What do schools attempt to accomplish with their web sites (assuming they have one)? Do the intend to offer resources for parents, an outlet for student projects, the latest sports scores, or what? Do school web sites follow recommended design principles?
The technology plan is coming and various sources are “hinting” at what it has to say:
I was listening to “All Things Considered” on public radio and heard a report about a high school that had followed the launch of “Space Ship One” and made the images available to the general public. The Center made the images available to the general public despite the opportunity to sell the video. The Clay Center for Science and Technology offers programs for K-12 students.
This is not the K-12 experience I remember.
eSchool News offers a summary of school purchasing projections collected by Quality Education Data and Market Data Retrieval. Overall, it appears tech budgets are flat. Trends appear to focus on mobility and flexibility – wireless laptops moved about in carts (COWS – computers on wheels). Another trend, probably in response to No Child Left Behind requirements, is the purchase of instructional software/instructional management software.
You may have learned in the past months that several school districts and commercial providers were being investigated for violations of e-rate guidelines. In reaction to these abuses, the FCC halted e-rate funding. Delays and uncertainties in these funds, which go toward high-speed Internet and phone access for schools and libraries, have begun to cause significant problems (see New York Times analysis – requires free registration).
I received an email from a student that has started bothering me. The student is enrolled in a “technology for teachers” course at another institution that uses our book. The student seems to have been searching the Internet for resources associated with the book and located our personal development web site (we maintain a protected site that we use to develop material related to the book before we offer the material to our publisher and we also make this material available to those who purchase the book). The student wrote to ask me if I would grant access to the web site because he cannot afford to purchase the book.
I would like to think that I am very sensitive to the cost issue and I have written often about the factors that have created this situation. I also understand the financial difficulty facing some students as they struggle to obtain an education. As a parent, I understand the costs associated with sending a son or daughter to college. I wonder what assumptions students make about those of us who spend some of our time writing. Do they understand that one motive may be to help our own children attend college? Are those assumptions somehow different than assumptions made about the folks who spend some of their time frying hamburgers, building cars, or teaching classes.
I happen to feel that the Internet may allow a cost-effective way to bring down the cost of books. I would like to see short $29 books allowing a fixed time access to a much larger body of online content. Access to the online content might exist for a year. After that period of time, an additional fee would be charged. Reselling the book in this hybrid approach would not allow continued use of the web material and thus deliver a lower quality (but cheaper) product than the original purchase.
The high cost of books is simply not the responsibility of the publishing companies or the authors. We have to make a return on our investment of time or resources on the first sale. Your book store makes all of the profit after that. The book store makes considerably more money for putting the book back on the shelf that I received for writing the book in the first place.
I provided the student a way to access resources online. I should have suggested that he ask the book store for a free used copy.
When we write about integrating technology, we purposefully focus on local projects. We feel this brings a level of reality to our advocacy. It seems a bit unfair to collect cool ideas from many locations and give the impression that this body of work should be produced in any given school.
Attempting to convince future teachers that it is reasonable to expect certain kinds of projects is an important goal. However, it may also be important to recognize the truly exceptional work that is done in a few schools. Consider the following example from Jasper Place High School in Edmonton, Alberta – The Eye.