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With many of their students already tech-savvy, some area schoolteachers spent the summer brushing up on everything from the Internet to PowerPoint.
By DAVE GUSSOW
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 5, 2002
Mike Rivera's students will soon find out how he spent his summer vacation.
The teacher at Osceola Middle School in Seminole scanned photos into a computer, sent e-mail attachments and edited a video clip for the first time. That may not impress kids -- Rivera acknowledges most are ahead of him on technology -- but he hopes it makes a difference in how they learn in his social studies class.
"We always ask so much of the kids," said Rivera, who describes his tech skills as minimal. "I don't think it's asking too much for (teachers) to learn something in turn."
Teachers need to catch up because many of their students are already using technology for schoolwork. According to a survey last year by the Pew Internet & American Life Project (www.pewinternet.org):
More teens with Internet access rely on online resources (71 percent) for school projects than on library resources (24 percent).
94 percent of online youths use the Net for research, and 78 percent say they think it helps with their homework.
41 percent of online teens use e-mail and instant messaging to contact teachers or classmates about schoolwork.
87 percent of parents say the Internet helps students with schoolwork, and 55 percent call it essential for their children to learn how to use the Internet effectively.
Rivera and three fellow Osceola social studies teachers are among about 200 Pinellas County teachers who have embarked on a yearlong training exercise aimed at integrating more technology into the curriculum. Other school districts in the Tampa Bay area are using other approaches toward the same goal.
The Pinellas teachers received a laptop, digital camera and scanner for classroom use, attended seminars and committed to share their experiences and train others. While this year's class of trainees is the largest yet in the 6-year-old program, it is a relative handful in a county with about 8,000 teachers.
It reflects the continuing challenge technology poses for schools trying not only to make teachers comfortable with technology but also to use it effectively in the classroom. In addition, schools have to answer critics who question the need, emphasis and cost for technology.
"We recognize Aristotle and Plato didn't have computer technology, yet we still distinguish them as scholars," said Michael Berson, an associate professor in the University of South Florida's Department of Secondary Education. "My argument is we do have the technology and we need to teach people how to use it because we live in a technological age."
Schools also have yet to figure out how to gauge whether technology truly is improving teaching because results are difficult to quantify.
"This is the $64,000 question," John Lee, who teaches in Georgia State University's College of Education, wrote in an e-mail interview.
If schools want to teach technical skills, they can use measurements similar to the word-per-minute tests used when typing courses were common, Lee says. But if they want to measure academic differences, "it will be much more difficult to find an effect."
Other challenges include tight budgets, which make buying equipment difficult. Schools have more computers and Internet access, though it never seems to be enough. Teacher training in many districts is limited to occasional seminars or workshops.
And while some teachers, such as Rivera and his colleagues, are gung-ho, others don't share the same enthusiasm.
"You can have one teacher who is doing phenomenal things with technology," Berson said. "One door over you can have a teacher whose computer hasn't been touched in a week, a month or a year."
School officials in the bay area say things are improving. Training choices have expanded to include online courses, TV presentations and classes at local colleges. More teachers are using tech well, more have begun to use it and fewer are reluctant to touch it.
"Our staff is becoming much more comfortable as the years go by," said Earl Whitlock, director of instructional technology for Hillsborough County schools. As schools rely more on technology, such as e-mail for everyday communications, even reticent teachers will have to get involved, Whitlock predicts.
In Pasco County, the district had offered summer tech institutes, which were replaced this year by more training for individual school technology specialists. They, in turn, tailor training to their schools' needs, says Jay Feliciani, Pasco's director of instructional technology.
Judy Ambler, Pinellas' director of instructional technology, says the district will spend about $2,600 for each teacher in the yearlong program, including the equipment. The district started the program with a handful of teachers, increasing the numbers each year. But it wasn't enough to make an impact. So this year, the district went for a big number. More than 500 applied and about 200 were accepted.
"If we were really going to get anywhere, we were going to, as Emeril says, kick it up a notch," Ambler said. "My staff almost fainted."
Different types of training are needed because teachers, like students, learn differently. Some need to ask questions. That's not always possible with online training that leaves the teacher trainees without someone to ask for help when a problem occurs.
"Putting computers in the schools without any training is not going to get you any results unless people are doing things on their own," Ambler said. "Teachers come from a world where they're supposed to be experts in everything. In this world, we can't do that anymore."
During June, groups of about 100 at a time spent a week at Pinellas Park High School's media center, where they were shown everything from the Internet to PowerPoint. For Rivera, Susan Culp and Tom LaPorta from Osceola, the training was an opportunity.
"If they had just given (the equipment) to us and let us run loose, I would have been more uncomfortable," Mrs. Culp said. She has taught for 11 years and says handling a supercomputer from her days in the Air Force was easier for her than a desktop.
LaPorta, the most experienced tech user of the Osceola group, signed up for the training because he wants to make a pitch for the best equipment he can get for his classroom. "If you want to use up-to-date technology, you have to show commitment to using it," he said.
However, he also sees downsides to tech, including plagiarism made easier by the Internet. "I have had assignments turned in where the kids have neglected to even take the AOL footer, or Web page headers, off of what they turn in," LaPorta said.
And he's concerned that the technology itself will take center stage.
"I just sometimes worry that the time spent teaching the 'how to' will take time away from helping the kids learn social studies content they need to be the citizens we want," he said.
Rivera, who pokes fun at his own tech shortcomings, says he is concerned about damaging equipment, glitches that could erase students' work and getting enough time in the school's computer lab.
Technology is essential, he said, "because the books stink. Even though I'm using the book, I've already written another supplement."
Rivera rattles off plans he hopes to achieve, from inviting parents to contact him by e-mail to teaching students how to do research on the Net.
"Now it's time," he said. "Let's learn."
-- Dave Gussow can be reached at gussow@sptimes.com or (727) 445-4228.