Jennifer Cerny

Computer Science Department

Virginia Tech

jcerny@vt.edu

The concept of virtual schools and using the Internet is having a profound impact on education, even in grades K-12. The terminology used does not necessarily define how a particular school is using or implementing this technology. The same terminology rarely means the same thing in different context. Some educators consider "on-line education" and "virtual schools" as the school having email, Internet access or a web page about their schools, while others mean that the entire school is on-line (i.e., no physical school building). "Distance education" is a term that has been around longer so most schools defined this term as getting an education at a location different from the teacher. However, distance education doesn't necessarily mean that the Internet is involved, actually in many cases the Internet is used only for email or not at all.

Most of the information on the Internet was in favor of promoting distance education. The sites that promoted entirely virtual schools were mostly the sites for those schools themselves. Most articles pertaining to education recommended using the Internet and technology as tools that become a part of everyday learning, but not to replace traditional school settings. Educators want young students to learn how to interact with people their own age as well as students of other ages and adults. Virtual high-schools were quite heavily promoted for adults that did not receive a high school diploma and wanted to get one without attending regular classes. Most educators seem to believe that high school students, with some exceptions, should experience school in a physical sense rather than a virtual one, but this research has shown that virtual schools do have their benefits and that increased usage of the Internet can help educators provide a better learning environment.

General Benefits

Most sites agreed that using the Internet provided the students with a better understanding of geography and different cultures. Many schools used electronic mail or "chatting" to allow students from different geographic areas to communicate. This allowed for more discussion of current events and global issues without being too abstract. English skills also improved from having students communicate with electronic penpals instead of writing sample letters just for the teacher to read. The Internet allows for timely responses which is important especially to the younger students who would become bored with waiting weeks to hear from a penpal through the postal service (Andres). Using technology on a regular basis in school will also prepare these students for the working world where computers are so involved already. Those students that take the opportunity to develop a further interest and familiarity will have an edge on those that do not.

While the main focus should be on the students, the Internet helps education as a whole in other ways as well. Administration in California estimates saving "millions of dollars" if they can exchange student records and report to state and federal agencies through the Internet. Their current system is not only expensive, but time consuming. They claim that the average time spent transferring one student record is 24 days (Parker). I'm not exactly sure what is involved, but I would imagine paperwork is mailed to the new school, re-entered into their system, then sent back to the originating school for verification. Regardless, it seems that the Internet can make this process much simpler. Teachers are provided an opportunity to exchange ideas and resources with many other educators quickly and efficiently. Plus they have the opportunity to discuss ideas and get information from field experts such as NASA or actually contact an astronaut. The Internet has a great impact on specialized instructors, found more in the high schools. For example, one high school will most likely not have a large number of physics teachers. These teachers can download resources and contact other physics teachers to discuss issues that a teacher from another discipline may not understand (Parker). While it can be argued that these types of communications can occur without the Internet, the speed with which there is a response cannot be ignored. Also, much more material can be shared through this kind of communication. Pointers to other resources or web sites can be given, material can be downloaded, documents, images, sounds, and videos can be transferred with the click of a button. Some schools are encouraging parents to become involved by offering dial-up accounts to the school system or offering a web site where homework assignments, schedules, calendars, lunch menus, etc. are made publicly available (Parker). Plus, teachers can be reached via email instead of playing phone tag or trying to reach them at home in the evenings.

Limitations

While most educators agree on the benefits to technology and the Internet, there are barriers that limit teachers and schools from collecting on these benefits. First of all the technology is changing so fast that it is difficult for the schools to decide which technology to invest in and what will be able to be upgraded when new equipment is on the market. Wide area connections are a major stepping stone to getting an entire district connected to the Internet, and current rates are simply too expensive for the educational market as a whole. Before schools can be connected to one another, a local network is needed within the school. Many schools rely on stand-alone computers, providing they have computers to begin with. Just the creation of this network is a task, but along with it also comes the administration side as well. Someone must be in charge of administering email accounts, local information servers, and other network-related duties (Parker). The most obvious barrier to the Internet is funding. Most school budgets are lacking funds, and only the projects that are clearly planned out and deemed necessary get funding. So, this shows how these problems form a vicious circle. Without funding it is difficult to get qualified personnel to administer, plan, and design computer networks, but without this clear-cut plan, funding is not likely to be approved. A final barrier is convincing teachers to embrace the technology and explore fun, interesting uses for it. It is difficult to justify spending large amounts of money on multimedia computers that are only used for email, chatting, and word processing. Teachers must be trained on the equipment before they can be expected to be successful at making Internet an exciting, beneficial learning tool.

Case Studies

While the general benefits and barriers are similar from school to school, the wide variety in technology and the differing budgets create the possibility for each school to use their technology in a different way. For this reason, case studies on different schools using the Internet or other "distance education" technologies seem to provide the most information. These case studies range from schools at the lowest end of the poverty scale to private schools with more money than they know what to do with.

While many of these case studies show remarkable results, it must be made clear that for each of these schools there are many that do not have any technological enhancements for their students or teachers.

A question that usually arises when technology is being discussed is whether or not computer and the Internet have increased or decreased the gap between the haves and the have-nots. At present is seems as if the gap is getting larger, however, some of these examples show ways to close the gap.

The following case studies are taken from KickStart Initiative Connecting America's Communities to the Information Highway (http://www.benton.org/KickStart/kick.showcasing.html).

Chestnut Ridge School District - A small, poor, rural school district located in south central Pennsylvania that applied for grants to get free hours of Internet access for training teachers. After seeing the benefits that could arise, they cut back on supplies and one teaching position to get funds for a 56-Kbps line. Then they applied for and received a Goals 2000 grant for $25,000 to pay for Internet access for 95-96. "Educators in Chestnut Ridge see unlimited use of the Information Superhighway as the books they don't have on their library shelves, … and, most importantly, as a means for children to be on the same playing field as those in more privileged communities.

Rosa Parks Elementary School - An inner city school about to be closed three years ago due to falling enrollment, low test scores, low faculty morale, and poor building conditions. MCI Communication Corporation adopted the school and began a 3-step program to improve curriculum, integrate technology, and expand school's communication infrastructure. Rosa Parks Elementary School is now performing at average to above average levels. Instead of just focusing on teaching about the technology, they used the technology to draw students into the larger curriculum.

"The teachers, truly the keys to this project, responded by making the computers part of the curriculum from day one. The computers have become a classroom focal point. They demand skills and serious thought from students, and reward them with new, almost unlimited vistas and opportunities. Students who rarely travel beyond the city limits find themselves with the world at their fingertips. They e-mail friends across America and around the globe. They access vast and growing libraries of information. And they glimpse the great distances their hard work and new skills can carry them."

Guilford County - The first school system in North Carolina to equip and network all high schools for distance learning. School attendance rates are up and discipline problems are down. The students now have access, through distance learning labs, to courses that were only offered in other districts. In addition unnecessary travel, busing, and duplicate staffing costs are being saved throughout the district. They are currently implementing a pilot program to add Internet access to a high school, middle school, elementary school, education, and administration center.

Union City - An urban school district in New Jersey with high dropout rates and low standardized test scores was improved through the partnership of the Bell Atlantic Corporation, the Union City Board of Education, and the Education Development Center's Center for Children and Technology. "Computers were supplied at school and in the homes of all of Christopher Columbus' 135 seventh grade students and teachers." Teacher and parents were trained on the computers during this two year project. Test scores and attendance rates increased, while the dropout rate decreased.

Clear View Elementary - At this school in California, every classroom is equipped with ten computers. While ten students are working on the computers, the teacher is instructing another group, and the remainder of the students are doing desk work. "Every class has a technology component, thus, even the youngest kindergarten children use computers at some basic level."

Issaquah, Washington, school district - This school in Washington was unusual in that it had funding, but did not know the best way to use the money. So a parent created a plan to network the entire district, while at the same time teaching students, teachers and staff how to pull wire and install software. So not only did the students get a new networked computer system, but they were the ones to install it.

The Dalton School - This school is also one of the exceptions. It is a private school in New York City with the staff full of Ph.D.'s and a significant budget. The school has the latest technology for its students, but is also working on projects that will benefit schools and districts that are not as fortunate. "The school has designed and implemented several highly successful educational prototypes that will be shared with other schools: Archaeotype, Ecotype, Project Galileo, and Hypermedia.

Global Schoolhouse Project - This is a project that involved four different schools (one even from the United Kingdom) that met via videoconferencing techniques to discuss the environment. This project lasted for six weeks and was funded by the National Science Foundation.

These case studies show that while financially it is not possible at this time to put every student on a level playing ground, the Internet can work wonders for improving the current conditions if implemented properly.

Virtual High Schools:

Electronic High School - This is a school in Utah that offers a complete high school curriculum on the Internet. It is affiliated with the Grand County School District. Students can repeat courses that they have failed, take classes to accelerate graduation, or to act as home schooling for students not attending the local school. There are not any residency requirements and the cost per course is $55. It is estimated to take approximately 30-50 hours to complete each course, plus time for the transfer of materials and assignments. Currently the Internet is used for submitting assignments and receiving feedback from the teacher. No other Internet resources are used at this time. Tests are taken through computer software using the honor system and having a parent or guardian sign as a monitor. At this time there is only one teacher for all students, so feedback may be a little slow! (http://www.grand.k12.ut.us/ehs/home.htm)

Cyber High School -- This is a private, on-line college preparatory school. It is the first high school completely on the Internet, and like the Electronic High School, there are no residency requirements. Students can be either part-time or full-time. E-mail and text and voice chat are used for office hours and discussions. Science labs can be done at home with household goods and a lab kit for higher level classes.

(http://www.webcom.com/cyberhi/)

There are many examples of technology improving education and getting students excited about learning. However, it is important to note that we are not yet at a point where this is the norm. Many school districts are still battling the many barriers to getting the appropriate equipment and training in their schools. Just the technology alone will not provide the results that were mentioned above. The teachers, staff, parents, and students must be well trained and enthusiastic about technology and the Internet in order to greatly improve education. My research did not locate many examples of attempts that were not successful. I suspect that this is because they weren't published, not because they did not happen. The case studies show that amazing results are possible with the right plan and effort, but the Internet is not a cure-all to our education problems. We can only hope that it will be in the future.

Questions to consider:

• How can we generate enthusiasm in getting similar programs started at other schools?
• How do we phase in training teachers, while keeping up with technology?
• What funding sources are available other than federal/state/local government?
• What incentives can be provided to encourage projects at schools with more funding that can be accessed by other schools.
• What other ways are there to decrease the gap between the haves and have-nots?

Andres, Yvonne Marie. Advantages to Telecomputing: Reasons to Use the Internet in

Your Classroom. http://199.165.72.1/thinkquest/gsn/articl11.htm

Parker, Tracy LaQuey. The Internet and Schools: A Survey of Networking Activities.

http://sunsite.unc.edu/cisco/tracy-article.html

Sherry, L. Issues in Distance Learning.

http://www.cudenver.edu/public/education/edschool/issues.html

Steiner, Virginia. K-12 Distance Education Examples.

http://www.fwl.org/edtech/k12courses.html

Cyber High School. http://www.webcom.com/~cyberhi/

Electronic High School. http://www.grand.k12.ut.us/ehs/home.htm

Guilford County School System. http://www.guilford.k12.nc.us/

KickStart Initiative - Connecting America's Communities to the Information Highway.

http://www.benton.org/KickStart/kick.showcasing.html

Star Schools. http://www.fwl.org/edtech/starschools.html

Models of Distance Education. http://www.umuc.edu/ide/modlmenu.html