Technology gap forces flexibility in teaching

If bringing every student into the online world were as simple as installing a wireless network and buying 535 iBook laptops, Andrew Hill High School would have it made.

By Lori Aratani
Mercury News

The East San Jose campus takes its motto — “Where technology is the key to success” — quite seriously. Students use the new wireless network to surf the Net everywhere from the cafeteria to the quad, using personalized, password-protected accounts linked to the schoolwide server. Andrew Hill has 12 student labs and computers in all 84 of its classrooms.

The school, which serves some of Santa Clara County’s poorest students, has built a tech program that would be the envy of many a Silicon Valley campus. But its teachers realize high-priced hardware is just the beginning.

What’s happening in the classrooms and labs of Andrew Hill is a good example of the crucial role schools play in bridging the gap between haves and have-nots. A recent schoolwide survey found that 30 percent of Andrew Hill students don’t have a computer at home; even among those who do, 39 percent say they don’t have Internet access. And students’ abilities run the gamut: Some of Andrew Hill’s students had no previous exposure to computers, while others are fluent in the programming language C++.

Many of Andrew Hill’s students are new immigrants. Others come from low-income families. And almost one-third of students are struggling to master English.

“It’s not just about putting a laptop in every student’s hands,” said Robert Ibarra, the school’s personal-development coordinator, who helped write the initial proposal to revamp the school’s technology program. “It’s about how you use them.”

Diverse interests

For some students at Andrew Hill, computers are an integral part of their lifestyle and their identity. For others with limited skills and limited access, technology is just part of the school environment.

Rosa Nguyen, a junior, has been around computers for more than half her life. She manages about a half-dozen Web sites that she created. At home, she is the queen of multitasking, often editing her Web sites, searching the Web, chatting with friends on her cell phone and instant messaging — all at the same time.

For Rosa, 16, being online helps enrich her life. The Net helps with homework, but it’s also a way for her to express her creativity, through her Web sites about Japanese animation. She turns to a Web site for young writers to get feedback on her writing from peers across the country.

Yesica Villalobos, a senior, has been using computers since she was 11 and living in Michoacán, Mexico. When she came to San Jose three years ago, she was ahead of many of her classmates in the school’s English-language development program who had never been exposed to technology. But her skills remain limited. Without Internet access at home, she can do only so much. When she gets time in a school computer lab, her activities are more focused on homework and e-mail.

To see the range of challenges educators at Andrew Hill face in making technology relevant to all students, one need but look in two classrooms just across the way from each other.

In teacher Kip Mowder’s third-period English-language development class, Mowder uses iBooks extensively during class for vocabulary quizzes and oral presentations.

On a recent day, it was clear students could hardly wait to get their hands on the machines. As Mowder ran though various housekeeping items, murmurs of “Can we get the computers now? Isn’t it time to use the computers yet?” filtered through the classroom.

For many of Mowder’s students, their first exposure to computers was at school. And for a quarter of the class, school remains the primary place where they have access to a computer and the Internet. Gustavo Salazar began using a computer about four years ago at school. Now, the 17-year-old junior is an ardent Nethead.

“I don’t know how to explain it,” he said trying to sum up the appeal of the iBook. “The colors are so wonderful — everything is so dynamic.” To Gustavo, the Internet’s possibilities seem endless. Information about his favorite soccer team flickers onto his screen in moments. So easy.

Reaching out

Using the iBooks, Mowder’s 19 students ran through a vocabulary exercise on John Steinbeck’s “The Pearl” before switching over to work on their PowerPoint presentations.

Mowder said computers make a difference in his class. The students are more focused and willing to put extra effort into assignments. But access concerns limit the type of work he assigns. He’ll sometimes shy away from assignments that rely too heavily on the Web or on programs that students are unlikely to have at home — if they have computers at all.

Does he feel that his less-privileged students are somehow losing out?

“Kids are at a disadvantage if they don’t have” a computer at home, Mowder said. “But if kids don’t have a computer at home, then we have to figure out a way to bring it to them.”

In another classroom, across an open walkway from Mowder’s, students were using computers at another level entirely. The difference: Virtually all the students in Don Donschikowski’s advanced-placement English class have a computer at home, and many have been surfing the Web since they were in grade school.

As a result, Donschikowski, who also advises the school newspaper, is able to assign more technically sophisticated projects. In the advanced placement English class, many students go beyond PowerPoint to design and manage their own Web pages — for class and as a hobby.

Using Adobe Premier, junior Kha Lu shot and edited a 10-minute movie as part of a group project on “The Grapes of Wrath.” The project took two days to shoot and more than a week to edit. The result is an MTV-meets-Fellini production that left the class in stitches when it was presented.

A changed school

Andrew Hill’s transformation into a technology powerhouse began three years ago with a state grant program to equip high schools with technology. Andrew Hill signed on, hoping to replace its motley assortment of computers with a more cohesive system. Later, it received money from a second state grant program designed to help the school raise its low test scores. Bonds provided more funding last summer. Technology — coupled with extensive teacher training — would be the way to boost student achievement.

At Andrew Hill, administrators pushed hard to make sure each faculty member was tech-proficient — well-aware that the more comfortable the teachers were, the more likely they would be to use computers in the classroom. To entice teachers to train, tech coordinators offered participants a small stipend and iBooks, theirs as long as they were at Andrew Hill. To date, 114 of the campus’ 115 teachers have completed the program. Colleagues say Teacher 115 is proud of his status as the campus’ lone holdout.

Aside from getting the faculty on board, other changes were needed:

The building that housed the school’s wood shop and industrial-arts program was converted to a central repository for the school’s fleet of iBook carts.

Rather than a traditional, centralized lab, Andrew Hill’s tech program relies on these carts, each stocked with enough laptops to outfit a class. Teachers can check out a cart for as long as four days for their students to use in the classroom.

Seeking a payoff

The teachers say they are focused on providing as much access as possible, so that kids leave knowing at least the basics.

“We want technology to be something that comes natural for the students,” said Kirsten King, Andrew Hill’s technology coordinator. “We want them to be able to use whatever tool they need to get the job done.”

The question is whether the investment in technology will pay off in student achievement. While anecdotal evidence suggests students are more motivated and getting better grades, they still are working to document a link between technology and test scores. And there are few national studies that have linked the two.

But for those who have worked so hard to assemble the school’s program, there are unexpected successes that already have surfaced with the shift: Students who struggled to read or remember concepts can accomplish far more with a computer.

Teens in a special-education science class weren’t able to express themselves on paper, but, handed an iBook, they were suddenly pulling together sophisticated PowerPoint presentations, King said.

Donschikowski, the journalism instructor, had one class of students who often were tardy and unmotivated. But after Donschikowski began a pilot program heavily dependent on computers, there were fewer tardies and significantly higher grades.

“For the non-traditional learner, technology is a non-traditional way of conveying what they know,” King said. “Technology has given students who didn’t really have a niche or place in school a place — it’s given them buy-in.”
Contact Lori Aratani at [email protected] or (408) 920-5531.

© 2003 Mercury News and wire service sources. All Rights Reserved.

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