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How the Internet Improved Educational OpportunitiesA Success Story from Eugene, Oregon
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How can schools prepare students to enter a global work force in which they will be expected to communicate and cooperate with people from different cultural and economic backgrounds? One model: the Eugene Public School District's CyberSchool.Eugene's School District 4J, with 18,000 students in four high schools, eight middle schools, and 28 elementary schools, was looking for ways to harness emerging Internet technologies to improve students' educational opportunities. During the 1995-96 school year, the district field-tested its Internet-based CyberSchool, which offers classes not only to local high school students but to students around the world.
CyberSchool is the brainchild of Tom Layton, technology teacher for the district. "While it is true that information retrieval is an important aspect of the Internet," says Layton, "the Internet is also about giving people access to each other. Face-to-face interaction between students and teachers has its advantages; yet, there is also much to be said for students exchanging ideas with teachers and classmates who live on the other side of town, or the other side of the planet."
CyberSchool satisfies flexible scheduling requirements and promotes diversity. Any student, anywhere in the world, can participate in CyberSchool, provided they have access to a computer, an Internet connection, and browser software. Students from as far away as South Africa have discovered and enrolled in CyberSchool by browsing the Web. CyberSchool is a self-supporting district program which charges students $300 per semester course.
While courses for Fall semester 1996 are still being developed, here is a list of likely offerings -- English: A. P. Composition; A. P. English (literature); Heroes. Math: A. P. Calculus. Science: Environmental Science. Social Studies: Deaf Culture in America; The American Political System; JFK and the American Presidency; Special Projects in US History (for learning disabled); and World History through Film.
To prepare teachers to deliver courses through CyberSchool, Layton offers WorldClass Teacher Training, which meets every other Saturday morning for five months. Currently 35 teachers from throughout the state are enrolled. The curriculum covers use of HyperText Markup Language (HTML) for preparing instructional materials for the Web, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) for real-time interaction among students and teachers, FTP for the exchange of files, and instructional design.
"The CyberSchool concept appealed to the district for two reasons," says Layton. "First, it enables students to take a class without regard to the time it is offered: students can do the work at any time. More importantly, it offers a unique educational benefit: diversity of perspective. For example, consider a high school class about World War II. Most students in our district are white, middle class, and have known each other since third grade. To have a conversation is almost like talking to yourself. CyberSchool makes it possible to converse with kids who were born in Nagasaki, Berlin, and Moscow - it's an entirely different conversation."
"Because it brings together students from around the world, CyberSchool helps us prepare students for the 21st century, when workers will need to work with colleagues who may be geographically distant, speak another language, and have a very different cultural background."
Internet-based communication is blind to economic status, handicaps, and stereotypes. CyberSchool also helps counteract the economic disadvantages that some districts face. "Students often are hindered in their educational pursuits due to accidents of geography," says Layton. "Only if you live on one side of the street can you take Calculus. CyberSchool is a way to level the playing field." Similarly, CyberSchool will make it economically practical for a school to offer more classes. "A course in Russian history that might attract only a few students in one school might now attract thirty students throughout the state, country, or world. A smaller school that didn't have a qualified teacher can gain access to a larger pool."
Internet-based classes encourage active participation Here's how a CyberSchool class is conducted. First, students send e-mail to the teacher explaining why they want to take the class. The teacher then replies with a reading list and date by which the reading must be completed. When the students have completed the readings, the teacher enrolls them in a ListServ group, maintained on the district's Macintosh Internet Server. The teacher posts questions pertaining to the reading and the students are required to participate in discussions.
"Students really like ListServ discussions," Layton says. "Other students don't form impressions based on whether the speaker is black or white, male or female, or what kind of car they drive. One female student told me it was the first time she had her entire say without being interrupted. It also benefits students who don't think fast on their feet, because they can prepare their answer over an hour or even a full day." Teachers evaluate the students' mastery of the information in the reading list by their participation in the discussion.
After completing the required reading, students select an area of specialty and are assigned to another ListServ group devoted to that area. Then, perhaps, they respond to more questions from the teacher and are given the e-mail address of someone who is an expert in this field. For example, students in a history class who decide to focus on the role of armor in the WW II European theater are given the e-mail address of a graduate student who specializes in this field, a retired United States Army Colonel, and a veteran of the German tank corps. These students and experts may also have an interactive real-time chat -- an Internet Relay Chat -- which is also run on CyberSchool's server.
This year Layton plans to take advantage of sound in CyberSchool, using RealAudio server software. Students will be able to hear a lecture in real time without having to download any files. They will also have the ability to stop, pause, and rewind.
CyberSchool has stimulated interest from small school districts who cannot afford to offer a diverse number of classes; parents whose children need to be away from their home school for extended periods of time; and parents who want their children to gain exposure to students from other cultures and experts in particular subject matters. The Eugene School District's plans call for about ten courses beginning with the Fall semester, 1996; they hope to add another fifteen courses in Winter, 1997.
For more information, contact Tom Layton via e-mail or the find them on the Internet.
