In a (06/12/96) to " wire all 1,262 public schools for Internet connectivity by the end of this fall."

It is important to note that the most recent announcement is to wire 700 schools, not 1,262 schools, and in that difference we see what is right and what is wrong with computing in public schools in Maryland.

Please allow us to explain:

Nearly half of Maryland's public schools already have some form of internet access, yet the state intends to wire "all" of them under this plan. The truth is, they hope to wire "the rest of them."

That's fine. They should get "wired".

But that's not all there is to this. It is possible that under this plan, schools which have shown initiative will be penalized, while those which have not will be rewarded. It happens this way:

The governor's announcement refers to a website at Sailor where you can find and volunteer for specific schools. Here we see that not all schools are listed, and from prior knowledge of school activity on the Lower Eastern Shore, we see that only schools not currently online are included in the plan.

While that may make sense, (after all, it is these schools that have no internet access,) it takes on a different feel when the activity is peppered with images like this one and when you consider the "$52.8 million Technology In Maryland Schools Program -- a five year plan to wire and/or equip 702 schools (FY 97 - FY2001)."

This isn't a "sour grapes" issue as much as a "fallow ground" issue.

The best and the brightest teachers in our state found some kind of internet access several years ago, and found some computers and some way to get it to their students. All over the state, they are getting by with ancient machines, no money, and whatever support they can get from parents, civic groups and local internet providers.

Now that the state has finally gotten its act together, and found some corporate sponsors with deep pockets, they are going to direct those resources and efforts not to those who have already shown initiative, but to those who have not.

In fairness, it's not so much initiative as it is opportunity. A teacher told us recently at an internet workshop that the web was "the very LAST thing I need. I would much rather have a new textbook for each student than three computers to share between thirty of them. It's more trouble than it's worth."

Will this teacher's world change during the "43 hours in September" when this massive volunteer effort is to take place? No, it will not. Like many things that are done by outsiders for schools, some of these efforts will not take hold because no one in the school building has the time, background or inclination to keep it going once the speeches have been made, the corporate backs patted and the volunteers have gone away.

Would these same efforts be welcome, and enthusiastically embraced by these schools where teachers and students are computing any way they can ? You bet they would. It is in these schools where the money would be better spent, common logic notwithstanding.

The proof of this is already evident. The registration and tally pages, called Maryland Online for Learning reveal the following statistics:

• Last update: Jun 26, 1996
• Volunteers : 39
• Sponsors : 1
• Organizers : 0

These figures are particularly correct in the last category, the number of "organizers". While there are teachers all over this state who could marshall up thousands of student volunteers at the prospect of new computers, modems, isdn connections, scanners, and other high-tech goodies, no one has asked them. Instead, they have whispered it, like some kind of secret, into the deaf ears of people who are not interested in the web, anyway.

(These pages include a spiffy map of Maryland which is supposed to yield the county sponsors, but there are none listed for any of the counties we tried, (and folks down in Worcester County are as sensitive to the spelling of the county name as they are up there in King Georges.) You just have to wonder about these Sailor folks, given the unerring marksmanship they display when aiming at their own feet. A NOTE TO SAILOR: IF YOU'RE GOING TO POST AN UPDATE-DATE, KEEP IT CURRENT. IF YOU'RE GOING TO POST DATA, KEEP THAT CURRENT TOO. Perhaps you should ask some of the teenagers hanging around the public-access terminals to whip you up a cgi script that will do it automatically. Yeah... it can be done, honest. This is a web-server, Miss Foglebottom, not a bulletin board.

What we would suggest for the rest of us, and urge all of us strongly to do, is to volunteer for this effort, and in our involvement ensure that schools which have some hard-earned minor access get some of the great new toys from the State/AT&T Santa's Grab Bag.

We would also suggest that some recognition be given to public/private partnerships that already exist which have enabled nearly half of Maryland's schools to already be online.

If AT&T, Microsoft, Apple and these other companies get top billing for assisting the state in wiring the remainder of the schools, those companies which provided access without assurances of future business (built into the new partnership agreements) are getting slapped in the face while these newcomers get all the handshakes. Hardly a way to encourage Maryland business to help out, from our view.

In other words, if these corporations are going to provide a little over half of the pie, then they should get a little over half of the credit, not all of it.

And, Governor Glendening, if you're going to serve pie... serve it to someone who likes to eat pie, not to someone who doesn't.

July 11, 1996 Charles Paparella The Shore Journal
http://www.intercom.net/local/shore_journal

journal@shore.intercom.net

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