Math, Science, and Technology in RI Schools

Educational Technology in the Schools of RI

The federal E-rate program has been a substantial recent factor in helping to bring technology to the schools of Rhode Island (www.ed.gov/Technology/eratemenu.html). The E-rate program is administered nationally by the Schools and Libraries Corporation (www.sl.universalservice.org). E-rate discounts of up to 90% for districts with the highest poverty rate have helped Rhode Island span the extreme quality and access gap in technology that separated wealthy suburban school districts from their poor urban neighbors. Urban schools within low tax capacity districts are excited over the professional and educational opportunities the E-rate has brought to their struggling schools.

Rhode Island schools have saved on Internet access, telephone charges, and transport lines and used those funds to wire classrooms, buy computers and equipment, upgrade electrical supplies, and purchase software. With the help of the E-rate, state government working with partners and state regulatory agreements, provided high-speed Internet access to every school via T-1 or fractional T-1 lines. Just two and a half years ago, before E-rate began, 32 of 45 schools in Providence were each using a handful of inadequate dial-up lines. Now every school has direct, high-speed connections. "The E-rate is the medicine that is helping our struggling schools get healthy," according to Bill Fiske, the state education technology coordinator. Urban schools that cannot afford to keep current with textbooks and library materials now use the Internet and their connections to other information networks to partially compensate for the lack of up-to-date written materials within the building.
The E-rate has also benefited Rhode Island's rural areas. The rural Foster School District saved enough on its wiring and Internet costs for the superintendent to purchase low-cost and refurbished computers for every student who did not already have a home computer. Parents and students in this rural area now access online school and academic information, as well as e-mail teachers, other students and parents. In the rural Hope Valley elementary school in Chariho students participate in Bug Scope, a popular educational program where students send insect specimens to the University of Illinois. The insects are examined with an electron microscope and the pictures are posted on a website created by the students. Students then identify various parts of the specimen and compare different insects. Without the connections and savings brought by the E-rate, they would not have built this partnership.

The E-rate program helped encourage additional funding for technology by inspiring confidence in Rhode Island's technology agenda. The Rhode Island General Assembly, understanding the importance of connecting the state's schools to the Internet and implementing the integration of educational technology into the classroom, awarded $3.5 million in the second year of Article 31 targeted technology funding so that schools could match all E-rate discounts during Year One of the program.

Rhode Island expects to be notified shortly whether it will be given two awards from the Gates Foundation. The first award is a $750,000 grant, to be matched by state or local funds, to train every school superintendent and principal in effective means of integrating technology into the classroom. The second is a $500,000 grant, also to be matched by state or local funds, to create two "Model Classes" in each of 50 buildings distributed statewide. These classrooms will be fully technology capable, including networking capabilities, projection devices, one new computer to every four students, and intensive training in the use of this technology for instruction.

The department is sponsoring a pilot video conferencing testbed with the objective of developing and testing methods for enhancing instruction and supporting leadership activities with advanced video technologies. By distributing 15 fully equipped teleconferencing stations and associated networking equipment, we hope to test the usability and functionality of a readily accessible and reasonably affordable video conferencing tool that can deliver a high quality video experience.

The project extends the functionality of the existing statewide K-12 data networks so that they support video conferencing. Currently, a statewide Frame Relay network connects 400+ schools and libraries to the Internet through RINET. Over $3 million of data services are currently deployed using telecommunications lines provided through the Rhode Island Department of Education to schools and libraries as a result of a regulatory agreement between the RI Public Utilities Commission and the state's primary carrier, Bell Atlantic. The E-Rate program increases the value of this agreement significantly, allowing schools and libraries to acquire significant bandwidth for little cost. This proposed project will convert selected sites to ATM transport technology.

The ATM transport technology is fully interoperable with existing ISDN, T1, DS-3, 10BaseT and 100BaseT networking and internetworking video and data services. The video technology supports all forms of video networking protocols at multiple conferencing endpoints while establishing the IP-over-video standard (H.323) for our own Rhode Island state networking system. The proposed video and data system is designed with an eye on the Internet-2 capabilities being implemented simultaneously by our higher education partners (the OSHEAN initiative). It will interconnect easily with our essentially ubiquitous switched Ethernet LANs in place at the target sites, and encourage the ongoing adoption of video conferencing at other sites not initially involved in this program.

The state has also been working to increase the employability skills of students through its School-to-Career Initiative and other efforts. CISCO Academies are one outcome of efforts to better connect schooling with employment where high school students learn networking technology under CISCO certified teachers. CISCO Academies were established by the Information Technology Academies (ITA), a federation of several business and higher education partners including Atrion, Lighthouse, MerrillClark, Synet, Unicom, and CCRI. Graduates of the program are prepared for an entry level position in networking technology upon high school graduation or they may become CISCO Certified Network Administrators after completing four semesters which can be finished at the Community College of Rhode Island. Currently in 8 locations, the CISCO Academies model provides a glimpse into one concrete manner by which the number of qualified applicants for technology jobs in RI can be homegrown. These Academies can be expanded over time to embrace diverse IT career skills areas, other forms of industry-recognized certification programs, and a wider array of locations, increasing student accessibility.

Other school IT offerings within the Area Career and Technical Centers and the comprehensive high schools of Rhode Island also require attention. Many IT-related courses currently offered in RI secondary schools have not undergone recent review for their content or quality. Some courses currently offered undoubtedly require significant upgrades in content; others perhaps should be jettisoned since they no longer are in tune with job market needs. Standard procedures need to be created so these courses can be regularly and consistently reviewed and endorsed by knowledgeable teams of business leaders. The positioning of many of these courses within secondary schools also needs to be part of this review process. IT-related courses presently offered in comprehensive schools within RI are situated within a huge variety of departments within high schools including business, science, mathematics, career and vocational, and home economics. Where a course sits within a school’s program of studies sends strong messages to parents and students about the suitability of such a course. A college-bound student, for example, is very unlikely to take an IT course that sits within the business department or the career and technical studies department. IT Teachers also need a means to obtain clear guidance, get regular industry updates, and maintain a state-of-the-art knowledge of this rapidly changing career field.