Under P.L. 103-382, the Improving America's Schools Act, the Secretary of Education is charged with the development of a "long-range national plan for technology in education," with substantial input from stake holders at the national, state, and local levels. The plan is intended to describe how the US Department of Education, in concert with other Federal agencies, will encourage the effective use of technology to achieve educational goals; how Federal agencies will support technology for learning, and how they will collaborate to this end; and how the Department will work with educators and state and local educational authorities to facilitate the effective use of technology in education. In short, it will be a Federal blueprint for supporting the infusion of technology into education.

As part of the process of preparing the plan, the US Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology is holding a series of regional forums around the country to solicit input into the national plan from educators and other practitioners, school administrators, representatives of higher education, researchers, state and local policymakers, parents, business and community leaders, and others. The second of these meetings was held in Seattle, Washington on April 7, 1995, and was hosted by the Northwest Regional Education Lab and the US Department of Education's Office of the Secretary's Regional Representative (Region X). It was attended by over 50 persons from the Northwest region of the United States (including residents of Alaska, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington). The day-long forum was organized around four topical sessions on issue areas identified to be critical to the infusion of technology into education. The sessions included:

• Planning and financing a school-related technology infrastructure;

• Professional development;

• Software and content; and

• Access and equity.

Panel presentations began each session, followed by statements and an open discussion. Additionally, video excerpts from Bill Gates' Comdex '95 keynote speech, "Information at Your Fingertips - 2005," were viewed.

What follows is a summary of participant insights and opinions, as those insights and opinions relate to the substance of a national plan for technology.1 The summary is divided into three main sections:

• The vision for technology from the Northwest, which relates the varying perspectives that educational policymakers and administrators, members of the business community, and school-based practitioners have on the potential impact that the use of technology in schools can have;

• Barriers to the effective use of technology in education, which describes some of the problems that participants have experienced in their uses of technology, and some of the problems they expect to experience, as the nation moves to ensure that educational technology becomes more widespread; and

• Implications for a national plan, which offers suggestions for the Federal role in the national plan.

A list of participants is attached.

Until recently, schools could rely on the tools they have always used -- paper, pencils, and books -- to accomplish their basic mission of equipping students with the skills and knowledge they need to be productive citizens. Today, that is no longer true. People talk about the 21st Century as if it were in the distant future, but the graduating Class of 2000 is already in seventh grade. To prepare students for their future, schools must change their tools.
- Al Bell, Richland School District

As Mr. Bell's statement implies, forum participants expressed a fairly widespread belief that schools have come a long way in the last decade with regard to technology -- having moved beyond seeing technology as a novelty in the classroom to recognizing it as a necessity. What follows is a discussion of the visions for and perspectives on the use of technology in schools, from the varying perspectives of educational policymakers and administrators, members of the business community, and school-based practitioners.

Educational Policymakers and Administrators

Educational policymakers and administrators know that international comparisons have not inspired confidence in the educational attainment of American youth. Likewise, they know that an examination of the relationship between school and work reveals that our nation has to do better. After all, these people know that our children will have to compete on a global scale. Educational policymakers and administrators also know that technology is not a cure for all ills, but view technology as a vital ingredient in the educational mix of the near future. Technology, in the view of policymakers and administrators, can go a long way in solving many of the problems and limitations that now plague American education. As a group, they expressed the following beliefs:

• Technology not only opens doors to vast educational resources, it is a great "equalizer" -- negating problems associated with isolation and limited funding;

• Technology helps schools to become more student centered, more interactive, and more focused on cooperative problem solving;

• Technology provides more time and resources for staff development; and

• Technology allows students and teachers to take advantage of the moment by providing real-time access to major world or national events and figures.

Several participants summarized the view of technology as a potential solution to problems in this way:

From my perspective, technology is to today's classroom what paper and pencils were in yesterday's classroom -- an essential ingredient in our age of information. In fact, technology is the paper, pencils, encyclopedia, dictionary, thesaurus, textbook, and library rolled into one.
- Brian Talbott, Educational Service District 101

Information has become a utility as important to the school as electricity, water, heating, and air conditioning. Technologies exist now to construct "information highways" that provide teachers and students access to the world. The walls of the classroom are no longer barriers to outside resources.
- Al Bell, Richland School District

We need to emphasize the importance of information technology in our public school curricula, not only as a subject of study in and of itself, but as an integrated part of the whole school experience. Technology will play an ever-increasing role in our daily lives, and we must begin to expose our children to its benefits and potential.
- Jake Hoffman, Division of Information Technology

Members of the Business Community

Members of the business community recognize that the pace of innovation (e.g., the speed of data processing, connectivity, memory capacity, and storage capacity) has been startling. They believe the importance of having technology in schools is to equip students with the tools that the rest of society uses (i.e., that the school environment should be similar to the work environment). After all, as employers, they are interested in how well schools are training their prospective employees. Members of the business community also know that in seeking to prepare students for the rapidly changing world, classrooms must reflect that world. Pete Bailey of The Boeing Company best summarized the business community's view of the use of technology in education when he said:

The real issue for schools is not whether or not they should use technology, but how they will deploy it....Schools ought not to grab everything that comes down the street.

School-Based Practitioners

School-based practitioners (including educators, principals, and other staff) believe that what is exciting about technology is not the technology, itself, but the help it can provide for educators and other school staff to do what they do best -- teach children. Yet, technology is changing the way educators teach by changing what they are able to do. Indeed, technology is a powerful tool because it motivates, inspires, and instructs all at once. As practitioners voiced:

I am changing the way I teach, because of the kinds of things I am able to do.
- Louis Nadelson, Capital High School

We have broadened the base of students we are reaching, because of technology. For example, our librarian has begun to see eighth graders she has never seen before.
- Marilyn Luckman, Issaquah Middle School

Before going on-line, teachers in my school wouldn't touch research with a ten foot pole....now we have increased our collaboration with researchers and changed our school environment.
- Jan Perry, Kimball Elementary School

In short, teachers who use technology know they can:

• Empower students to pursue learning for learning's sake;

• Broaden the base of students they can reach, by employing different teaching styles -- as advisor and facilitator -- to match individual students' learning styles and strengths;

• Redefine and integrate curricula to take into account that the most important skills of today are different from those of yesterday;

• Provide valuable information about their classrooms to other teachers, parents, administrators, and researchers; and

• Generate opportunities for interactive, long-distance learning, by connecting with people and information resources in communities across the globe.

Additionally, school staff recognize the role technology can play in their professional development. For example, they recognize that technology has the potential to give them access to information virtually on-demand, including information on lesson plans, research, and best practices that work with students like their own.

Forum participants suggested a number of barriers to the effective and expanded use of technology in education, and illustrated, through their testimony, that too few people (from policymakers to the general public) understand the recent proliferation of technology -- much less its implications for schooling. The following demonstrates the depth of forum participants' concerns.

The Term "Technology" Means Different Things to Different People

Language is a major barrier in discussions about technology for two reasons. First, the term "technology" implies a wide array of devices with very different purposes, including computers of all types, computer networks, interactive video, CD-ROM players, laser disc players, and modems. Participants also used the term "technology" to refer to telephones, copying machines, overhead projectors, TVs, and musical instruments, as well as to refer to more mundane tools, such as wrenches and hammers. Comments like the following demonstrate the differing views of technology discussed by participants:

What specific technologies are we talking about? Were it left up to me, every school in America would have a satellite downlink and/or cable television. Every classroom would have a phone and every desk would have a computer work station equipped with CD-ROM, modem, numerous software packages and dial-up access to Internet and other on-line resources.
- Brian Talbott, Educational Service District 101

Technology...[is] as simple as a drawing on a chalkboard or a new overlay on an overhead projector.
- Thomas Lee Wood, Pe Ell and Boistfort School Districts

Much was made, too, of technological jargon -- the majority view being that those who talk authoritatively about technology use language that is inaccessible to the general public. Since the development of technological tools continues at a rapid pace, the ever-increasing amount of jargon that any one person must learn to communicate effectively about technology can be overwhelming to everyone but the expert. Two quotes from participants serve to summarize this issue:

[With regard to the Technology Goals for the Nation's Schools and Learning Sites], I suggest that your statement concerning the National Information Infrastructure (NII) can lead to confusion and frustration. I have attempted to understand just what the NII is and have yet to find a tangible answer. I have listened to various national speakers at the Secretary's Conferences talk about the NII without any hint of consistent definition. To some it means access to the Internet and to others it means any access to any form of telecommunications.
- Al Huff, Washington School Information Processing Cooperative

Language is a barrier, but with a lot of work over the course of a year we have been able to make vast improvements.
- Marilyn Luckman, Issaquah Middle School

Most Schools Do Not Have Access to Effective, State-of-the-Art Technological Tools

While it is safe to generalize that most schools do not have access to effective, state-of-the-art technological tools, there are very different issues concerning acquiring and planning to use those tools that school districts of different sizes, locations, and wealth must confront. Urban and rural schools face special challenges in accessing and acquiring such tools. Two participants, for example, expressed their concerns in this way:

The calculations on the cost of purchasing technology are all based on schools, but in a small district everything is district-wide. The responsible party is the board, not the principal.
- David Mosely, Washington State School Directors' Association

I am concerned that the plan recognizes that one size doesn't fit all, and that defining a lowest common denominator won't be good.
- Lois Stiegemeier, Alaska Department of Education

The Physical Infrastructure of Schools Cannot Support All Technologies

Participants argued that the existing infrastructure of schools and communities dictates much of what can or cannot be done to infuse schools with technology, now and in the future. Of note, The Council of Educational Facility Planners has estimated that 90 percent of today's first graders will attend and graduate from schools that have already been built.

Schools Do Not Have The Resources to Purchase, Use, and Maintain Effective Tools

Additional funds are needed to retrofit schools to support new technology, to secure expertise to advise school districts on the purchase and use of new technology, and to maintain the technology they buy, including on-going expenses, such as telecommunications costs. While funds are scarce, Brian Talbott of Educational Service District 101 challenged participants with a question:

Can schools afford the investment? The real question is, can they afford not to make the investment?

What Technological Tools Schools Have Are Too Often Insufficient to the Task

Tools are Obsolete or Not Being Used

How many of us have visited schools after passing a technology levy only to find the new computers stacked in boxes in the corner?
- Michele Anciaux, Washington State PTA

While computers and other technological tools may already be in a significant proportion of schools around the country, many of them are already obsolete -- or soon will be. Vendors are no longer supporting the products in which schools have invested. Moreover, possessing technology does not mean using technology, much less using it effectively to improve results for students. As the above statement reflects, participants related stories of schools that had computers, but had never unpacked them, because no one at the school knew how to use them or what they were to be used for.

Tools are Unreliable and Hard to Use

Teachers complained that the technology they have access to is not reliable enough to address the tasks confronting them in the classroom. They felt that the tools they use should work as consistently and transparently as telephones. Indeed, representatives of the business community were well aware that tools do not always work the way they should and that they often impose their own inherent complexities and non-value-added processes on their users. Teachers cannot afford the time to prepare two lesson plans: one for when the technology works and one for when it does not work. Unfortunately, as one participant noted:

Schools have been sold technology that has turned out to be a white elephant. They have been sold things that don't meet their needs.
- Teresa Pitts, Washington State Utilities and Transportation Committee

While "help desks" staffed by full-time technology experts are a mainstay of many corporations, school personnel complained that on-site technical assistance for installation, maintenance, and trouble shooting of equipment was not typically available to them in their own place of work -- namely, the classroom.

The Multiple Purposes of "Educational" Software Applications and Their Quality

Participants conceptualized and talked about educational software applications in different ways. Some participants viewed the purpose of educational software applications to deliver content to students and to assess their achievement. With one exception, participants felt that this type of educational software has not yet lived up to its potential. That exception -- the unprecedented access to primary source materials afforded by new software -- is not an insignificant development, as one participant explained:

Your statement that the supply of high quality software and other applications is inadequate somewhat puzzled me. When I have tried to find quality software that brings learning to life..., I have found it....I have been in many schools in our state, and it has not been the low quality of software that was the problem -- it was the lack of software...
- Diane Holt, Tahoma School District

Generally speaking, though, participants expressed that there is a lack of software applications that are relevant to what teachers are teaching and what students are learning. For example:

There are very few software programs that promote collaborative work.
- Dennis Small, Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

Publishers of software and curriculum materials are directed by the consumers of those materials. They cannot produce support materials for a good idea that is not accepted by the buyers of the product.
- D. Joseph Clark, Videodiscovery

Other participants had a different view on the place of content-driven educational software applications in their schools. Instead of investing in those technologies, they chose to purchase only software applications that were not content-driven, such as word processors, spreadsheets, and databases, because they believed that there is an inherent advantage to giving students the same tools that adults use. These participants view the purpose of educational software applications as being to help students learn and produce products, as opposed to delivering instruction.

Valid Assessments of the Effectiveness of Technological Tools in Improving Results for Students Have Yet to Be Conducted

We've talked a lot about the money it takes and the way you set up these different technologies. What affect does it have on students? We have a lot of predictions about the cost and about how to do it, but nothing about whether it actually raises test scores or raises the level of achievement of students.
- Mike Sheridan, Senator Slade Gorton's Office

After a participant questioned the effectiveness of teachers' use of technological tools in improving results for students, forum participants engaged in a lively discussion about the state of student assessment and about how quickly evaluators could expect to see the impact of technology on educational results. Teachers asserted that traditional test scores do not imbed valid indicators of student achievement; what students need to know today is very different from what yesterday's students needed to know, and students today apprehend information in different ways than their predecessors. Representatives of business agreed that traditional test scores are no longer important and that other indicators of the effective use of technological tools may need to be considered, such as attendance rates, drop out rates, the number of incidents of violence in schools, teen pregnancy rates, and transience rates. A sampling of comments include the following:

The kinds of tests that we are giving do not involve the kinds of skills that a lot of the students need now. The kinds of tests that we are giving do not involve computer type skills and communication skills and Internet skills and some of the skills that are becoming essential here, so what we need to do is to either broaden the test or change the test....From my perspective as a classroom teacher, we are testing for skills that were important in 1950 in 1990. In other words, the skills that are important have changed, but the tests have not...
- Louis Nadelson, Capital High School

We ought not to ask about test scores; its not important....You need to hang with us for a moment -- whether that moment is two years or four years -- you need to hang with us for that moment while we build the model [for the use of technology in schools].
- Peter Bailey, The Boeing Company

Participants also asserted that it takes time to implement the kind of sweeping changes that the large scale implementation of technology in schools would bring. While both are absolutely essential, formative evaluations would need to occur before summative evaluations. Examples of process indicators could include the percentage of classrooms with phones, the percentage of computers networked, the student to computer ratio, the teacher to computer ratio, measures of staff beliefs and attitudes regarding the use of technological tools, and the percent of computers in students' homes. The results of these evaluations should be easily observable, reliable, well-defined, and useful.

Teachers and Other School Staff Have Not Had Access to Technology

Infrastructure is two networks: technology and people. You cannot use the technology without the people.
- Hal West, US West

While teachers and other school staff often get blamed for not embracing technology in their schools, it is the lack of access to state-of-the-art technological tools and the lack of knowledge of effective practices that erect the major barriers to the effective use of technology. For example, teachers and other school staff do not have the time to read manuals, select software applications, and teach one another how to use them effectively. Rick Fuetz of Kent School District argued this point most emphatically:

Not every teacher has embraced technology, and teachers get blamed for this. But, its not teachers, its [teacher] access to technology that's the problem.

Today's teachers have not been taught with technological tools. Today's teachers have not even been taught to teach using such tools. Simply put, pre-service education does not teach the effective use of technological tools. Indeed, according to a survey conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates for the National Education Association, a major barrier to the effective use of classroom technology among teachers is lack of training. It flies in the face of reason to expect teachers and other school staff to use technological tools effectively to improve results for students without giving them access to those tools and teaching them how to use them effectively. Suggestions to improve the professional development opportunities of participants included:

Teachers should get training in the use of computers and related technology at the time they receive the technology. They should have access to additional training and support as they begin to use technology.
- Bill Dixon, Greater Albany Public School District 8J

Quite simply, a national plan for educational technology in the schools must find ways to help the colleges that prepare teachers to provide continuing teacher education to acquire the equipment and the training to be an active and helpful partner in school reform.
- Katrina Meyer, Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board

Professional development for teachers should prepare them to succeed in constantly changing technological environments, to adapt to new techniques, and to learn throughout their careers. Professional development must address teacher and staff belief systems as well as skills and knowledge, and, vitally, it must integrate technology and instruction. Teachers must be taught more than the mechanics of the tools, more than the mechanics of teaching. Professional development, finally, must incorporate technology into the learning goals and instructional strategies of the classroom.

Unless Access to Technological Tools Within Schools is Assured,
All Students Will Not Benefit from Them

While there is tremendous potential for technology in education, unless access to technological tools within schools is assured to all members of the school community -- school staff and students, children and youth, girls and boys, minorities, students with disabilities, students with limited English proficiency, and other underserved groups -- that potential will never be realized universally. Sheryl Burgstahler of the University of Washington was one of several participants to raise the important issues related to access to technology:

Computer, network, interactive video, CD-ROM and other technologies provide powerful tools for learning and working for all students and employees. There is a potential to "level the playing field" for individuals from typically underserved populations, including those with disabilities. However, this vision can become a reality only if educators, employers, government funding sources, and policymakers take steps to assure equal access.

Information Available to the Schools as a Result of New Connectivity
Technologies is Not Edited, Censored, or Necessarily Even Trustworthy

While communication over the Internet has tremendous educational potential, it also has the potential to expose children to information that is not suited for them, or is not accurate. Despite any such negative impacts, participants felt this type of connectivity could not be denied to students. Instead, educators should be "upfront" with parents and students about potential negative aspects. One example of this sentiment was provided by a teacher well-versed in the use of the Internet:

We must consider it a privilege to access the world from the school and we must monitor what students are accessing just as we monitor that they are not watching R- and X-rated movies on cable. However, we cannot stop access to the wealth of experiences and information the Internet has to offer. We must be upfront about its dangers and address them head on.
- Diane Holt, Tahoma School District

Forum participants warned that, given the diverse needs of the over 15,000 school districts across the country, a national "cookie-cutter" template to a national plan for technology in education, as tempting as that might be, would not work. A broad-brush approach would be extremely costly and could actually impede technological and educational progress. Participants agreed, however, that the plan should be integrated into articulated plans for national education reform -- as a means to an end -- and that all stakeholders must be involved in discussions about the plan.

Participants challenged the Secretary of Education to "think big, think differently, and remain flexible" in whatever approach is proposed for problem solving. The Secretary, participants also warned, must be sensitive to state and local differences in requirements and resources. More concretely, participants suggested that the Federal government could play a key role in the implementation of the national plan by:

• Encouraging collaboration and cooperation between departments within buildings, buildings within districts, and districts on a state, regional, and national scale; between the public and the private sector; and among Federal, state, and local governments;

• Establishing criteria for the acquisition, use, and evaluation of technology with regard to its effectiveness in improving student results;

• Providing assistance in policy development to state and local education authorities in the area of budget implications for acquisition, maintenance, and operation of technology, as well as in the areas of technology standards, usage and access, curriculum integration, and facilities planning;

• Conducting research and development activities to establish effective technological tools for educators (tools that the market has ignored);

• Conducting systemic, national evaluations of the use of technology in schools, which will result in information that is useful for state and local authorities; and

• Synthesizing and communicating information about the effective use of technological tools to meet locally identified needs.

The vision for the use of technology in schools, however, may have been best summarized by a reflective high school science teacher who knows what technology means to him and to his students, and who has recognized what its use might mean for all of the students, teachers, and schools of tomorrow:

[Technology] is...changing the way that I teach and it's changing the kinds of things that I'm able to do. My feeling is and my vision is that the role of the teacher is to empower students to feel passionate about learning, and providing them with the opportunities and the tools is a very important part of making that vision happen. I feel that this kind of change in curriculum is almost at the grass roots level, but...its got to happen, and the students are going to force it -- the community is going to force it. When you get enough out there, it's going to happen.
- Louis Nadelson, Capital High School

As a nation, we have so far only dabbled in technology; its potential is still far from being realized. One thing is certain, though, with respect to technology and that is that we are in a time of transition; today's state-of-the-art technologies are already becoming commonplace and transparent to our grandchildren. As a group, participants emphasized through their testimony that we must resolve the basic question of how our nation can effectively use technology to improve educational results for all of our children. As Rick Fuetz of Kent School District put it:

[We all]...need to understand the difference between a vision statement...and a statement of vision. We need a statement of vision. We need a guidepost. We need a direction. We need to be able to hold something in front of people and say, "We are doing in public education what our children need."....I'm tired of reading that Johnny can't read. Johnny is too busy analyzing, synthesizing, and evaluating out on the Internet -- which means he reads quite well, thank you.

(1) Note that written testimony of persons who chose not to testify orally at the Forum is included in this summary.

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