From: Ken.Blystone@f64.n381.z1.fidonet.org (Ken Blystone)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.teacher
Subject: re: GREAT news!
Date: Wed, 30 Dec 92 16:16:33 PDT
Organization: FidoNet node 1:381/64 - Academy K12 Net, El Paso TX


> I have a question for you:  If you had $7,000.00 with which 
> to purchase computer hardware and peripherals, what would 
> you get?  Imagine you already have one modem-equipped IBM AT 
> 386 with a dot matrix printer in your classroom.  Remember:  
> You can purchase whatever you want, as long as it is 
> HARDWARE.
>         
Chris,
Long ago (actually not that long) I told you all that hard work would 
pay off!  Congratulations!  
    
I saw Gordon's suggestions and comments and I think he is right on 
about the cart pulling the horse.  My suggestion doesn't concern 
equipment so much as it does concept--a cage I've rattled numerous 
times in these electronic forums for teachers.  At issue here is not 
what to spend the money on, but rather on how to spend it.  Hopefully it 
will be money well spent.
   
My recommendation comes from three needs that will sound familiar to a 
fellow Texas teacher.  We have political forces that drive instruction 
and we have real needs as well.  Both need to be served--I realize 
that more and more.  You and I also know what the real motivation is 
in this business--kids!  Yet there are mountains that we have to take 
to Austin all the time.
   
The driving forces are:
1. TASS scores (how to improve them into the 90 percent range)
2. Site-based Management (how to improve schools via structure)
3. Outcome Based / Portfolio Assessment (how to validate performance)
   
Since you visited El Paso much has happened.  My vision of getting an 
institutional buy-in to the virtual school concept has begun.  School 
administrators have the freedom (site base) to do what they need to do 
to make sure that test scores go up (responsibility/accountability).  
They have the notion ( more myth driven than real) that computers can 
somehow make a big difference.  There is growing evidence in the 
literature that computers don't make much of a difference (at least 
not their 10 year history in schools--so far).  My dilemma is 
understanding that computers can have a significant impact on an 
individual's learning when the person using the computer uses it in a 
realistic setting and for purposes that are meaningful to them.
    
Some schools will have dramatic improvements in their TAAS scores by 
simply teaching the test.  Our neighboring district has set up TAAS 
camps that literally drills the kids on the format and content of the 
TAAS test.  I'm not for turning our children into little TAAS robots.  
There is a better way.
    
I'm sure that while you were here I told you the story about taking my 
principal into the school library one morning (not so long ago) to 
show him how 14 students were standing in line waiting to use the 
modem.  My simple comment to him was, "Nick, here are 14 students 
standing in line waiting for the "opportunity" to read and write.  And,
 by the way Nick, reading and writing are two major components of the 
TAAS test!"  That happened several years ago.  This year when I 
visited the school I found 10 modems stacked to the ceiling in the 
principal's office.  When I asked what he was going to do with those 
modems he told me, "I'm going to check them out to kids along with the 
old Apple IIe's we have down in the bookroom.  The kids can keep them 
at home for a few weeks and then I'll try to convince the parents to 
buy a modem and computer for their child.  And if they tell me they 
can't afford a computer I'll ask them if they have a Nintendo!"
    
Desert View Middle School, Wiggs Middle School, Eastwood Heights 
Elementary, UTEP College of Education, and soon Indian Ridge Middle 
School, Ysleta Middle School, and Hanks High School have or will have 
site-based BBS systems running.  The schools are able to customize 
each system to emphasize various projects or curriculum areas and each 
school has an educational sysop who is learning (really learning) how 
networks operate.  Our capacity has more than tripled since you 
visited the Academy Network host--from 12 lines to 40 lines that 
teachers, students, parents, and administrators can use for 
educational purposes.  I have samples of student work (portfolios) 
that are stored on hard drives all over town.  I have community 
involvement of over 5,000 people.  I have students who are reading and 
writing, and with the help of Carol Hooper, discussing mathematics 
every day (including weekends).  I have a virtual school--and it cost 
me about $7,000 to get it going.
    
My suggestion is start a virtual school in Brownsville.  You have a 
rare opportunity--as do I, as do all of us who understand this 
technology and what it can do for kids.  Please spend the money to 
start a school, not just equip a classroom.  You'll be able to touch 
thousands of lives.
   
Best wishes for a Happy New Year!


--  
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