A Textbook Case for Technology

When asked how they would most like to see local schools spend a hypothetical budget surplus, 35% of the respondents to The Times Technology Poll chose reducing class sizes.

Computers for the classroom were the second-most popular choice, at 19%--virtually the same percentage as higher pay for teachers (18%)--and higher than the number who selected books and other course materials (13%) or improving school buildings (7%).

The results reflect support for Gov. Pete Wilson’s recent move to lower class sizes in elementary schools. They also underscore the perception among many Southern Californians that technology ought to take its place beside talented teachers and textbooks as a central part of the education system.

One poll respondent, Linda Diaz of Los Angeles, succinctly summarized the argument for technology:

“The computer is the future,” said Diaz, who lives near Silver Lake and has a 9-year-old daughter. “It’s very hard now to find a job if you don’t know computers, and in the future it’s going to be even harder.”

Many educators agree, noting that the computer’s effectiveness as an educational tool is expanding swiftly thanks to technologies such as multimedia CD-ROMs and the Internet. They point to the ability of PC software and communications to deliver the most current information quickly and in a way that’s readily accessible to students.

“Textbooks are outdated before we even receive them,” said Norm Neville, technology specialist for the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in south Orange County. “With the technology we’re bringing in now, we’re viewing archeological discoveries years before they’re going to be in a textbook.”

For most school districts, though, singing technology’s praises is a lot easier than bringing it to the classroom in a meaningful way. Properly integrating computers into the curriculum and providing adequate training for teachers are often difficult tasks.

Furthermore, as the poll results indicate, there is still substantial public disagreement as to just how important computers are relative to other educational needs. There’s a similar lack of consensus in the educational community, both in Southern California and around the country.

Sandy Blazer, principal of Minnie Gant Elementary School in Long Beach, cites the benefits of CD-ROM encyclopedias, which are updated each year and give students “unbelievable access to current knowledge.” At the same time, she notes, many of today’s educational software titles “aren’t much better than old dittos.”

Because computers aren’t cheap, there are always trade-offs. Minnie Gant recently eliminated a teaching position in its computer lab to use the $62,000 in salary savings to buy computers and to give technology training to other teachers, Blazer said. While the school has managed to put three computers in every classroom, it doesn’t have the money to hire more people.

“I would love to be able to have more personnel to work with our most at-risk readers,” said Blazer. “But I can’t afford to do that.”

Los Angeles Unified School District spent more than $22 million on technology for classrooms last year, a tiny portion of the district’s whopping $4.4-billion budget. The investment has pushed Los Angeles County closer to the front of the technology class: The county has about one computer for every 14 students, better than the 1-21 ratio statewide but still behind the national average of 1 to 9.

Comparable statistics for Orange County were unavailable.

To deflect the heavy costs, schools are increasingly relying on private donations of time, money and equipment to bring them up to speed. And educators are hoping that new technologies, such as the soon-to-be-introduced $500 PC designed specifically for surfing the Internet, will ease the financial burden.

Many educators are particularly enthralled by the Internet and its ability to offer students a glimpse of history almost as quickly as it happens. Students at King Middle School in Hollywood, for instance, were able to visit NASA’s Internet site to learn more about scientists’ recent discovery that there may once have been life on Mars.

But in the meantime, the high cost of technology often means inequity and sacrifice.

In the Saddleback Valley District, for instance, Rancho Santa Margarita Intermediate School is one of the best-equipped campuses in the nation, largely because developers of the surrounding residential community were required to chip in $1 million for school technology before they could build.

Aside from dozens of computers, the school’s science department has a wind tunnel, laser stations and a satellite dish on the roof that downloads up-to-the-minute weather maps.

Meanwhile, in the same district, San Joaquin Elementary School in Laguna Hills “is 23 years old, was never wired for technology in the first place, and we are at a crossroads,” said Principal Kim Ambrose.

The district has devised a five-step plan to bring all of its campuses up to the same technological level, said Neville, the technology specialist for the district. But just the first step in the plan--bringing Internet connections to each school--costs about $700,000, money that required sacrifices elsewhere in the district’s budget.

Many educators said they believe computers are worth the sacrifices because they make classrooms more interesting and current, but they caution that schools and parents need to pay more attention to the message than the medium.

“I don’t want children to not know how to write by hand and calculate in their head,” Blazer said. “Computers are just a tool, they’re not the answer.”

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Children and Computers

Residents in Orange and Los Angeles counties are less likely than Americans as a whole to view the computer as a tool that helps bring families together and are more likely to see it as one that interferes with family life. Even so, they are firmly convinced that it is important for parents to provide children with computers at home. (Results for Orange and Los Angeles counties unless otherwise noted. National results are from a 1995 poll.)

* Do you think computers do more to interfere with family life and relationships between parents and children, or do more to bring families together?

Interfere with family

OC/LA: 29%

U.S.: 16%

Bring families together

OC/LA: 45%

U.S.: 63%

Don’t know

OC/LA: 26%

U.S.: 21%

* Some people say it is important for parents to provide their children with computers at home so that they can succeed at school. Do you agree or disagree?

Strongly agree: 47%

Somewhat agree: 30%

Somewhat disagree: 11%

Strongly disagree: 7%

Don’t know: 5%

* If additional funding for your local schools became available, in which of the following areas would you most like to see those funds used?

Smaller class sizes: 35%

Classroom computers: 19%

Higher pay for teachers: 18%

Books, course materials: 13%

Improving school buildings: 7%

Other/don’t know: 8%

Sources: Times Technology Poll, 1995 Newsweek poll