ALTP News July 1, 2000
Edited by Richard Brincefield

Recent ALTP News

Reminder: ALTP BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETING (OPEN)

Thursday, July 27, 2000
7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. 

• Phoenix: US WEST, 3033 N. Third St., Room 208.09
• Tucson: US WEST, 333 E. Wetmore, Room 323

Dial-in attendance: contact tkraver@qwest.net

ACTION AGENDA         Saturday,  July 1, 2000

Arizona Learning Technology Partnership, Inc.
Governors Strategic Partnership for Economic Development

The July board meeting will focus on input to the Arizona Partnership for the New Economy (APNE) on E-learning:

7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on THURSDAY July 27, 2000

NOTE: THIS MEETING MOVED AHEAD ONE DAY TO MEET US WEST SCHEDULED NEED FOR VIDEO CONFERENCE ROOM.

Phoenix: US West 3033 N 3^rd St. (Third and Earle )

Tucson: US West 333 E. Wetmore, room 323

AZTEA: 8^th ANNUAL ARIZONA TECHNOLOGY CONFERENCE

The Arizona Technology in Education conference is looking good.

August 1 and 2, 2000 Centennial Hall, 201 North Center Street, Mesa AZ

Speakers, Vendor Exhibits, Educator Workshops. Contact Heather Seiferth at 480-472-0005 for questions, conference@aztea.org, or visit the AZTEA web site www.aztea.org.

FIRST OF THREE MAJOR APNE MEETINGS

The Arizona Partnership for the New Economy (APNE) is having their next meeting July 7, 9:30 am - 3:30 pm in Phoenix. Contact cindyg@azcommerce.com or 602-280-1330 for information. The goal of this meeting will be to review the results of the planning phase and launch the action phase.

REPORT ON JUNE ALTP BOARD MEETING

LEGISLATION: The legislative plan to stay out of the current session (including this special session on funding K-12 education) and to focus on building for next year through APNE was reviewed. We decided to stay with this strategy and start building support now. Several legislators that will be coming out of this special session with a victory and leadership momentum are Susan Gerrard (Senate next year), Carolyn Allen and Mike Gartner. All are friends of ALTP and understand the potential for technology in K-12 education. With a well developed legislative plan from APNE and funding from both Students First and the current special session initiative the stage will be set for learning technology in 2001.

APNE: Seth Fearey, one of the APNE consultants from California was including on audio link. He is researching an APNE study on the Digital Divide. He is interested in not only the public access centers in communities but social, motivational and training issues. Our librarian cadre and Oris Friesen for ATIC provide significant information including e-rate, library centers, tribal and telephone exchange issues in small rural communities. Dimensions include small business, email to full BtoB e-commerce. . He was also directed to John Badal for community switching issues, Steve Peters for digital divide issues and Mark Goldstein for more general gate keeping. We will be announcing linkage to his report when it is complete and posted.

We reviewed ALTP support of the five APNE Hot Teams

--E-learning

--E-Government

--Knowledge, Entrepreneurship and Capital

--Connecting to Opportunity

--New Economy Commerce and Creative Communities

Although our sister organization AZ. Telecom and Info Council has issues in all five, ALTP will focus on E-Learning. From our studies over the years and current vision development, to define E-Learning as Internet and video based distance learning is much too narrow to address the full potential. Oris Friesen will create a two slide-overhead definition of E-Learning to take to the APNE meeting.

The updated ALTP comprehensive vision process has a number of excellent responses from stakeholders. Ted Kraver will integrate the current responses that address many emerging technologies including intelligent tutors, simulation, language translators and knowledge bases in the context of individual and small group learning within schools and community including libraries. (There, I ended on the "L" word!) This five to ten year out vision for Arizona will be provided to the APNE meeting participants.

NEW VISION ELEMENTS

COMMUNITY COLLEGES: Ron Bleed MCCCD

Technology has restored human touch of faculty into the learning process. Socialization decline is reversed. Students’ time on campus has been reduced 50% with content being delivered to home or work. Campus time has been reserved for school special services, small groups of people working together, labs etc. On campus social experiences are interspersed with redesign classrooms. Every library and computer lab has Starbucks or deli. Innovative changes in architecture and reshaping of buildings accommodates small group projects, exploration and study teams. Faculty focuses on tutoring, mentoring and supporting the environment for individuals and small groups of students. There are significant savings on facilities cost on campus and commuting costs for students. Learning technology provides real time assessment and course management. There is in-depth and rapid feedback to student and faculty through automatic assessment. Use of email (especially for women students) opens students up to rest of student body and facilitates more face to face cross-learning. Student peer tutoring flourishes as the learning culture has changed from lone ranger and large classes to technology supported study teams.

MORE PLANNING NEEDED FOR SCHOOL TECHNOLOGY

Our friends at the CEO Forum have released a report that warns that the new computer hardware flooding into schools may go to waste unless educators take time to develop clear plans for how the technology will be put to work for students.

"You have to set the educational goals first," said Anne Bryant, co-chair of the CEO Forum and executive director of the National School Boards Association. "I'm looking at the overall goals and objectives. It is a combination of content, training and connectivity." Internet-enabled computers should not be the goal, the report warns, educators should focus the use of technology on clear outcomes -- such as training students in the skills they need to compete in an information-based economy. "Technology is not a panacea and can only improve and increase learning when applied to meet specific educational goals and objectives," the report says. "Schools need to examine their educational goals and determine which ones will be supported by digital content." [Find the report, The Power of Digital Learning: Integrating Digital Content, at (http://www.ceoforum.org/)] [SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Weiner (rweiner@nytimes.com)]

CORRECTION ON CO-NECT – SIERRA VISTA SCHOOL

And especially good knowing that you had recently

met with Leo Beranek. Co-nect is now an independent organization, but as you know, our origins were at BBN, and much of our thinking has been informed by the peculiar genius of that place and that time.

As to Sierra Vista: Even though the Co-nect School in Arizona is called Sierra Vista, it's actually located in Phoenix. I'm sure they would love to host a visit from you and/or others on the committee. I'd suggest you give a Linda a call if you would like to visit the school.

Sierra Vista Elementary: Roosevelt School District (Phoenix)

Principal: Linda Puchi

Phone: 602-232-4970

Address: 6401 South 16th Street

Phoenix, AZ 85040

We're very interested in expanding to more schools in

Arizona.

Bruce Goldberg, Founder/Chief Education Officer; Co-nect schools

1770 Massachusetts Avenue, #301 Cambridge, MA 02140-2802

617-234-5809 (ph) http://www.co-nect.net

DIGITAL DIVIDE AND RECYCLING/REFERBISHING COMPUTERS

Within our AnotheR BytE, Inc. directory www.recycles.org/byte/others are a few national, databases, and links to other groups like Pueblo Project. Many groups want to provide access and literacy as a secondary goal because it is seen as a key to success and independence. We are the only non-profit folks in AZ that recycle - or more accurately, collect, refurbish, and redistribute.

I founded AnotheR BytE in 1994 with the vision of bridging the divide through non-profit recycling and through building a group of volunteer technicians. The idea was to put good, working, second-hand PC technology into the hands of people and organizations having nothing. In recent years, the world has evolved to the Win 95/98 generation of computers. The donations we have been receiving in the past 2 years are much more in sync with what the modern world is using than the past Dos and Win 3.2 machines. Minimum 95/98 specs here: www.recycles.org/byte/publish/win-min.htm

We receive donations nationwide, and at present there are millions of computers in the US available for donation which are capable of handing Win 95 nicely. In the Phoenix metro area alone, there is much more available for donation than we could possibly handle. The playing field has leveled out in recent years. Donors are now giving what many recipients expect. I believe recycling is a smart and sensible solution toward bridging the divide. I do hope you can find a way to share some of these ideas with Arizona leadership. Please feel free to write if I may answer any question or help in any way.

Charles DiBella, AnotheR BytE, Inc. director@recycles.org www.recycles.org

SMARTEST KID IN AMERICA

A recent article in Education Week by James Delisie decried the recent Fox TV network’s contest to find the smartest kid an America by asking silly questions as the sole indicator of being smart. Delisie conjectured whether smart is:

1. Answering multiple choice questions about math, reading and science;
2. Deep knowledge of concepts that underlie the facts;
3. Having the common sense to know the odds of black jack are always with the dealer.

In his 22 years as an educator his smartest kids at times missed questions and failed to turn in homework, preferring to be deep in their own area of interest. They were immersed in learning outside the classroom instead of being "book wise". They were immersed in questions such as (5 year old) "If butter melts yellow and chocolate melts brown, then why doesn’t snow melt white?" They also knew that learning would neither end nor expire.

Sounds like a job for a "Learning Technology Superhero" to bring the not only technology effective classroom to every student, but the "smart environment" so all kids can travel the "smart road" of interest (Internet-exploratory learning), questions (intelligent tutors), and life span learning (technology mediated distance and collaborative learning, simulation). [Ted the Ed.]

LIFE’S WISDOM REDUCED TO A FEW WORDS

To the extent that philosophical positions both confuse us and close doors to further inquiry, they are likely to be wrong...

• E.O. Wilson

The revolutions of thought which shape the basic outlook of an age are not disseminated through text-books- they spread like epidemics, through contamination by invisible agents and innocent germ carriers, by the most varied forms of contact, or simply by breathing the common air.

• -- Arthur Koestler

Ideas are everywhere, but knowledge is rare.

-- Thomas Sowell

The ALTP News/Action Agenda is produced by the Arizona Learning Technology
Partnership http://altp.org, and edited by Richard Brincefield rbrincefield@softrain.com.

To subscribe, send email to LISTSERV@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU with the message
body "SUBSCRIBE ALT-SIG Jane Hull" (or your own name, if it's not
"Jane Hull").

To sign off the list, send email to LISTSERV@ASUVM.INRE.ASU.EDU with the
message body "SIGNOFF ALT-SIG".