Bringing the world of high technology into rural schools

Rural education is of more than ordinary interest to me because I attended a rural grade school and a rural high school, both in Nebraska. The grade school in District Number 9 near Red Cloud, Nebraska, had one room, one teacher and two outhouses. It is long gone, an early victim of consolidation. The Red Cloud High School which I attended remains. But the math and science teachers are gone, as is typical of most other schools in Nebraska and other states. Also, those now teaching math and science are often not adequately trained.

Let me hasten to say that the picture need not be so gloomy. There are solutions to these and other problems. Partnerships, especially those which focus on technology in teaching, can help in major ways to develop solutions. Therefore, the National Conference on Building Partnerships in Rural America is important and timely.

During the past three years, countless national and state commissions have studied the status of academic education and training in the United States. The studies have produced a litany of shocking facts about the deterioration going on in our educational system. They have linked the decline in science and math education with our inability to reverse our steadily eroding competitive position in world markets. Even more alarming are the statistics about the greater emphasis on math and science education in other countries, especially Japan, Germany, and the Soviet Union.

Unfortunately, the studies have done a much better job of defining the problems than they have of providing solutions.

Most of the recommendations for corrective action have been general in nature, such as the call for much closer cooperation between industry and academia. This is certainly desirable, but for what purposes, and how closer cooperation on a significant scale is to be accomplished, is rarely mentioned. Consistently missing are specific recommendations for methods to improve productivity. This is in part a reflection of the absence in most educational institutions of the industry practice of relating pay to productivity. In fact, most schools do not even have a system in place for adequately determining costs or establishing standards of performance which can be used for measuring improvements in productivity.

Recommended actions also usually include calls for large increases in funds for education without identifying new sources of revenue--at a time of serious budget problems. Furthermore, even if government funds were available, it would not be economical or wise to invest heavily in an outmoded educational system. New investment in institutions that fail to make use of advanced technology in the teaching process is akin to investing in a manufacturing plant which uses inadequate and obsolete capital equipment.

What I am leading up to is that urgently needed improvements in productivity, quality, and timeliness of education cannot be achieved at an affordable cost without the maximum use of technology in the teaching process. Schools have not made significant progress in that direction, and to achieve that goal in a reasonable length of time will require substantial changes in the educational system. The changes can be best accomplished--and technology introduced rapidly and most efficiently--if the management of schools or major curricula are contracted to business, at least for a number of years until the required changes have been implemented and a modernized, improved educational system is in place. What I have just said sounds radical to many educators. However, I am not advocating taking schools out from under the traditional controls of citizen school boards. To the contrary, most citizen school boards understand exactly what I mean, because even though they are responsible for the schools, they often are frustrated by their inability to effect positive changes.

Technology

The most comprehensive and widely used technology is Plato computer-based education. It is an educational system of the first order, using virtually all other media, including video and audio tapes and discs. Plato is private, motivational, and demands mastery of comprehension. It delivers higher quality, more diversified and more equitable learning at significantly lower costs than traditional education.

There is ample evidence that teaching with the use of Plato is effective--in many instances better than traditional methods. The Plato system, for example, has capabilities for computer graphics and simulation, which add a new dimension to teaching. Student experiments can be conducted in a manner similar to those in a laboratory, but much faster. Through the use of the graphics capability of the computer, a teacher can illustrate concepts more clearly than at a blackboard.

The development of Plato has been underway for more than 20 years. It includes hundreds of cooperative projects with universities, secondary schools, government agencies, large companies, small companies, and individuals. As a result of this substantial effort, more than 12,000 hours of courseware, or lesson material, is available in a broadl range of subjects. And much of it can be delivered by the most popular microcomputers available today.

Courseware: Most Plato lessons are designed on the mastery learning plan. Students must master the lesson's objectives before the program permits them to proceed to the next lesson. This mastery criterion is established by the lesson's author and is measured by a carefully designed test. It assures that the student is not "passed" without actual achievement or comprehension.

The development of all courseware, or lesson material, is planned and monitored against curriculum needs which cover the total scope and sequence of topics and courses traditionally taught in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions. The process employed in developing each curriculum involves extensive use of practicing educators. Review boards and working groups are convened on a regular basis to select the topics of greatest importance.

Let me provide one example. To develop an entire curriculum for the first two years of engineering, which also includes math and science for high school grades 11 and 12, a consortium of engineering schools was established. Members of the consortium include the engineering schools at the Universities of Minnesota, Nebraska, Arizona, Delaware and others. The deans of the seven schools comprise a steering committee for the courseware development. In turn, each unversity designates one faculty member to serve on a review board for a course in an individual subject area; the boards review course development at each step in the process.

Unfortunately, in spite of the availability of complete curricula, most of the computers in schools today are being used almost exclusively as supplemental devices, almost as if they are nothing more than another form of audiovisual aid. They are simply being superimposed upon the traditional learning environment and are not helping to bring any real change to the labor-intensive process itself. In reality, they are being used as a supplemental tool at an incremental cost. In other words, microcomputers remain outside of the traditional system and are seldom integrated appropriately.

Unless and until the management capabilities of the computer are utilized to increase efficiency and productivity in the system itself, technology's capacity to reduce cost escalation will not be realized.

To be more specific, the tasks of testing, grading and recordkeeping all consume teacher time, to the detriment of the students. Further, historical data on students and student development plans are seldom easily available to teachers in the midst of the teaching/learning process each day; little feedback based on current student performance ever has much effect on planning the next day's work or, for that matter, even the next month's effort. Such important and time-consuming chores are readily handled by computers. The corresponding savings in time can arguably lead to higher student-teacher ratios with significant dollar savings. And while this occurs, the actual process of student learning is of higher quality because of the earlier mentioned effectiveness of computer-based education.

Problems

In addition to the inadequate use of technology, there are a number of other serious problems underlying the deterioration in education, including the following:

* An increasing number of schools do not have adequate offerings in such areas as math, science, computer literacy, and languages;

* In those schools which do offer those courses, the quality is often poor because there aren't enough teachers with sufficient training;

* Low teacher salaries is a well-known problem--and a major cause of deteriorating quality and availability of teachers; and

* Escalating cost--the current steep and ever increasing cost of our highly labor-intensive educational system is becoming unaffordable as the output becomes increasingly suspect in quality.

Less widely recognized are management deficiencies, in that schools are handicapped by persons who, through no fault of their own, are not as skilled in modern management practices as their counterparts in business. Management skills are acquired, to a degree, from formal training; however, the most important training comes from on-the-job experience and association with peers.

Managers in educational institutions normally lack the opportunity to obtain the broad experience managers in industry acquire by working in businesses which embrace marketing, production, engineering, and other functions. Nor is there an opportunity or incentive to achieve quality and cost control. Not surprisingly, these gaps in experience translate into a major reason for the inability of schools to use technology properly in teaching.

Model education centers: Closing the gaps in management experience can be facilitated by expanded cooperation between schools and industry, permitting personnel to be shared or rotated. Achieving the degree of cooperation required and the maximum use of technology within an acceptable time at an acceptable cost, however, will require that many changes be made within educational institutions.

These changes can best be introduced at the periphery of the existing educational establishment rather than attempting to introduce them in the mainstream of day-to-day operations. The most effective method is to establish separate model educational centers managed by business and making maximum use of technology in teaching math, science, computer literacy, and language courses--the fields where improved availability and quality are most urgently needed.

In addition to simply advocating the use of model centers to most rapidly and efficiently introduce technology in teaching, Control Data last year commenced offering a service to contract to establish and operate centers in partnership with school districts.

The number of microcomputers in a center can vary; however, twenty will suffice for demonstration purposes, especially if it is desired to minimize cost.

Clearly, operating standards are critically important for achieving the most efficiencies in delivering education. Standards for evaluating performance and defining costs are equally important. Rarely do superintendents and school boards know the true costs of delivering education in their institutions.

Supervision of each center is provided by an on-site support service coordinator. The person in this position need not be a teacher. Teachers, called subject area specialists, are usually remotely located from the centers, not necessarily all at the same location. They provide assistance to students through computer communication or by telephone. Subject area specialists can also communicate with each other.

Each model center is connected to a central computer. Centers are clustered to further increase the economies of scale in teaching necessary to pay attractive salaries.

Another advantage of a model center is that it can effectively address the needs of a mix of students in all areas, including gifted, mainstream, disadvantaged, handicapped, and college preparatory. After normal school hours, centers can deliver adult continuing education.

Let me elaborate on the improvement which will take place in education for those groups which have been most underserved by traditional education for decades--the disadvantaged, the handicapped, and the gifted.

Disadvantaged: Plato education and training courseware for the disadvantaged has had high priority at Control Data for many years, in part, of course, because of their urgent need for more effective education and training. But also, educators have been much more willing to utilize Plato in teaching the disadvantaged because of the extensive remediation required. Traditional methods of remediation for those lacking basic skills is very costly, and it is time-consuming and frustrating for teachers. The individual testing, prescribing, feedback, record-keeping and analyzing--all done manually--require too much time, effort and patience to be done effectively. But the computer has infinite patience. It doesn't neglect any of those chores for something more interesting.

The Plato basic skills learning system includes mathematics, reading, and English language. This curriculum is delivered in the toughest learning environments, including prisons, schools in poverty areas, and in adult learning centers.

Results are outstanding. Evaluation data collected over a period of years have shown that, when compared to traditional classroom instruction, Plato reduces the cost per grade level of improvement by approximately 50 percent and increases the learning rate as much as 400 percent. The data also show that learning retention is equal to or better than the traditional method, and that motivation is improved.

Handicapped: Education for the handicapped has been a particularly difficult area for rural communities. Technology is now at hand to greatly improve the accessibility of education and training by those with disabilities. Computer-based education, sensory instruments, robotic and other advancing technologies have widened the range of the disabilities that can be effectively addressed and have reduced the cost of the necessary equipment.

Two examples will help to explain the great potential of computer-based education for the disabled. The first is an adaptation for paraplegics where the Plato keyboard is modified to be operable with a mouthstick. The second is an adaptation for a respirator-dependent paraplegic. About a year and a half ago, a young woman was injured in a school gymnastics meet. A series of modifications to Plato have been designed, enabling her to operate the terminal with her voice even though she has limited ability to speak.

Gifted: The gifted young person has not always been dealt with equitably, either. All too often, the gifted are held back by slow learners. However, with computer-based education, they can proceed at a more rapid pace in completing the standard curriculum, which leaves them time to study more advanced materials.

Implementation: The first installations of model centers were made last August in Forest City, Iowa, in the senior high, middle, and elementary schools and in Waldorf Community College.

* In the senior high, middle, and elementary schools

-- 150 students per week are using the Plato Model Education Center;

-- 75 percent of the teachers are using Plato;

-- biology, health, chemistry, physics, industrial arts, and math are being taught in the high school center;

-- math, science, keyboarding, and introduction to computers are being taught in the middle and elementary school centers; and

-- a community computer education council has been created to coordinate computer courses for adults.

* At Waldorf Community College

-- physics, math, physical education, computer literacy, chemistry, child development, sociology, and Greek are being taught in the center;

-- all faculty and staff have completed an Introduction to Computers program;

-- 140 to 150 students are using the Model Education Center per week; and

-- six faculty members have completed the Plato authoring workshop.

Summary: In summary, model centers provide the means to:

* rapidly broaden the availability of math, science, computer literacy, and language education;

* maintain highest quality instruction;

* define and manage costs and control the classroom process;

* achieve performance improvements which enable the payment of salaries that attract, retain, and motivate high quality teachers; and

* efficiently meet the needs of students in all areas.

Partnerships

As to the critically important subject of this conference, Building Partnerships for Quality Education in Rural America, all sectors of society must be participants in such partnerships, especially federal and state governments, industry, and academia. In our diverse society, there probably isn't any one best pattern for action.

Because of the pivotal role states play in education, let me describe a state level public/private partnership in Minnesota called Minnesota Wellspring. This organization is catalyzing actions in that state to advance the use of technology to improve productivity and quality in educational institutions, and could well serve as a model to help achieve those objectives in other states.

Minnesota Wellspring is a broadly-based statewide public/private partnership helping to expand technological horizons and expand employment in Minnesota. Members of the board of directors are drawn from all major sectors, including business, academia, labor, and state and local government. Wellspring has two co-chairmen, one from business and one from labor. The Governor of Minnesota is Honorary Chairman.

Because of such broad representation, Wellspring has been highly successful in getting its recommendations for policy changes and legislation implemented.

For example, last year, in response to Wellspring recommendations, legislation was passed which provided funding for a number of actions to encourage the use of technology in teaching. These actions included:

* Establishment during 1984 and 1985 of eight educational centers in high schools to demonstrate use of technology in teaching.

* Encouragement of every school district and postsecondary institution in Minnesota to develop a five-year plan for improving the quality, availability, and productivity of education, especially in math, science, computer literacy, and language fields. The plan is to feature optimum use of technology in the teaching process; and cooperation among primary, secondary, postsecondary institutions and industry.

* Seminars and consulting services by approved sources to assist every school district in the preparation of its five-year plan.

* Commencement of a program to train teachers in the management of technology.

Response has been highly positive, as evidenced by more than 400 teachers expressing a desire to become involved in courseware development and evaluation. Additionally, fifty proposals for demonstration centers were received by the state from school districts.

During the coming months, Wellspring will be considering additional actions to further facilitate the use of technology. Included will be recommendations for standards of performance.

Contributing and volunteering: At the community level, the main arena for building partnerships is between individual schools and industry. There are, of course, two types of partnerships: those based on contributing and volunteering, and those which are on a for-profit business basis.

Large companies have been the most active in contributing and volunteering. Many different types of assistance have been provided, including teacher training, loaned instructors, laboratory equipment, computers at discounted prices, and part-time jobs for needy students.

Small companies have not been as involved in helping to improve education, and they could do more. For example:

* Companies in construction-related activities can provide assistance in providing needed school building repairs and renovations.

* Book stores can help establish reading and tutorial programs.

* Banks and accounting firms can offer assistance with financing and accounting plans.

For profit: there are, of course, many other possibilities; all of which can add up to considerable help. However, the major benefits that industry can bring to education will only be realized if its participation is on a for-profit basis. Otherwise, it will not be able to commit the array of financial, technological, management, and professional resources required to bring about needed improvement in a timely manner.

Conclusion

Let me emphasize three points. First, the means are at hand to provide Red Cloud, Nebraska, or any other rural community with an affordable educational system which will provide the diversity and quality of courses to best prepare the high school graduate for whatever next step is chosen, be it direct entry into the world of work, vocational training, or college. Further, a broad range of adult continuing education can be made available.

Second, it is critically important that the deterioration in our competitive position in world markets not only be stopped but reversed, and improvement in education and training is a key element in achieving this objective. I don't need to draw pictures for you to connect failure to meet that objective with more unemployment, more poverty and an economic squeeze on a larger segment of society.

Third, every rural community (or urban community, for that matter) in this land can, through cooperative efforts involving state government, industry, schools and other sectors, immediately take significant initiatives to facilitate the process of bringing about needed improvement in education and training through the optimum use of technology. Given such action, within five years this country can be well on the way to having the superb education system we all want so much and which will be unequalled anyplace else in the world.

COPYRIGHT 1984 U.S. Government Printing Office
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