Published: October 23, 2008 07:04 pm      

EDUCATION: The cost of staying plugged in

School districts pay the price to keep technology fresh

It’s not all about scribbling fractions and diagramming sentences on the chalkboard anymore. These days students are keeping busy with blogs, podcasts, PowerPoint and wikis.

It may seem like it’s play time for a child writing a blog or producing a podcast, but Mary Ann Buch, technology director for the Niagara-Wheatfield School District, says it’s all part of the “scholarly conversation” in schools today.

“Technology has become an integral part of a child’s education because that’s how everyone conducts business now, through technological tools,” Buch said. “The difference is being able to collaborate with people outside of the room. The world is global now.”

Whether it’s “podcasting” or visiting the Library of Congress via videoconference without having to leave the classroom, technology’s role in education is an evolving landscape.

But it can also be an expensive one.

In Lewiston-Porter, a technology audit last year revealed the district needed nearly $1 million in tech upgrades alone. The district’s students are learning on too many “old, obsolete computers” — some seven years old — and instructors lack proper knowledge of how to use the machines, according to the audit.

The report was released just as the district was finalizing its budget for this year, leaving no room for such a massive expenditure.

But now the district has a plan in place to bring in as many as 500 computers and additional Information Technology staffing for a cost of a little more than $500,000. By trimming sections of the budget and seeking out grants, the district should be able to introduce the new machines by the start of school next year, said technology administrator Salvatore Noto.

“The systems just got outdated — in five years we’ve grown by leaps and bound and have seen remarkable changes in speed of computers, the storage capacity, the amount of applications you can run on them,” said Noto, who has served as director of instruction and technology for two years. “There just wasn’t the money pumped into it to stay up to speed.”

In Niagara-Wheatfield, the district spends about $130,000 every year to keep its equipment up to date — about one-fifth of the overall technology budget — replacing obsolete computers about every five years.

But while at the elementary level there’s at least four computers per classroom, at the high school there’s only about one computer per classroom. That is Buch’s next big goal — a 1-to-1 ratio of computers and students.

It’s an ambitious goal, prompting Superintendent Carl Militello at a recent school board meeting to ask Buch realistically what she would like to see in the classrooms, to which she reiterated a computer per student.

According to Education Week, the national student-to-computer ratio in 2007 was 3-to-8, while it was 4-to-3 statewide.

Buch realizes the district may not have the general funds to support enough computers for each of all 4,000-plus students, so she is aggressively looking for grants and looking for less expensive ways to get closer to the 1-to-1 ratio.

“Right now, we’re working on a research project to find a way to make computing less expensive,” Buch said. “We’re looking at four different models of mini-laptops for $500 or less. A typical laptop is $1,000. If I can expand our budget by not expanding in dollars, but by buying two to every one I used to be able to buy, then we can get there.”

Though districts like Lewiston-Porter and Niagara-Wheatfield are much wealthier, the Niagara Falls City School District is trying to lead the way in offering its students technology.

Every year, the district spends a little over $1 million replacing old computers so no equipment is older than five years, said Darlene Sprague, administrator for information services. Two schools get upgraded each year — Harry F. Abate and Geraldine J. Mann elementary schools received all new equipment this year. Cataract and 79th Street schools are next.

Although computers are mostly grouped in labs and at the library at Niagara Falls High School, the district allows some students to sign out laptops for the entire school year as long as they meet certain academic criteria. In the past couple years, as many as 400 students borrowed laptops for the year, allowing students without a home computer to stay connected.

The next big upgrade for the district will be interactive whiteboards, which allow students to write words on or click through documents on a large display screen with just the tip of their finger.

Niagara Falls already has about 25. Lewiston-Porter has less than a dozen and Niagara-Wheatfield has six. But if an EXCEL aid project gets approval from the state, Niagara Falls will getting 412 more of the interactive boards, enough for nearly every classroom districtwide.

But with the state Legislature facing a huge deficit, aid could be cut and the interactive whiteboard project could be unplugged. The Niagara Falls district is looking at its own $6 million deficit for next year due to inflating operation costs, so it’s unlikely the district could afford any interactive boards out of its general fund budget.

Regardless of whether it’s an interactive whiteboard or a computer, keeping students in touch with technology is the main goal, Sprague said.

“I can’t think of a job that doesn’t use a computer today,” she said. “Kids need to have those skills.”