|
|
|
Twelve years ago, students in the Hueneme School District scored right around the average in math, reading, science, and history compared to students in similar schools and districts in the state of California. Today, average student test scores in this K-8 district near Santa Barbara have risen to above the eightieth percentile. Perhaps even more impressive, academic researchers using the Cornell Critical Thinking Test have found that students' average critical thinking abilities have risen from the fortieth percentile to the eightieth percentile when measured against their peers.
Pinpointing the source of these dramatic improvements is difficult. But the teachers and parents in the Hueneme district attribute the difference in large measure to the fact that the last twelve years have been marked by a substantial investment in educational technology, including computers, networking, and teacher training. Today, the Hueneme district has one of the most advanced technology infrastructures in the nation, as well as a carefully crafted program for integrating technology into subjects as varied as science and history.
With nearly one computer per student distributed across classrooms and libraries, and video equipment in every room, Hueneme schools are well equipped on the technology front. But the teachers and the administrators have gone another important step by literally redesigning the physicallayout of their classrooms to make optimum use of the technology and maximize teacher-student interactions. In Hueneme's "smart classrooms" students no longer sit in rows behind desks and listen passively to lectures. Instead, computers and video monitors have been integrated into "learning pods" in which students work together, facing each other.
This dynamic learning environment is supported by a number of networks that link schools in the district to each other and to the Internet and other national networks. All 11 schools, the district office and maintenance facilities have local area networks that are connected to the Hueneme Wide Area Network (HWAN) which, in turn, is linked to the Internet. Cable linkages, provided by the local cable company, Jones Intercable, Inc., connect all district classrooms to enable videoconferencing across the district. And one school, Blackstock Junior High School-a state of California Model Technology school site-has an advanced fiber optic local area school network, which will be replicated in other district schools within the next 12 months. This junior high is also connected to a national wide area network that includes several schools from other states and the MCI laboratory in Richardson, Texas.
For Hueneme students, technology and connectivity provide an exciting learning environment in which they can master educational basics while learning skills that prepare them for the future. At Blackstock Junior High, for example, each day begins with a live, school-wide video broadcast of the day's events that is scripted, produced, recorded, and transmitted over the internal video network by the students. With the touch of a button, students in a social studies class bring geography to life with digitized terrain maps, recordings of national anthems, and video clips of life and culture in other nations. Science students can watch and interact with computerized physics experiments-such as simulated stress testing of student-designed surfaces-that would be otherwise virtually impossible to carry out. A direct connection to the Lawrence Livermore Lab's Cray supercomputers allows students to review alternative strategies for solving complex math and science projects.
The dramatically changed learning environments in Hueneme did not appear overnight. Rather, they are the product of years of experimentation. The district started 12 years ago with one computer lab in a single school. Classroom use of computers began when one teacher agreed to spend a semester designing a science classroom with individual computer stations set up to teach different science concepts; the smart classroom was born. Since then, teachers have designed rooms for other subjects ranging from math to English to social studies and have utilized time away from instruction to design new curricula that take advantage of the new learning environments. In 1995, the twelfth-generation smart classroom design of learning pods and videoconferencing capability was unveiled for student use.
None of the benefits engendered by technology and connectivity in the Hueneme district would have been possible without the combined support of the district administration, school board, teachers, parents, and com!munity leaders. The district superintendent, Dr. Ron Rescigno, has provided vision, leadership, and moral support to the critical agents of change, the teachers. "We have a clear focus on technology," he says. "The key is to keep experimenting-pushing the envelope-and then integrate what you learn into the next deployment of technology. Teachers here know they are taking risks when they use educational technology, but they know they have the support of the district. I don't think we are anywhere near to having perfected classroom use of technology. I don't know if we will ever perfect it. There will always be new developments to consider."