Ventura Schools Easing Onto Information Highway : Partnerships Between Corporations and Districts Are a New Avenue to Get Staff, Students on the Internet

Students at Camarillo High School have been able to cruise the Internet for more than a year when they need to do research for a report.

And Simi Valley teacher Dennis Hatland mines the global computer network any time he needs resources that will make science classes more fun for his third-graders.

But they are the exceptions in Ventura County, where less than a third of 200 public schools have access to the Internet, school officials say.

Even at schools connected to World Wide Web and other networks, many teachers have no idea how to use them and are offered little incentive to learn, officials say. So the computers often sit in a corner gathering dust, they say.

“Most of us in education are from the pencil and blackboard era,” said Charles Weis, Ventura County’s superintendent of schools. “So getting on the Internet is something new.”

But a growing number of Ventura County educators say it is time for schools to ease their staff and students into the Information Age.

They were joined recently by President Clinton, who called on businesses and schools to form partnerships to link every California school to the information superhighway by next June.

It is a lofty goal that school officials in Ventura County and elsewhere uniformly praised. Still, many schools are lagging when it comes to taking the steps necessary to reach the goal.

Some progress is being made with the help of business. GTE had pledged to donate technology and equipment that will link some schools, mostly in eastern Ventura County, to the Internet. Pacific Bell is touting a competing plan.

Following Clinton’s address, a Ventura businessman announced a plan to give teachers free access to the Internet for four hours a week.

Martin Duran, who owns the Computer Idiot Training Centers, said he will offer two free seminars this month for teachers interested in using the Internet in the classroom. But much more needs to be done if links to cyberspace are to be made at all schools, educators say.

It would be a mistake to think corporate philanthropy alone will bring schools up to speed, said Ronald Rescigno, superintendent of the Hueneme Elementary School District.

Phone companies are among the leaders in providing Internet access to the world, Rescigno said. But the grants and services they offer are aimed at cultivating a huge customer base, as much as being a good corporate citizen, he said.

“There’s nothing for free in this world,” Rescigno said. “And schools are looked at as a primary market for Internet providers.”

The business community has played a critical role, however, in getting some Ventura County schools connected.

Pacific Bell has committed $100 million to its Education First initiative, a program that will link about 9,000 schools statewide to the Internet, said company spokeswoman Rebecca Weill.

Portola Elementary School and Ventura High School in the Ventura Unified School District are in the process of being wired with high-speed data lines under the program, Weill said. Seventeen other schools in the Ventura district have applied for similar free service, she said.

GTE California offers a $2,000 education credit to any school that applies. The credit, which has been given to about 100 schools in Ventura County, can be used to pay for any products or services offered by GTE, said Mike Raydo, a spokesman for the telecommunications giant.

The company also offers grants for specific projects and has struck deals with individual school districts for reduced-rate services. GTE has agreed to give the Hueneme district a year’s rebate on the access costs for their new computer network, Associate Supt. Jeff Baarstad said.

This will save the district about $20,000 this year, Baarstad said.

And many parents will remember the “Apples in the Schools” program, in which receipts from Vons supermarkets could be redeemed for Apple computers. Many of those now-aging machines are still in use at county schools.

Independent computer consultant Duran said he decided to open up his training center to teachers for four hours a week because he saw that many instructors do not have access to the Internet.

Teachers can use the 12 computers at his Johnson Drive center from 4 to 6 p.m. on Mondays and Thursdays. He will not charge teachers for using the computers or logging on to the Internet, Duran said.

Perhaps more important than business involvement, however, is the vision of administrators and teachers at individual school districts and schools, officials say.

Rescigno’s Hueneme school district, for instance, is often cited as an example of what districts can do to bring technology into the classroom. In the 12 years of Rescigno’s leadership, the 7,500-student district has surged far ahead of others in the county in updating technology.

Eleven classrooms are “smart” classrooms, outfitted with computers, laser discs, videocassette recorders, televisions and other equipment. Within the next two months, all of the district’s nine schools will have access to the Internet.

And access to worldwide computer networks will be available in every Hueneme classroom by the end of the school year, Rescigno predicts. He and his staff have been able to do this through a combination of grants, business donations and relentless crusading for change, Rescigno said.

“You have to create a different way of thinking about delivering education,” he said. “You have to go with those teachers who want to do it and those who are risk-oriented. Because they will make it happen. It’s not an easy task, especially in a community that is typically bound by inertia.”

The Oxnard Elementary and Oak Park Unified school districts have also been successful in wiring at least some of their schools for Internet access. And Camarillo High School has a lab where up to 35 students can surf the Net simultaneously.

Internet access is also available for the high school’s library, where students stop by to find information for classes, said Allen H. Hall, a teacher who set up the computer lab.

Some of the more popular Internet destinations are MTV postings and the home page for cultural icon Fabio. Not scholarly, Hall admits, but students are learning whenever they log on to the system.

“When they come in and do something like that, they are learning how to use the Internet,” Hall said. “And that comes in handy later when they need to do research.”

But Ken Prosser, who heads up the technology division of the superintendent’s office, takes the approach that curriculum should always be the first priority when introducing new technologies. Otherwise, computers are there as a novelty and not as a tool to learn more effectively, Prosser said.

“Everybody says that they want the Internet,” he said. “But I don’t know that everyone knows what they’re going to do with it. So teacher training is essential.”