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Mr. Warren Wood: Thank you. This is Warren Wood, and my question is to Deputy Secretnry Kunin. And that is, can you expand upon the description of the tools that are becoming available through these nine bills and the $12 billion for the ESEA, to tell us a little more specifically about what Federal grant categories are available so that schools in low-income communities like Waukegan and North Chicago and Lake County can afford to purchase the equipment, pay the staff, do the wiring, do the maintenance, so that they can have the same kind of access to new technology that more-affluent schools can?
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Well, your question is a very important one, and the whole question of equity and equal access to technology is something that we are giving very serious thought to. And we have taken a first step. We can't tell you we have solved the problem. But in the new Elementary and Secondary Education Act there is, for the first time, a new Office of Technology, and there is a modest amount of money. It is not going to do everything that you listed, but it will be able to fund some important programs to connect technology to high standards to real improvement in education.
But I think the good news on the equipment side is that almost every day the prices are dropping.
The other areas that we have had some influence on--but unfortunately this major technology bill did not pass the Congress--but Secretary Riley has advocated and the President has advocated that schools do get special consideration to be connected to the Superhighway and that these costs be reduced or else that there be even free access for education.
But I think some of the work, frankly, has to be done at the State and local level. We are not at a time of great largess, if you will, or expanding national budgets because we are also busy reducing the Federal deficit. But we are going to work to make sure that the money we do offer you is well spent.
And you can inquire about the technology grants. There will be an address flashed on the screen at the end of this program that you can write to.
And the rest of the money in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act is in Chapter 1. And there is much more flexibility in Chapter 1. So you can write to us about that as well at the 800 number; you can call 1-800-USA-LEARN. We will be happy to provide you with more information.
But I would urge you to draw on your local resources, like these folks have done here. I know not every community has them, but I think there is much more to tap into than many people realize. And you are both nodding your heads. What advice would you have for this caller?
Mr. Douglas Wood: Well, I would certainly say go to your local university if you have a local university, and simply ask for an account. A lot of universities throughout the United States are willing to give accounts to schools and teachers if they are willing to incorporate that into their classroom. And it is a local phone call, and you will have access to as much information as any student or professor at that university.
Ms. Hyatt: I think the school districts PTA could be a much bigger resource than many people imagine, and I am going to be working with the National Parent Information Network to try to help support PTAs across the country.
I think that PTAs in every school district should have a technology committee and tap into the parent and community and business support that may be there and going untapped. And higher education as well.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: That would be a great resource if a PTA could really get involved nationally.
We do have another call in. It is from Columbia, South Carolina.
Mr. Douglas Wood: Oh. Great.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: I don't think it's your mother.
(Laughter.)
Mr. Douglas Wood: It could be.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Yes, go ahead, please.
Ms. Calvert: Hello. Other than funding, what support is there at the national level to help States with their initiatives?
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Well, we can provide some technical assistance, and often, you know, there are questions like what kind of system to use, what are the resources in your area. And again, our new Office of Technology will be able to help you with some of that information. And we are gearing up, and we are also working with other departments in the Federal Government, with the Commerce Department, which provides some assistance for technology as well. But call us or write to us and hopefully we can steer you toward some good information and some good resources.
Well, we have time for one more call, and that is from New Jersey.
Mr. Williams: Good evening.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Good evening.
Mr. Williams: My name is Ben Williams, and I am at Paterson, New Jersey.
The presentation made by the teacher from Columbia, South Carolina, sounds very, very exciting, and as a student I certainly would like to be in his classroom.
I wonder if you would describe for us what your classroom looks like. Of particular interest to us: How many computers are in your classroom? How much access do the students have at any given one time to the computer? Does each student have his or her own computer? Do you have a sharing arrangement? Information like that. Invite us into your classroom.
Mr. Douglas Wood: Okay. I would love to invite you into my classroom.
First of all, that is a wonderful question. When I do presentations to teachers all across South Carolina, they want to know how do I set up my classroom.
We have eight computers in the classroom. We have six on the side of the wall. And in the corner I have a big screen with a table, a rolling table with an LC-475 with a projection panel, so that the kids can actually see whatever projects they're doing. If they're doing a hyper-card stack or if we're downloading stuff from Japan, they can see it on the screen.
In addition to that, we have two PowerBooks that the kids have a chance to take home and check out. And when I wrote a grant for that, a lot of people told me I was crazy, letting seventh-graders take home a $2000 piece of equipment. Well, let me say the first year, it went into 87 homes, they have used it wonderfully, and it also gets the parents involved. As a result of that, we had a parent donate some computer equipment to our school because of it. So as a result of that, it was rather exciting.
So you have to totally redo your classroom in order to do this.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: It sounds like you did it. You certainly did.
(Laughter.)
Deputy Secretary Kunin: You don't happen to have that letter handy that you showed from Japan that the students that your students communicated with? Anybody who can fully read this, we will give you the chance to translate.
You told me your name was in there somewhere.
Mr. Douglas Wood: Okay. You probably can't see this, but this is my name here, and this is Summit Parkway Middle School here. And I have to tell you about this just quickly.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Just quickly.
Mr. Douglas Wood: Quickly. I want to say that one of my students involved in this project called me the other night just hysterical about what happened in Hokkaido about the earthquake. And they were very, very concerned about that because of the relationships that they had started to build between the students. And now our students are writing about their experiences with Hurricane Hugo, which devastated our State back a couple of years ago, back in 1989.
So it was something that goes beyond anything that they could have possibly done without the telecommunications. So they are learning a lot about the Japanese culture. So we're real excited about that.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: That makes it a small world.
Thank you so much. Thank you, both of you, Carol and Doug, for really giving us lots of great ideas and, hopefully, really sparking some excitement amongst our listening audience. And it is a pleasure to have you both here. Thank you so much.
Ms. Hyatt: Thank you.
Mr. Douglas Wood: Thank you.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Well, now we are going to extend the conversation to our studio audience, and we are really delighted to have a number of students, teachers, and parents from the Washington, D.C., area with us tonight.
And Linda Roberts, the Education Department special adviser on technology, has been talking with them about their travels on the information highway.
Linda, will you tell us about that?
Dr. Roberts: Thank you very much.
It really is so exciting to be here tonight, especially to be with such a wonderful group of students and teachers and volunteers and members of the community who are making a difference in the lives of our students all across Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland.
And as you heard, doing technology takes wherewithal of resources and partnerships. And one of the people with us tonight is a teacher from Alice Deal Middle School.
John, why don't you introduce yourself and tell us about your partnership with the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory?
Mr. Spielman: Yes. Good evening. My name is John Spielman. I am a seventh-grade teacher at Alice Deal Junior High in Washington, D.C.
Currently I am in the process, along with another teacher in my building, participating in a national piloting project out of Lawrence Livermore at Berkeley. It's called SEPU, Science Education for Public Understanding.
Dr. Roberts: Great. How is that project connecting to you and your students to scientists at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in New Mexico? How do you communicate?
Mr. Spielman: Berkeley, California.
Dr. Roberts: Berkeley. Berkeley. I'm sorry.
Mr. Spielman: Well, we communicate through the Internet. Basically since we do not have the systems in school, I myself have the necessary equipment at home to communicate directly to receive as well as transmit through Cynet here, the information. Once again, it is a national field testing project, so therefore we have the capabilities of communicating with the pilot sites in basically all of the 50 States.
Dr. Roberts: Great.
Well, we have students in the audience as well.
Adam, you were telling me before about research that you were doing with technology and on the Internet. Why don't you tell us about it?
Adam is from George Mason Middle School?
Adam: High school.
Dr. Roberts: High school, in Virginia.
Adam: Well, I think that I have really benefited from the breadth of research information that one can encounter on the Internet, because you can just go to so many different places, so many different, such a variety of kinds of resources.
Just one example is I have been able to encounter lots of primary documents of international affairs, the newest Security Council resolutions, for example. And all sorts of other primary documents as well as the wealth of information that you can obtain from the people you encounter on the Internet.
Dr. Roberts: Great.
We have a geography, a social studies, actually a government teacher here in our audience, and his name is David.
David, you teach advanced placement government.
David: Government.
Dr. Roberts: Why are basic sources important for your teaching, and how do you get to them with your students?
David: Well, basic sources or resources are vital as far as giving us the research necessary for the development of conceptual thinking. And I am really a big advocate, a tremendous advocate of simulations, the model U.N. approach, which Adam just mentioned, the model Congress, the idea of having town meetings in Russia, say, where you learn about how they are going through their process of democratization. And the Internet gives you the opportunity, as again Adam said, about the United Nations, to get access to immediate information, primary sources, economic and social questions that otherwise the kids wouldn't have access to immediately, they would have to wait for months on end.
We have Virginia Penn here in the State which is being expanded, which is a telecommunications network, which I can envision using as an electronic simulation vehicle to have interactive learning among the kids. So it's a tremendous possibility.
Dr. Roberts: Great.
Sitting next to David is Nancy, another teacher. But she has a very different set of students.
You work with learning-disabled students?
Nancy: I have learning-disability students at Annandale High School in Fairfax County.
Dr. Roberts: And what have been the kinds of resources that have made a difference for these students? Can you give us a sense of that?
Nancy: Should I say this on public TV? You have to find a hook to get these kids involved. I have kids with low self-esteem, who think that they can't do a lot of things that they really can do. They are very bright children, but they just have a problem knowing that they're bright. So there is no competition between them and the computer, it's just them and the computer.
What I have done is hook them into some Usenet groups where they're interested. We use the Internet Yellow Pages. And also of course for research, because I teach self-contained government, and as a resource teacher I have all the subjects to track. So they are always coming to me with research problems, and we just go to UNIX and Telnet to Australia or Telnet to United Kingdom or GOPHER some place or Veronica or Archie or Jughead. And it's surprising, these kids are amazed at their own capability. So they are very adept at using even UNIX, which took me a while to get used to.
Dr. Roberts: Well, we have another teacher here who works with students, 750 students in your school. What happens when the resource is scarce? I think you told me you have one phone line, one data line to use?
Eileen: Yes.
Dr. Roberts: To get on to the information highway. I think this is much more typical than what Doug described in his classroom.
Eileen: Yes. I would love to be in your classroom too.
(Laughter.)
Eileen: We have one phone line that we can use for our 750 students, and we have a nucleus of very technologically aware teachers who are ready, willing, and able to use their computers as a window on the world. But very often, the rest of the world, the business world is unaware of the low- tech roadblocks that we encounter as we try to travel the Information Superhighway.
We hear wonderful stories about how the whole nation is going to be fiber optically wired, but the most difficult 20 feet to wire in this country is the 20 feet to my classroom door. Just please build it, we will come.
(Laughter.)
Dr. Roberts: What can we do to get some help from the private sector? We have got someone here from Project First, which I believe is an Americorps project. It is where we bring resources from the community into our schools. You were telling me about technology consultants. Are these people from the business community? How do you help the schools?
Voice: Well, Project First is the name of our project. We are in Atlanta, we are in Charlotte, and we are in New York City. It is a collaborative project, but with IBM and the local education funds in those cities, and the people who are going into the schools are Americorps members who are actually college graduates, recent college graduates who want to give back. So they are the resources, they are the real resources are the people who are going to go in and help plan in the school, put together a real plan about what are we going to do in the next three years and how are we going to use our budgets, our tight money wisely?
Dr. Roberts: Great.
Voice: That is one of my questions, is what are the key elements from the point of view of a teacher and from the point of view of a parent, what are the key elements in a plan that are going to insure that the school continues on that path toward bringing telecommunications to the classroom and using technology wisely?
Dr. Roberts: Well, I know, Governor, we could spend another hour talking to this incredible group of students and teachers, but I gather we have got to move on to California. I think we will possibly hear about partnerships in California as well that can be a model for what can happen all across the country.
Thank you all.
Deputy Secretary Kunin: Well, thank you, Linda, and thank you. I know you all have lots more to say, and hopefully we can have another chance to hear from you. But thank you for this great discussion.
Conversation with Mr. Wood and Ms. Hyatt
California Uplink
kstubbs and gsolomon, 10/22/94