EDUCATION: Striving to excel

By Paul Lane/lanep@gnnewspaper.com
Greater Niagara Newspapers

February 29, 2008 01:51 pm

— After giving a reporter a brief run-though of his 20-plus page PowerPoint demonstration, Stosh Kajfasz went back to applying finishing touches to his work.
The Niagara Falls High School junior was making the presentation as part of his business education class under the leadership of Holly Spanbauer. The work, and that of Kajfasz’s classmates, was to be submitted later this year for the Marketing Madness competition at Niagara County Community College.
“I learned this in eighth grade,” said Kajfasz of the computer software, uttering the sentence with a nonchalance that suggested PowerPoint is as easy as breathing or chewing. “Then I took a class last year to brush up. It’s pretty easy.”
Next to Kajfasz, junior Matthew Paonessa was writing a script for a commercial to be submitted as part of the competition. Also Kajfasz’s partner with the PowerPoint presentation, Paonessa’s final script would soon make its way to the in-school studio of the cable access station OSC-TV 21, where he and the production crew there would craft the final product.
Technology instruction in grade school in the 21st century has made the days of learning woodworking and how to construct brides largely obsolete. Substituted are digital photography, publishing software and advanced Internet research work meant to give students the skills they’ll need in college and or the work world.
“The biggest thing I want them to be able to do is maneuver around the tools,” said Spanbauer, who re-evaluates her courses on a regular basis to incorporate the newest items. “You take the piece of technology, and you teach the curriculum through that.”
Most local school districts have technology plans in place that identify teaching targets and areas in need of improvement. In Niagara Falls, that plan has helped begin the transmission of lesson podcasts on the district Web site, work toward getting interactive digital writing board in every classroom and offer tests online.
The reason is simple.
“I don’t believe there’s a job in the world that doesn’t use a computer now,” said Darlene Sprague, the district’s administrator for information services.
Similar upgrades are also being made in Lockport, where administrators are crafting a new five-year technology plan for implementation in the fall. Seeing as hardware and software options were so much more limited when the current plan was enacted five years ago, the document has never been immune to a review of some sort.
“We really do realize that when students leave the Lockport City School District, they really are going to need to be prepared for a global economy,” said Michelle Bradley, the assistant superintendent for learning and assessment.
“You’re never up to date,” said Rob LiPluma, director of assessment and technology. “You’re just constantly updating and revising.”
Plenty of gadgets
Like the Falls, Lockport schools continually upgrade equipment. Lockport students learn how to use technology to enhance photographs, make and edit music, and perform computer-aided design.
The process begins at the pre-kindergarten level, where students are introduced to the Breakthrough to Literacy reading program and typing skills. Other software programs assist in instruction along the way, while teachers can post homework and instructions on the Internet for students to access elsewhere.
It all adds up, Bradley said, to meeting the state requirement that students be technology-literate by the eighth grade — while not neglecting the core subjects.
“It is still about reading and writing and math, and the technology is a tool,” she said. “At every level, we’re teaching how to use technology to learn better and faster.”
Where districts need to cover the basics by the end of middle school, in high school students can learn some of the higher-end information they’ll need. Mobile laptops are made available, Bradley said, with an additional goal of three computers in each classroom. Opportunities such as music editing and robotics are available to students who are interested in those areas, with an aim at offering specialized skills for the real world.
Similar measures are in place in the Falls, where students can learn graphic design and film editing at the TV station or receive Microsoft Office certification to endorse them as a specialist with the program, Sprague said. Laptop carts also make their way through the halls at Niagara Falls High School, she said, with between 300 and 400 laptops being made available for students with good attendance and discipline records to take home.
In Spanbauer’s class, meanwhile, the curriculum covers Microsoft Word, Web page design, hardware and software maintenance, and the necessary tools for home networking. Rarely does a week go as scripted, though, because of the ever-changing nature of the technology.
“It’s never what you plan,” she said. “You’ve just got to roll with it.”
The cost of learning
Technology — especially when it’s new — is not cheap. In the Falls and many other districts, Internet access is obtained through BOCES to achieve savings through a bulk purchase (BOCES also provides filtering services). Many grants are available to cover costs, including a Title 2D technology grant that was initiated by the Falls but was recently obtained jointly with Lockport.
“It’s more affordable,” Sprague said. “Federal and state governments put a lot of grant opportunities in for schools to fund their new technology.”
Especially at the state level, where numerous matching funds opportunities can be had, obtaining extra cash is vital because of contractually obligated teachers’ raises and other mandates that leave little wiggle room in the annual budget, LiPluma said. That doesn’t mean that technology is ignored come budget time, he said, but grants help ensure that technological needs are met without increasing taxes.
“We may make a purchase of 10 computers, and the state covers six to eight of them,” he said. “It really makes our dollars go a lot further.”
Also helping in that cause is investigating devices to see which ones have the most staying power.
“New things are constantly hitting the market,” LiPluma said. “You try to stay away from fads, invest in proven and practical things.”
One proven thing that officials in both districts would like to see an improvement in is Internet proficiency. Finding information on the Internet may be as simple as a seven-second visit with Google, Spanbauer said, but determining what sources are reliable is more of a challenge.
“We need more investigation and research,” said Spanbauer, who cited Wikipedia as a main culprit in providing unreliable information. “A lot of times, students are used to being spoon-fed information.”
Teaching the teachers
While students are being fed information on how to use this technology, teachers who couldn’t have imagined such devices existing 15 years ago have to gain a mastery of it, sometimes within months.
This means additional investments in professional development, which is a continual process in most districts.
“You really need to have the teachers learn how to use it,” said Sprague, who said many grants in the Falls are used to educate teachers.
For someone like Spanbauer with a business background, that means adapting what she knows to the new tools presented to her. One aspect of her business education class, for example, is online banking, and she also uses technology to teach data processing, problem-solving and other business skills.
The hardest part, she said, is learning a program for the first time. From there, adjusting to software updates does not take much time.
“If you know a system, you can figure out the other one,” she said. “You can then tweak the curriculum to meet their needs.”
With technology so intertwined with 21st century life, though, nearly as many students come into Spanbauer’s class knowing the basics as students who need to start from the beginning.
“I analyze the class to see where they’re at and work from there. If I can see they’re behind in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint, I can tweak the curriculum,” she said. “Sometimes, they’re at a low level. Then you have some classes where they all know more than you do.”
Wherever a student’s technological proficiency lies, the goal is to get students at or above where the rest of the pack is come graduation. In that aspect, Spanbauer said, local schools excel.
“I think they know more than what the colleges require,” she said of her students. “They know their stuff.”
Contact editor Paul Laneat 693-1000, ext. 116.

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