Preface

When I started this endeavor, I was guided by the following:

"Effective technology plans are short term, not long term. Five-year plans are too long. Technology is changing so fast that it is almost impossible to plan what type of technology will be available for use five years from now. Even one-year plans may now be about as far ahead as effective planning for purchases of certain types or brands of equipment can take place."

I borrowed this off the Internet from John See who wrote it. It came from: Developing Effective Technology Plans -- Minnesota Department of Education.

And another passage that guided this task was:

"Start by exploring: As each person was set up to use the Internet she was invited to take up to a year to explore this new resource. This invitation was usually not accepted, the teachers would start using new resources with their classes as soon as they discovered them. However not putting any pressure on them to use this new tool immediately made the discovery and learning process much easier." *

*Copyright 1995, Craig Lyndes. Permission to use, copy, modify, and distribute this document for any purpose and without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above copyright notice appear in all copies.

The above passages have helped guide me in two ways; one, to get this task done, and two, to illustrate the enormous power that the Internet has for sharing information. Since our business is information, the Internet is a necessity for all of us in Education. If we do not make this change, students will not reach what we hope they will become. If students can access information in a real-world sense and communicate and share what they learn, education will become real and meaningful to them. Much of the criticism leveled at us in terms of being relevant and useful to the future can, in part, be answered with the Internet. When a student can communicate to someone else anywhere in the world, they will have a sense of power and immediacy that cannot occur in the current learning environment.

Table of Contents

1. The Vision
2. Scope of This Technology Plan
3. Professional Uses and Growth Opportunities for Social Science Department Members
4. Classroom Curricular Support - Specifically, Ways Students May Apply Technology to Reach Learning Objectives
5. First-Through-Five-Year Plan
6. Goals Graphic of the Five-Year Plan
7. Projected Five-Year Budget
8. Conclusion - - Final Thoughts
9. Bibliography

The Vision

When someone visits a social science classroom during the 2000-2001 school year, they will have much to see.

First, you could see eager and enthusiastic students interacting with the new technologies. Some students will be working at computers producing web pages of their own. Those web pages would contain their research information that will then be shared with other classrooms all over the world via the Internet. Those students will have a basic understanding of HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) protocol for making the web pages. Some other students will be at other computers actually uploading their pages to the Internet.

Second, a visitor would see actual research on the Internet. What they would see will depend on what social science discipline they are viewing. In World History, they might be viewing the Mona Lisa at the Louvre web site or listening to a sound clip of Beethoven. In U.S. History, they might be online in the Smithsonian Museum looking at Charles Lindbergh’s plane, the Spirit of St. Louis, or looking up information on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. In Government, they might be reading the President’s latest speech or checking his daily schedule. In the Economics class, they might be looking up information in the U.S. Department of Commerce or reading parts of the NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) or investigating Experimental Stock Market Charts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Third, a visitor would see students in various stages of preparation and production. Some would be doing layout work for planning. Others might be scanning pictures and text into the computer; still others may be making or downloading appropriate sound clips to go with their production. A visitor may be viewing a student-made, computer-generated documentary.

Fourth, as a visitor, you may see yet another group making CD-ROMs on a variety of topics. Some may be long-term projects that students have spent the year researching. Others may be individual portfolios that are a record of their four-year experience at McKinleyville High School. Still others may be working on presentations of their community-service work or something like a senior project.

Fifth, a visitor would see the teacher with students helping with the maintenance of the social science web site. Parents and students who have access to the Internet would be able to see examples of exemplary student works in various subject areas and assorted topics. As well as giving students the chance to see what we consider quality work, they would be able to read course descriptions and unit plans and access make-up work. This web site would also allow people from all over the world to learn about the McKinleyville High School Social Science Department and the students of McKinleyville High. It is estimated, in a recent Chronicle article (see bibliography), that currently 15% of families can access the Internet and by the year 2000 it will be 35% of families. I would guess that houses with children would be much higher. With the way I see most kids sharing information with each other, it would seem that nearly all of our students would have access to the social science web site off-campus.

Sixth, a visitor might see students communicating with other students on the Internet. That might take one of two forms. One might be via the Internet Newsgroups. Newsgroups are online discussion groups that cover thousands of topics. Another method might be discussions via Internet Relay Chat (IRC) where several students might have a debate on a topic relevant to a current events story or a topic under classroom consideration.

Seventh, a visitor may have a chance to see the department’s new alternative assessment program in action. There may be a small group of people made up of community members, students, teachers, and administrators viewing a student presentation demonstrating what they either learned in the course or sharing information about a senior or community project.

Scope of This Technology Plan

For purposes of this plan, I have made the following two assumptions: (or What this plan is not)

• That the need for technology in classrooms has been accepted. Televisions, VCRs, and other A-V devices are now essential to instruction and I have not included them here.
• I have made the same assumption about computers in the classroom. Their value as a tool to improve instruction has been accepted. I also believe that as technology monies become available, the Social Science Department will be given a high priority to equip the classrooms.

What this plan is then:

• How to implement the use of the Internet in the classroom for the improvement of instruction. This seems consistent with both national and state goals for use of technology in the classroom.
• Introduction of student use of Recordable CD-ROMs for classroom presentations. This coupled, with the above, will allow our department to address the issue of alternative assessment methods that was one of the major WASC recommendations for our department during the 1994-1995 accreditation process.

Professional Uses and Growth Opportunities for Social Science Department Members

What follows are some very brief examples of how teachers in the Social Science Department might be able to use the Internet:

I used the Internet to help write this document. I used a search command in Netscape (an Internet Browsing Program) and typed in Technology Plan. It gave me a list of 35 web pages that then can connect me to literally hundreds of other web sites all over the planet. You must do a lot of sorting of information and categorizing of information; in short, lots of critical thinking to figure out what is useful.

I also E-mailed to the White House site, Vice President Al Gore, and asked him to help me in this task of writing a department technology plan.

In a social science search, I ran across K-12 sources of curriculum materials and lesson plans for various courses offered in our department.

The National Council for the Social Studies, publishers of the journal, Social Education, have a web site with all the resources of that organization available to social science teachers.

Classroom Curricular Support -- Specifically, Ways Students May Apply Technology to Reach Learning Objectives

What follows are some very brief examples of how students would be able to use the Internet to support the Social Science Curriculum:

World History:

• Visit the Louvre and see the Mona Lisa.
• Visit the U.S. Holocaust Museum.
• Find maps of Europe.

United States History and Geography:

• Iditarod Race (for Geography and History of Alaska).
• U.S. Civil War web sites.
• Visit a classroom web site that has information on the Oregon Trail.
• Visit Ellis Island web site and hear an interview with an immigrant.

Government:

• Current Supreme Court Decisions.
• Contact various agencies and cabinet departments of the Federal Government (CIA, Department of Education, etc.).
• Correspond with White House staff, including the President and Vice President.
• Access speeches by the President by date or topic.
• View the President’s daily schedule.

Economics:

• Economic Source Web Page that breaks out to: USA Economic Department on the Internet and World Economic Departments on the Internet.
• MIT Experimental Stock Market Charts.
• North American Fair Trade Agreement (text).
• Stock Quotes.
• U.S. Department of Commerce.

Miscellaneous:

• To keep in touch with our bright and talented foreign exchange students.
• Current Events -- for example: Comet Hyakutake.

First-Through-Five-Year Plan

Assuming a power-user's computer during the next school year and hook-up to the Internet, students should be able to do at least the following:

• Understand rules of access and protocol to the Internet.
• Learn proper and improper school uses of the Internet.
• Learn how to search for information on the Internet.
• Learn some of the words that are unique to the Internet.
• Learn how to make and publish their information and research on the Internet.

These, in my mind, will be the fuzzy years. Fuzzy is not a technology term as used in this sense. These years will be to see what works and what doesn’t. It will be a time to develop student materials and manuals so that they can follow instructions without always the need of the teacher. Inservice and training work will occur here. This will also be a time for assessing student needs and enthusiasm. It will be a time of working out logistical problems of student access to equipment. It will also be a time for the department to evaluate new software and CD-ROMs for classroom use to assist in meeting curriculum and class objectives. This will also be a time for acquisition of and investigation of web page servers and software.

During the fifth year, students, at a minimum, will be publishing their works, both on the Internet and on CD-ROMs. In both cases, what they will be doing is sharing their accomplishments. Parents, relatives, and others will be able to see what students are actually doing in their Social Science classes. They will be producing their own documentaries as they learn. They will be able to produce documentaries in many different styles to match their learning preferences.

During the five-year cycle, this document will need constant revision as new technologies become available and more affordable.

Equipment Needs:

A color flat-bed scanner to scan pictures and text to put on the Internet and CD-ROMs. Estimated cost now $500.00.

CD-ROM Drive. This will allow students to actually produce their own CD-ROMs. The drives are currently $1,000.00 and the actual CD-ROM to record on costs $7.00. Today a $7.00 disk holds 650 MB of information (the size of a fair-size hard drive). My guess on cost if we wait until the fifth year would be around $200.00.

Goals Graphic of the Five-Year Plan

Projected Five-Year Budget

Conclusion - - Final Thoughts

For those of us who use new technologies and feel comfortable with them, see the technologies as an enormous teaching and learning opportunity. Our students feel the same way. It is a better way to learn and answer questions that a curious mind has. The new technologies will be used enthusiastically.

I know as I write these words there will be things that I cannot yet imagine that will be available and affordable. The district recently was selling Tandy computers for $21.00. I do not know how much the district paid for them or how old they were, but I think a safe guess would be a couple of thousand dollars and 5 to 10 years old. If we look back, we should have a fair guess at the accelerating change of cost and what we may be able to afford in the future.

With funding and support, there would be no reason we could not meet the five-year goal much sooner.

Bibliography

Cowan, Gene. "How the Web Works." Social Education, Vol. 60, Number 2, February 1996. (p. 113)

"Internet IPOs Are Still A Big Hit on Wall Street." San Francisco Chronicle, April 3, 1996. (pp. B1-B2)

National Society for the Study of Education. Technology and the Future of Schooling, Ninety-fifth Yearbook, Part II. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.

Quain, John R. "CD-R Drives." PC Magazine, Vol. 15, No. 7, April 9, 1996. (pp. 99-104)

Risinger, C. Frederick. "The U.S. Civil War on the World Wide Web." Social Education, Vol. 60, Number 3, March 1996. (pp. 174-175)

Risinger, C. Frederick. "Webbing the Social Studies--Using Internet and World Wide Web Resources in Social Studies Instruction." Social Education, Vol. 60, Number 2, February 1996. (pp. 111-112)