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Computerworld Smithsonian Awards - Case StudyClassroom Networking: Education & Academia |
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Delaware Center for Educational Technology |
Dr. Wayne Hartschuh Executive Director whartsc@dcet.k12.de.us |
SHORT SUMMARY (40 words or less)
What is your project designed to do? How does it change and improve people's
lives? Lighten their work? Improve prospects for the future?
The Delaware Center for Educational Technology is creating a telecommunications
infrastructure in Delaware's public schools to enable students, through
the use of educational technology, to meet academic standards and to develop
the skills needed by a world-class work force.
LONG SUMMARY
Please describe your application and the information technology used in
conjunction with it. Please keep your language simple and your explanations
non-technical. Your project will be judged primarily for what it does and
for its impact on people.
The Delaware Center for Educational Technology (DCET) is creating a telecommunications
infrastructure in Delaware's public schools to enable students, through
the use of educational technology, to meet academic standards and to develop
the skills needed by a world-class work force.
The underlying basis for the work of the Delaware Center for Educational Technology is that all Delaware children, regardless of social or economic standing, will have access to the resources to be able to learn to the fullest of their abilities and become productive members of society. Our vision is to help Delaware become "The First State in Education: Every Classroom, Every Teacher, Every Child."
Our vision reflects our absolute commitment to the principle of equity: ensuring every teacher and child, in each of our public schools and classrooms is provided with an equal opportunity to utilize technology in the educational process. This vision also reflects our fundamental belief that technology in education is critical to the creation of a competitive 21st century workforce and that a competitive workforce is a major contributing factor to strengthening and maintaining Delaware's economic viability.
This vision is supported by Delaware Governor Thomas R. Carper who stated, "If we deny our children the basic tools of a knowledge-based economy, we will be less able to attract high-paying, quality jobs to Delaware and less likely to keep those that we have. The simple fact is that students graduating from high school today who do not know how to use technology are immediately disadvantaged whether they enter the world of work or go on to higher education."
The first step was to create the telecommunications infrastructure necessary to support educational technology in our schools. The initial effort was to ensure that all public schools had access to the Internet and the state network, the Delaware Education Network (DEN), via a T1 line. This was accomplished during 1996 through the State of Delaware Office of Telecommunications Management, which operates and maintains the DEN. Thus, Delaware became the first state to provide high-speed network access to every public school in the state.
The next statewide effort was for the Delaware Center for Educational Technology to extend the network into the classrooms. Wiring the classrooms in all public schools was a three-year project. We are proud to say the project will be completed on time and within budget. This will be accomplished by October 31, 1998. Thus, Delaware will be the first state to have network access in every public school classroom in the state.
In a very short period of time, Delaware has leaped from being technology poor in education to building a solid foundation for growth in educational technology.
The "next step" is the most challenging and important for the success of the classroom networking initiative. The "next step" entails acquiring and putting in place the operational resources to achieve and nurture the full potential of the Delaware Education Network and the Information Superhighway in our classrooms.
BENEFITS
Has your project helped those it was designed to help? In your opinion,
how has it affected them? What new advantage or opportunity does your project
provide to people? Has your project fundamentally changed how tasks are
performed? In your opinion, have you developed a technology that may lead
to new ways of communicating or processing information? How might that
change unfold?
Delaware schools empower children to achieve higher standards in education.
The mission of the Delaware Center for Educational Technology is to help
schools empower children, through the use of information technology, to
achieve higher standards in education. All of our efforts are dedicated
to achieving this mission.
Technology can contribute greatly to the enhancement of our educational goals and Delaware teachers are beginning to move decisively to incorporate technology into their schools' learning programs. The emerging consensus is that academic standards have been raised significantly and technology has to be enlisted to help achieve these standards. Indeed, in the view of many educators, some standards cannot be realized without the use of technology.
The Delaware Center for Educational Technology's efforts have been the catalyst for elevating the educational community into the information technology world of opportunity. DCET has provided "the classroom" with the infrastructure capacity to utilize current and emerging technologies.
Dr. Wayne Hartschuh, Executive Director of the Delaware Center for Educational Technology, has said numerous times, "I know our goal is to wire the classrooms. I know the infrastructure is important. I'm sorry, but I really don't get too excited about wires in the walls. What I really get excited about are the things we can do when we connect a computer to the wire!"
Teachers are making pedagogical changes as they incorporate technological tools into their instruction. Many Delaware teachers are "taking advantage" of technology and the network by designing and developing innovative, instructional uses of technology for their classrooms. Use of technology and information gathering techniques vary between classrooms and library media centers, but one fact is common between sites, technology and the network provide access to information which otherwise would not be available to our students.
A Delaware elementary school uses technology and the network in their B.R.A.I.N.S. (Bringing young Researchers And Investigators up to National Standards) using the Writing Process project. B.R.A.I.N.S. enables children to understand and implement the process of research and writing at the primary level in order to become self-directed and self-initiated learners. B.R.A.I.N.S. is an effective program, which utilizes technology, to promote reading, writing, and critical thinking through the use of research.
One Delaware middle school has developed a multimedia assessment studio. The studio is used to create a portfolio documentation system for demonstration and evaluation of academic competencies and statewide standards.
Another Delaware middle school is Bringing the Social Studies to Life by creating an on-line museum that reflects the history and culture of the local community. The development of the on-line museum is a partnership between the school and the local historical society and museum. The school community and the historical preservation community serve as mutual mentors and benefactors of the project. Information gathered by the students via research and/or interviews are converted into a series of linked World-Wide Web pages organized by topic, time period, and other criteria as determined by the students. Hypertext links provide additional, expert information on a topic. Related Web sites are identified, evaluated, and linked to the appropriate pages. A side bar topic of interest is a call to other communities with the same name!
A Delaware high school uses the Internet for a collaborative writing / global magazine project titled, Through Our Eyes. This is an international project that utilizes e-mail and the World-Wide Web. In three years of the project, there have been 78 classes participate from 19 countries and 26 states. Each participating class, as a collaborative effort of the group, writes a descriptive essay about some place that represents their locale, "Through Our Eyes." The global magazine is then published in both electronic and paper formats. The electronic version appears on the KidLink World-Wide Web site. The desktop published version is printed and sent to each participating class.
Students from elementary, middle, and high schools have participated in CyberSurfari, a World-Wide Web treasure hunt designed to expose students, teachers, and parents to the World-Wide Web. The CyberSurfari challenge is to submit as many treasure codes as possible during the one month contest by finding specific pieces of information on fascinating Web site "outposts" around the world. These examples are only a small sample of how teachers are using technology to communicate and process information in new and exciting ways in Delaware schools. These innovators are sharing their ideas and successes. As success stories spread, more and more teachers are taking advantage of the opportunity the classroom networking infrastructure has to offer.
THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
How did information technology contribute to this project? Describe any
new technologies used and/or cite innovative uses of existing technology.
For example, did you find new ways to use existing technology to create
new benefits for society? Or, did you define a problem and develop new
technology to solve it? How quickly has your targeted audience of users
embraced your innovation? Or, how rapidly do you predict they will? Does
your work define new challenges for society? If so, please describe what
you believe they may be.
The Delaware Center for Educational Technology is focused on the use of
information and technology in education as the primary means to achieve
the mission of empowering children to achieve higher standards in education.
The technology in the Delaware Education Network is not in the future,
it is here, and it is now. We have built a statewide education data network
that connects each of the state's 7,000 classrooms, 10,000 educators, and
108,000 students.
We have a practical, workable solution that is being implemented. Existing technology is being used, on a daily basis, to an increasing advantage for learning. The solution was designed, not only for today, but also with the capability of expanding with emerging technologies. At the same time we built the data network, we prepared each classroom for future applications of video and voice technology by providing a basic cabling infrastructure including coaxial cable and fiber optics.
Delaware has made a tremendous commitment to turn our classrooms into learning places of the future. There is practically no limit to what we can do technologically, but we must manage expectations. We are off to a good start, but we will face many challenges over the next few years.
Our biggest challenge from the instructional perspective is professional development and technology utilization. Our vision is that every staff member in each school will be able to utilize technology effectively as an essential tool to promote student learning and to assist students in meeting the state's academic content standards. We have a long road ahead of us to achieve this vision. To actualize this vision, the following strategic goals are being addressed:
- provide for the effective integration of technology skills and concepts in the K-12 curriculum;
- establish a structure and process to develop, manage, and assess staff development to technology;
- promote staff collaboration and communication in the utilization of technology to improve efficiency, resource sharing, and professional growth; and
- assure that new technology and human support resources meet classroom-level instructional requirements.
Our challenge is to effectively use the technology available to us. We will foster and encourage the use of technology as an integral part of the school curriculum. Technology is not a panacea and does not stand alone. Technology is a tool, like many other tools, that is best utilized with a specific purpose in mind. Our goal is to ensure that teachers have access to and can use the technology tool(s) appropriate for the job.
ORIGINALITY
What are the exceptional aspects of your project? Is it original? How?
Is it the first, the only, the best or the most effective application of
its kind? How did your project evolve? What is its background?
In 1994, the Delaware House of Representatives passed a resolution to establish
an educational technology committee to "present an Educational Technology
plan that sets specific goals for telecommunications and computer infrastructures"
in schools. Governor Thomas Carper charged the Committee to develop a plan
to "turn the classrooms into the learning centers of the future." The Committee
report was the basis for establishing the Delaware Center for Educational
Technology and funding the classroom networking project which was to be
completed in three years.
There is nothing unique about classroom networking. All states have some type of networking initiative to wire their classrooms. The most exceptional aspect of Delaware's classroom networking project is that Delaware will be the first state to complete the infrastructure that provides high-speed data network access to every classroom in the state.
Other aspects of the Delaware Education Network worth noting are
- all 10,000 educators in Delaware are provided an e-mail account;
- all 10,000 educators have free dial-in access to the Internet and the Delaware Education Network;
- all 180 K-12 public schools and 19 school districts are provided with individual World-Wide Web sites; and
- DCET maintains DENWeb, the World-Wide Web site of the Delaware Education Network.
SUCCESS
Has your project achieved or exceeded its goals? Is it fully operational?
How many people benefit from it? If possible, include an example of how
the project has benefited a specific individual, enterprise, or organization.
Please include personal quotes from individuals who have directly benefited
from your work. Describe future plans for the project.
The classroom networking project has exceeded our goals. The plan was to
network all the public school classrooms in the state in three years. Very
few people imagined that the project would be completed, let alone be completed
on time and within budget. Peter Ross, State Budget Director, said, "DCET's
classroom networking project might be the most successful public works
project ever in the State of Delaware."
The project started on February 1, 1996, and we are well on our way to completion. By October 31, 1998, all 7,000 classrooms in 180 schools will have an infrastructure consisting of voice, data, coaxial cable, and fiber with at least one data line operational providing access to the Internet and the Delaware Education Network. The benefactors: 108,000 students and 10,000 educators.
We have been successful in the installation of the infrastructure to the classroom. Our ultimate success will be measured by the abilities of Delaware students to achieve higher educational standards. We recognize that assessments are controversial and that there are other metrics to be considered, but we believe that if a student is able to accomplish more and learn better, while using technology as an enabler, then we will have accomplished our mission.
Karen Dixon, teacher at Bayard Intermediate School, wrote the following note to the DCET staff in December 1997.
- "Season's Greetings! Just a note to let you all know just how much we appreciate your efforts. Our students (and staff) love using the Internet. Unfortunately, you don't get to see the excitement on their faces. Please know you are welcome to stop in and see "the fruits of your labor." The kids made these holiday decorations for you. Each link has the name of a student/staff member who is using the Internet, thanks to DCET. There are over 900 names, just from our school. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday season."
The Delaware Center for Educational Technology's Strategic Plan is dedicated to identifying the most important challenges and suggesting strategies to help address them. Our most difficult challenge, at this point, is determining the "next step," and how we can incrementally implement the strategic plan over the next 3-5 years.
DIFFICULTY
What are the most important obstacles that had to be overcome in order
for your work to be successful? Technical problems? Resources? Expertise?
Organizational problems? Often the most innovative projects encounter the
greatest resistance when they are originally proposed. If you had to fight
for funding, it would be useful to include a summary of the objections
you faced and how you overcame them.
To say that education should stay on the leading edge of technology would
be foolhardy. We could never afford the resources to do so. Likewise, it
is equally foolhardy to say that all we need is paper, chalk and stand-alone
personal computers. Our challenge has been choosing those aspects of technology,
which we should invest in, and those, which would be nice to have, but
which we must choose to forgo. We have learned to recognize that in technology,
there will never be enough time or money to meet everyone's desires.
Our biggest obstacle beyond the "wire" itself has been funding. Delaware has committed some excellent leadership and funding to establish a world-class infrastructure (the hardware), but we have not yet determined a consistent source of funding to meet the challenges of support and professional development.
Although no State funding has been specifically allocated for the "next step" in technology, funding for education has been increased significantly. School districts that hold technology as a priority have manipulated discretionary funds to their advantage for support and professional development. In addition, Federal Goals 2000 funding has been dedicated to professional development for technology and hardware purchases for the classrooms.
The "next step" is a challenge, but the infrastructure to the classrooms is in place, we will continue to build upon the network, and watch the applications and innovative uses of educational technology grow.
