Three Guadalupe Schools kindergartners wiggle in seats before a new, donated IBM computer, squealing at dancing birds, bells and whistles activated with the touch of the screen.
Welcome to basic math in the computer age. It's a far cry from the slide rule and certainly more fun than drills, thanks to state-of-the-art technology making its way into some Utah schools.But there's just not much multimedia technology in classrooms, not many teachers trained to marry it with lessons or, as has been Guadalupe's case, no one to assemble donated hardware.
"If you don't have anyone around to check all this stuff out, it's worthless," said Mary House, a Guadalupe kindergarten teacher, her foot nudging a box filled with donated gadgets. "And I hate to say that."
Utah schools face a challenge. Their computers are ancient or aging, but the state doesn't earmark much money for new computers. Instead, most funds are spent on maintenance, state technology specialist Vicky Dahn says. And considering Utah spends the least per student in the nation, despite its high tax burden, creativity will be key to securing funds.
"We've got to somehow figure out a way (to fund education technology) because the Legislature is not going to come up with a huge pool of money, and the governor is saying we can't keep looking to the Legislature," Dahn said. "It's not a dark cloud hovering over us here. It just could be better if we could get more technology in the classroom."
Technology in academics
The 50 states last year gave $1.7 billion to education technology, and recent studies show the investment is sound.
Nearly 80 percent of American educators polled said education technology boosts achievement and equalizes opportunities for at-risk students, according to a survey released Tuesday by the American Association of School Administrators and the Lightspan Partnership.
Forty-two percent of those surveyed cited improved mastery of content by using technology, 60 percent said student motivation increased, and 86 percent said technology boosts parental involvement, perhaps via e-mail, voice messaging and kid-designed Web sites posted by many schools, including those in Utah.
More than 800 U.S. educators were interviewed for the Global Strategy Group survey, which has a plus or minus 4.38 percent error margin.
Technology is center stage in Marilyn Runolfson's classroom for children with learning or physical disabilities.
"It provides interesting ways for students to learn independently . . . gives them a practical application and helps kids with disabilities in motor-skills coordination," said Runolfson, who teaches first, third and sixth grades at Lomond View Elementary in the Weber School District. "If you have cerebral palsy, it's hard to pick up a pencil and express yourself."
The Utah Schools for the Deaf and the Blind use learning devices, ranging from talking software to Braille printers.
Technology is "a very integral part of the educational process," said Sophia Wilding, a Utah Schools for the Deaf kindergarten teacher and former technology specialist. "Impaired students couldn't get by without it. If our students don't learn about this stuff, they really are left in the dark ages."
The same goes for all students, education officials say.
A study released last month with Education Week's "Technology Counts" report shows scores on the National Assessment for Educational Progress, a test taken by Utah students, rose when students performed application-oriented tasks, rather than drills, on computers.
But to benefit from technology, students need teachers who know how to use it.
Quality Education Data, a research firm, states that more than half the nation's teachers don't know how to use technology. A 1997 National Center for Education Statistics study shows just one-fifth of teachers used advanced telecommunications in their lessons, prompting the Office of Educational Research and Improvement to offer grants to enhance teacher training.
Training teachers
Bryan Call, a 1998 graduate of Jordan High School, is a technological wizard. He won this year's prestigious Sterling Scholar Award in technology. He knows what computers can do and has seen first-hand the need for trained teachers.
"Jordan High has a lot of good technology . . . but I didn't feel it was being used to its fullest potential," Call said. "This is true with, I think, every high school."
Technology wasn't widely used when pre-Generation Xers went to school. So, technology can be a foreign frontier to some teachers. Using technology is like learning to play the piano - you have to be able to do more than just pick out a tune before teaching others to play.
"I think it takes awhile for teachers to get really involved in technology and use it in the curriculum," said Cindy Wilkins, who teaches grades three through six and technology to all grades at Hanksville Elementary School in the Wayne School District. "It's a big change from textbooks, a new learning style."
Most school districts aggressively offer technology training to teachers. But it's optional. Teachers may be more inclined to choose computer training, however, if lawmakers approve a proposed 1999 bill that requires professional development for teachers, state Associate Superintendent Steve Laing said.
Meanwhile, districts are seeing more teachers interested in using computers in lessons.
"I have some teachers where (technology) literally has rejuvenated them," said Lesley McLaughlin, supervisor of library media/technology in the Salt Lake City School District. "Rather than retiring, it's given them something else to look at."
Consider the Davis School District. Its Technology Advancement Plan (TAP) brings teachers and staff in droves to computer training labs, says J. Dale Christensen, district administrator of support services who is helping to implement TAP.
All Davis schools have applied for $15,000 basic plan grants, available state funds and a piece of nearly $2 million in competitive grants.
"I've never seen a group of employees so excited about one project as long as I've been in the business," said Christensen, a 30-year educator. "This is probably the highlight of my career, to see a move to progressively add to educational offerings and a tool teachers really can use to assist them."
Since fall, 26 school technology specialists have provided technical support, staff training and small repairs for school computers. There is about one specialist per high school, one for every two junior highs and one to every three or four elementary schools.
The district also is poised to hire three "customer service representatives" who will answer technical questions about anything from software to telecommunications from a district central-help desk.
That's key in delivering technology to the students, recent high school graduate Call says. But schools have to compete with the professional world's salaries to keep technicians around. Often, techs leave for better-paying jobs as soon as they're trained, McLaughlin added.
Other districts incorporate technology training for teachers. Granite School District introduces teachers to basic computer use, then follows up with a four-day "Teaming With Technology" session on multimedia computers, printers, scanners, video equipment, digital cameras, video players and various software programs.
The program's ultimate reward: Each team of four teachers takes a computer system back to school. The fresh enthusiasm of program graduates spreads through the school to administrators and students, said district instructional technology specialist Rick Gais-ford.
"For the most part, it really has made a difference, not only in the way teachers teach but in bringing a core vision to the school. And that's what we hoped would happen," said Gaisford, adding applications for the program poured in this year. More than 45 teams applied last year.
To the south, in Jordan School District, teachers can attend "demonstration classrooms" designed to integrate technology in the curriculum. The district also conducts technology training sessions almost weekly.
Technological needs
Yet training is for naught without technology.
"We need to get more classroom technology, multimedia capable, Internet-capable classroom technology . . . in the classroom where the teaching and learning happens," Dahn said.
Yet, she acknowledges, that's a tall order.
The Utah Legislature last year allotted $24 million for education technology initiatives, about $5.5 million of which went toward new hardware, $8.5 million for maintenance and $10 million for Internet implementation and the Utah Education Network, which uses satellite and Internet links to deliver curricula to rural students.
Nearly all Utah schools have Internet access. Schools average one computer per every seven students, Dahn said. But with multi-media computers, Utah is last in the nation, possessing a 24-1 student-computer ratio, the Education Week report states.
That's because the technological base in Utah schools dates back to 1990, eons ago in the ever-changing technological world. That's when the Utah Legislature slapped down its first $15 million for education technology, Dahn said. Some schools are working to phase out their 1980 computers, which cannot support the Internet or cutting-edge software but are excellent for teaching basic computer and keyboarding skills.
"It's so outdated," student teacher Jeanie Papiernik said of the school computer center at Bunderson Elementary School in the Box Elder School District. "I've never seen anyone use it."
The culprit, Papiernik says, is outdated technology and the way new computers are handed out. Often the hot new stuff goes to high schools rather than elementary schools, where, she says, the skills need to be learned. "We're getting all the hand-me-down equipment."
Districts do try to put the new technology in the classrooms, although some are more successful than others. The 25,000-student Salt Lake City School District has about 4,500 computers, some 60 percent of which are multimedia capable, McLaughlin said. The district also posts curriculum-applicable Web sites on its home page as a resource for teachers.
In Jordan District - the state's largest school district - about 7 percent of its some 15,000 school computers have Pentium processors, said information systems director Cindy Nagasawa-Cruz.
About 2,650 of Granite School District's 13,550 school computers, or 19.5 percent, have Pentium processors, said Jim Henderson, director of instructional technology at the Granite School District.
Computers without multimedia capabilities can link to the Internet, though access is not as quick. EDNET is there to bring additional curricula. And Utah Collections, a CD-ROM multimedia encyclopedia, also is available online at (www.uen.org/ucme) through the Utah Education Network, increasing its availability to more schoolchildren. Still, sound cards are required to access sound and other enhancements.
"Are we where we want to be? No. But with technology, I don't think you ever really get there," Henderson said.
That statement resonates amid rapid technological advancement and other demands for limited state funds, of which public education received $2 billion last year.
Getting greenbacks
"(Supplemental) funding for education is not going to be as easily found as in the past because (state budget) surpluses are becoming smaller," said Rep. Sheryl Allen, R-Bountiful.
So, creativity becomes the name of the money game.
For its Technology Advancement Plan, Davis District's budget allots $3 million in capital and bond money for computer placements and upgrades. Voted-leeway funds pay for 26 school technology specialists.
Voters in the Alpine District approved boosting property taxes to gather $3.4 million needed to enhance technology in the district's 53 schools. Before the tax increase, schools relied on bake sales and fund-raising dinners for new computers and upgrades in the school's outdated labs, described as at crisis levels by district officials.
Alpine District also plans to spend $390,000 for Internet service and an inter-school connection; $350,000 is budgeted for teacher training.
Grants also help schools obtain computers. The 37-student Hanksville Elementary received 20 new computers under a $65,000 technology literacy challenge grant.
The Salt Lake City School District has received two $100,000 federal grants to train one teacher and two students from schools with high concentrations of at-risk students to use technology in the classroom. The trio then tutors others in their new-found skills.
The Legislature also is lending a hand. The Computers for Schools program, kicked off last month, allows prison inmates to refurbish community-donated hardware, which schools can buy for $100. Dahn says all machines will be multimedia capable.
The program, which received $500,000 in the last Legislature and plans to annually deliver some 3,000 computers to schools, came in a bill sponsored by Allen and Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper.
Some educators call the program a mere drop in the bucket. But that's all it's intended to be, Allen said. The program also will re-appear in a bill in the next Legislature, with some revisions that will allow schools to specify needs, such as CD-ROMs, by paying more.
Allen says the program can stretch dollars, as can lower prices of technology.
Still, lawmakers annually consider plenty of budget requests from public education, from class-size reduction in a state with the nation's second-largest student-teacher ratio (nearly 24-1) to up-to-date books.
"There is no single answer out there to improving education excellence, just like there is not a single answer to welfare (reform)," Allen said. "(Technology) is an essential part of the equation but not the answer."