A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

5 Using Technology to Enhance Teaching and Learning

Rapid advances in computer and telecommunications technologies are revolutionizing the way we work, gather information, and connect to the world. Technology can help expand opportunities for children to improve their skills, maximize their potential, and ready them for the 21st century. Over the past seven years, the Administration has focused on four goals for educational technology: training teachers to use technology effectively in instruction, ensuring that all teachers and students have modern computers in their classrooms, connecting every classroom to the Internet, and integrating high-quality software and on-line learning resources into every school's curriculum. We have seen great progress:

• At the start of this decade, there was one instructional computer for every 20 students. In 1998, there was more than one instructional computer for every six students.^[19]

• Between 1993 and 1999, the percentage of classrooms with Internet access grew from 3 percent to 65 percent. By the end of this year, 100 percent of schools will likely be connected to the Internet and classroom connections will continue to increase.^[20]

• In 1993, only 19 percent of the poorest schools had access to the Internet. By 1999, 90 percent had access. Among classrooms in the poorest schools, however, only 39 percent were connected to the Internet.^[21]

• In 1994, 51 percent of teachers had recently participated in professional development on the use of technology. In 1998, 78 percent of teachers received professional development that focused on the integration of technology in the grade and subject they taught.^[22]

• A 1998 national survey of teachers and classrooms showed an increase in use of technology across the curriculum and in applications of technology that support higher-order thinking skills.^[23]

With this Administration's leadership, a National Plan for educational technology, issued in 1996, focused public, private, State, and local attention on educational technology for the first time.^[24] Since then, all States have created comprehensive plans to integrate the use of technology to help students learn challenging content and to ensure that all children are technologically literate by the dawn of the 21st century. These plans also address teacher training, staff development, and financing for technology overall.

USING TECHNOLOGY TO HELP MIGRANT STUDENTS Estrella, a Department-funded migrant education technology project, puts laptop computers directly into the hands of migrant students in New York, Illinois, Montana, and Texas, and supports learning in school, at home, and when the students are in transit. Students and their families receive training in the use of computers and the Internet. Students use their laptops to stay in touch with their teachers and keep up with coursework when they are away from their home school. Throughout the year, "cyber mentors" who are college students provide encouragement and serve as role models and mentors via e-mail. Whereas only 50 percent of migrant students nationwide graduate from high school, all of the participating seniors in 1999 graduated, and 80 percent enrolled in postsecondary education. Source: Project Estrella Performance Report to the U.S. Department of Education (June 1999).

The innovative E-Rate program, championed by Vice President Gore and Secretary Riley, offers a major breakthrough in getting technology into classrooms across America. It provides schools and libraries with $2.25 billion annually in discounts on phone service, network connections, and Internet access. The poorer the school, the deeper the discount. Over 647,000 classrooms will be connected to the Internet as a direct result of E-Rate discounts. In addition, States have received over $1 billion through the Technology Literacy Challenge Fund to help schools and districts work together with private sector partners and other community organizations to put modern computers, high-quality educational software, and affordable connections to the Internet in every classroom. The Administration has encouraged States to target these funds to high-poverty, high-need districts. In 1997-98, Federal funds paid for 53 percent of new computers purchased for high-poverty schools, compared to 12 percent of computers purchased for low-poverty schools.^[25]

TRAINING TEACHERS TO USE TECHNOLOGY Supported by the Department's Technology Literacy Challenge Fund, the Rhode Island Teachers and Technology Initiative arose from a three-year partnership between the Rhode Island Foundation, the State Department of Education, and the University of Rhode Island. The program has provided two-week summer workshops and laptop computers to 2,400 public school teachers (25 percent of all teachers in the State) and has been highly successful in increasing teachers' ability to use technology. Ninety-eight percent of teachers now use e-mail and the Internet, up from 39 percent initially, and participating teachers now spend an average of nearly 13 hours per week using technology for curricular and professional development activities. Over 75 percent of the teachers report that computers are essential to their teaching. A Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology grant will reach prospective teachers and link them with mentor teachers who have participated in the Initiative. Source: Henriquez & Riconscente (1999), Rhode Island Teachers and Technology Initiative: Program Evaluation Final Report, Center for Children and Technology.

Access to computers and the Internet will not help students achieve high academic standards unless teachers are as comfortable with a computer as they are with a chalkboard. The Administration has urged States to devote at least 30 percent of the Technology Literacy funds to training teachers how to use technology effectively in instruction, especially teachers in high-poverty, low-performing schools. The new $75 million Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to Use Technology program supports 1,350 partnerships among colleges, school districts, State educational agencies, high-tech companies, and non-profit organizations. These partnerships will train 400,000 new teachers to be technologically literate and able to integrate technology into the curriculum. The Administration's $150 million budget request for FY 2001 will further help these partnerships prepare a large portion of the 2.2 million new teachers needed over the next decade.

Through the Technology Innovation Challenge program, 96 multi-district and multi-State partnerships involving 220 colleges and universities, 381 businesses, 520 community-based organizations, and 744 schools, districts, and other partners have been developing innovative uses of computers, networking, Web-based instruction, and multimedia across the curriculum. Over five years, the $450 million investment in this program has generated $1.3 billion in matching commitments. Moreover, the Star Schools program continues to support telecommunications partnerships that use distance learning to provide instruction in core subjects and professional development for students and teachers in remote, under-served areas.

Access to technology is only the first step in closing the digital divide. We must also give people the skills they need to use technology, and we must promote content and applications of technology that will help empower under-served communities. That is why the Administration's budget request for FY 2001 includes $100 million to create up to 1,000 community technology centers in low-income urban and rural communities-more than triple the current investment. This initiative provides access to computers and Information Age tools to low-income children and adults who would otherwise lack such access. Children improve their performance in school by having access to high-quality educational software after school, and they may prepare for the high-tech workplace of the 21st century by getting certified with an information technology skill. Using computers and the Internet, adults take self-paced adult literacy courses, get access to America's Job Bank to see what jobs are available, prepare r?sum?s and cover letters using word processing software, start their own micro-enterprises or Web-based businesses, and acquire new training. A National Science Foundation-sponsored study confirms that community technology centers are helping to close the digital divide: Among the users surveyed, 62 percent had incomes of less than $15,000, 65 percent took computer classes to improve their job skills, and 41 percent got homework help or tutoring at the centers.^[26]

²⁶ Education Development Center, Inc. (1998), Impact of CTC Net Affiliates: Findings from a National Survey of Users of Community Technology Centers.
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[4 Increasing Parental Involvement]

[6 Creating Safe, Disciplined, and Drug-Free Schools]