done it. It's not a lack of technical support or training, it's from lack
of me -- I would know how to do it - I just haven't. As far as I can observe,
it does not affect the political processes. I mean the Internet is not
used in any way for me to communicate with any of my superiors or to send
any information around the County or in the schools. Not that I am aware
of.
- I've seen emphasis being placed on the computer usage and making it
more available to the student. A lot of schools are having a hard time
hooking up because they don't have a T-1 line. They're using the modem
and hear teachers say that they have to wait and wait. So I really feel
lucky that I don't have that experience. But I do think they are putting
some emphasis on it and that's a good move. I know that if the Board of
Supervisors has an e-mail address I can write to him pretty fast. You
know you can communicate that way a lot faster, to get your opinion over
there or something, easier too than picking up a phone, really.
- Yeah, I think on the county basis it has, obviously. We have the public
computer lab where the public can come in for training, can access and
see the stuff. As I said, we're finding more parents that are seeing it
as a useful too, not only for their students but for themselves, too.
I've done workshops from California to Washington and when I told them
of the facilities in Montgomery County, more to the point what the students
have access to all the time, people are amazed and sometimes quite envious.
I dont' know about the effect on political processes. I don't know if
it has any impact at all.
- I'm not sure about this one but I would think we have had the community
support that we need, county wise.It goes from Blacksburg to Auburn and
the Roanoke community. Our local eagle tribe which is the PTSA and booster
club combined have been very supportive because they bought addidional
equipment to enhance it.
Oh everything is political at some point. So I'm sure we'll hear something
there in the background. I have not been directly involved in any political
aspects.
- It is starting to have an effect and it will definitely have more in
the future. The community-use program at Auburn has been extremely successful
and wil be a model that will be replicated at the other high schools next
year. The Board of Supervisors needs to see the importance of technology
and make a committment over the long term.
- Certainly BEV has gotten a lot of good press. Email lists have been
created to communicate with parent groups.
- I think it has here in Montgomery County just because of BEV. We are
in the paper all the time, magazines, kids bring articles in.
- I think because of the University.
- I would like to say yes but Parents might not be as informed as what
they should be about what is being done, when it's being done. That's
why I always try to get a newspaper coverage when I do something big.
Parents dont know what's goiing on when it is being used.
- I'm not sure. I don't know that I've seen any difference there.
- What effects do you think that networking will have in the MCPS as a whole
over the next 5 years?
- Oh boy. That's quite a thing to ask. If we establish a wide area network
in our schools, I think there can be some real benefits. I will be able
to go to another school on the net and get information I need or run a
program that we don't have or my students can do that. My students could
collaborate with students at Shawsville High School. ... I don't know
if it will make be more efficient ... but if I have the option to a task
on the Internet, I'm more likely to do it, than if it takes paper or a
phone call.
- As each school gets their homepage out there and starts keeping them
updated, I think it will move forward and really be a positive thing.
I don't want to see something that's been out there a year, let's take
this stuff off -- keep it current -- I guess is my idea.
- I don't know specifically what is out there. I think more schools will
have more computers and more access, which I hope will improve communications
within the schools. I would like to see more communication state wide
and nation wide. But you can only to talk to people who have a receiver
at the other end. Right now, a lot of it is possible but you need the
support and the infrastructure, it takes a long time. We tried to work
something out with a school in California and the contact adult was very
enthusiastic about it, but he took a leave of absence and nobody was left
behind so the whole thing fell apart. Continuing and maintining support
within the county I would hope to see technology to work. Lot's of money
and lot's of time to invest.
- I hope within the next 5 years and even before then by growing leaps
and bounds from Christiansburg on in, down into Charlottesville area,
Ellisville, Fayette, so that we will soon have a school system that will
be networked county wide and as we continue with networking, we are going
to see an increase in equipment, a need for more training and support
for teachers.
- We still have some things to do. The WAN will help our administrative
efforts; teachers will have better communication. Distance learning networks
allow more dual enrollment courses to be taught allowing students to earn
more college credits.
- We have dreamed about setting up a testbed school which would become
a training place. Teachers would be rotated into the school to provide
a laboratory for systemic change. The school would be a community center,
training place for members. Businesses would use the high powered equipment
to train their employees on a rental basis.
- I see a lot more people being interested, with spark and enthusiasm.
I saw some resistance before. BEV has gotten a lot of presss and people
start seeing some of the interesting things that are available out there.
I hope it will knock down some of the walls I think exist between Shawsville
v. Christiansburg v. Blacksburg v. the Riner area. We are four separate
communities but I think its sad to carry those artifical boundries into
the classroom. I hope there is a way to help us all find a common ground.
If we are all connected we don't have to be like people in a certain part
of the county that always gets stuff. I think that can be real positive.
Riner has tried to make their access to computers also available to the
public. The public wants to come in and learn how. That's what you need,
thats how you get a community supporting your efforts in that area.
- If we continue to go in the direction that I have hoped, it's going
to have a tremendous impact on education in the next five years.more hardware,
more training, more funding for support people to encourage and train
teachers, to support them.
- My hope would be that it would draw the schools closer together and
that we would have ready access of all the resources that we have at different
schools.
Because of the BEV project we have a better chance because the whole community
is very excited about this notoriety. This small place in this part of
the country is seen maybe not always progressive, that now we are viewed
by the world as being very progressive. And I think that just really thrills
people.
|
