Will America's commitment to bring schools into the digital age make a real difference?
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If there was any doubt about America's enthusiasm for bringing schools into the digital age, NetDay has settled it. It started in March 1996 as a one-day volunteer effort to help wire schools in California. By the second NetDay, in October 1996, the effort had spread to at least 37 states, where an estimated 100,000 volunteers helped connect 25,000 classrooms to computer networks. Sponsors estimate that in all, more than 500,000 people have helped wire more than 30,000 K-12 schools, and they are confident that subsequent NetDays will bring every school online by 2000. A growing number of education reformers and Internet enthusiasts now agree, however, that bringing schools into the new millennium will require even more. Impressive as the NetDay movement is, they argue, the massive effort will have little lasting effect unless it is matched by a sustained commitment from schools and communities to help teachers use new technologies effectively. |
There are some encouraging signs that society is gearing up to provide the continuous follow-up assistance that will be needed long after the wiring job is done. On May 7, 1997, the Federal Communications Commission approved regulations establishing a $2.25 billion annual fund to underwrite school purchases of basic and advanced telecommunications services. In Massachusetts NetDay organizers have asked schools—in return for deep discounts on equipment and assistance from skilled corporate volunteers—to form teams that would recruit community volunteers, manage the design and installation of wiring and equipment, train other teachers, and serve as champions to promote the full integration of the technology with the school curriculum.
"People are sick and tired of grand visions with no concrete possibility for implementation," explains Steve Miller, executive director of Massachusetts NetDay.
In February 1996 the White House announced a $2 billion, five-year program to spur state and local school technology efforts. To receive "Technology Literacy Challenge" grants, states must develop plans not only to give teachers and students access to computers and computer networks, but also to provide teacher training and support and to develop "effective and engaging software and online resources as an integral part of the school curriculum."
And in May 1996 a coalition of 11 major education organizations, including the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, announced the creation of the "Twenty-first Century Teachers" program. The project is helping some 10,000 teachers with proficiency in new teaching and learning technologies to train five colleagues each during the 1996–97 school year. Earlier, the National Association of Secondary School Principals and the Technology Student Association formed the American Technology Honor Society, which draws on the expertise of students to help schools increase their use of new technologies.
Ultimately, the success of these efforts will depend on whether schools and their communities accept both the new technologies and a series of reforms, such as smaller class sizes. It also will depend on whether we take advantage of the new technologies to increase the involvement of parents and the public at large in education. "Reform won't stick if it's imposed from the outside," observes Jane Greenwood, who works with Smart Valley, a nonprofit organization that is spearheading an effort to wire 500 Silicon Valley schools. "We can provide the seeds, but the care and nurturing of change has to be in local hands. It has to be owned by the people who are there on the ground."
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