A r c h i v e d  I n f o r m a t i o n

     FOR RELEASE                                 Contact: David Thomas      May 21, 1996                                         (202) 401-1579

Michaeline Parrish, a teacher at Guilford's Jones Elementary School says, "We're using technology as a tool to enhance everything we're doing, whether it's research, writing, illustrating or practicing math skills. And as we explore the benefits of technology, we continue to develop more and more uses for it in our schools."

Jones Elementary is a prime example of a national trend to explore how technology can improve teaching and learning. According to an U.S. Department of Education survey, about half of all schools and 9 percent of classrooms now have Internet access -- up from about a third of schools and 3 percent of classrooms in 1992. But most classrooms still are not connected. In his recent State of the Union address, President Clinton challenged the nation to connect every classroom by the year 2000.

"In our schools, every classroom in America must be connected to the information superhighway with computers and good software and well-trained teachers," Clinton said. "I ask Congress to support this education technology initiative so that we can make sure this national partnership succeeds."

The President has requested $250 million in fiscal year 1997 for a new technology challenge literacy fund -- $2 billion over five years -- aimed at matching state, local and private sector efforts to provide all students with technology-rich learning opportunities.

Guilford County is the only K-12 school district to be named a finalist for the National Information Infrastructure awards for technology leadership. It is the first school system in North Carolina to equip and network all of its 15 high schools for distance learning and to equip all of its 93 schools and several learning centers with network connectivity and Internet services in the classroom. School system administrators say the combination of Internet data and multimedia instruction across a wide-area network of schools and classrooms will give their diverse student population solid access to the technological skills they will need to hit the ground running in the 21st century.

At Jones Elementary, a magnet school known for its Spanish immersion program, most courses are taught in Spanish. The goal is for students to be bilingual by the end of 5th grade.

"Immersion affects about one-third of the total school population, but technology is used by all classes," Parrish says. "The immersion classes can use interactive books and a software program called Rosetta Stone to enhance Spanish language acquisition skills. Teachers also arrange 'keypals' to exchange e-mail letters with the students. As a result, we have contacts in Argentina, Costa Rica and Colombia."

She adds that in non-immersion classes, students share letters, writings, art and other projects via the Internet, "a very strong tool for research and current events."

Parrish's husband, Michael, Guilford's distance learning coordinator, says that educators have to keep up with the technological changes. "With our setup students can visit far off places without ever leaving the classroom," he said. "We broadcast live a trip to Africa called Flamingo Watch. It was downlinked to the Weaver Education Center and distributed to five high school sites where students could participate in the field trip and interact with each other."

All Guilford schools will be hooked up to the Internet by August, he says, and within the next four years, all schools will be connected to the wide-area network. "We've pioneered the addition of video, voice and data to our educational system," he said.

Although it's too early to determine the impact of student achievement, according to Mr. Parrish, school attendance is up in the high schools and discipline problems are down. The distance learning labs allow Guilford County to provide courses that are not usually available locally or statewide. Many other schools around the country report improvements in student performance. For example, students at Christopher Columbus Middle School in Union City, N.J., use technology extensively and have seen a steady increase in test scores in the past three years.

As evidence of the excitement in Guilford County over new opportunities for learning via distance learning, 122 high school students and 18 math teachers recently enrolled in a night class on applications of graphing calculators taught by a noted university professor, and more than 1,200 fourth-graders took interactive lessons on how to improve their scores on the North Carolina writing examination.

Guilford teachers are learning about the Internet, too. One-third of the staff has received training on how to use the Internet from a local university or the local school system. Sixty percent of schools that do not have Internet access reported lack of or inadequately trained staff as major barrier to acquiring advanced telecommunications capabilities, according to a department survey.

One of the marvels and thrills of the Internet, for staff and students alike, is that it enables them to "visit" far away places and "talk" to famous and interesting people via a computer.

Recently, student and staff at Jones participated in an International Read In, a day-long reading project for K-12 students who participated in a live, interactive exchange using telecommunications to discuss the day's events and all aspects of reading.

And sometimes they speak live to special guests like Stine, who told them he enjoyed writing for kids more than for adults. "Thanks to you guys," Stine said, "I'm the best selling American author in history."