K-16
Communication
Few connections exist between schools and businesses,
government, or community except for communications via
Internet. In Phoenix, Tucson and Flagstaff, there are
groups of interested people that facilitate exchanges
among these entities. Project ASPIN has supported
connectivity of K-12 districts and teachers, and has
provided training for teachers on the use of the
Internet. Currently the Arizona Department of Education
provides dial up Internet service for schools throughout
the state and provides information about Department of
Education services and Report Cards for each of the
schools. Schools are able to update these Report Cards by
going on-line with codes for access. Communications with
instructors of higher education are possible if the
schools have Internet access, e.g. research for science
fair projects can involve professors at universities,
teachers involved in advance degree programs communicate
with their professors. Most larger districts have wide
area networks which are used for communications within
the district and transfer of student records. This is
rarely done between districts. All of the external
connections depend on the Internet. Typically,
intradistrict connections are used for administrative
purposes, and external connections are used for
instructional purposes.
- It is important that articulation among the
educational institutions in Arizona increase to
facilitate a more cohesive, comprehensive
education for the students in the state. The
Arizona educational K-16 system must articulate
from one level to the next so that students can
follow a direct path without gaps or overlaps.
Students from K-8 districts must move smoothly
into 9-12 districts, and students graduating from
high school must be able to go into community
colleges or universities without deficits or
unnecessary repetitions of content. Many
community colleges now have programs where
students earn college credit for classes taken in
high school. Likewise, many community college
credits transfer directly into university
degrees. These student benefits can only exist
when there is close communication and
coordination among the institutions involved.
Institutions must be able to agree upon
requirements and transmit student records in a
format understandable and acceptable to all.
These needs are reinforced by the high mobility
rate of students within K-12. In the Tucson
Unified School District, 1995-1996 records show
that 37% of the students were not enrolled for
the entire school year. The perfection of this
system would mean that students can move
seamlessly from one institution to another,
perhaps being enrolled simultaneously in two or
more institutions. The education is the important
thing, not the physical location or current
enrollment location of the student
("Distance Learning Technology Closes
Educational Gaps", School Business Affairs,
V61 N7, July 1995). Access to education via
telecommunications is especially critical for
students living in Arizona’s rural areas. If
we are unable to make these connections, students
have to "start all over again" at each
level—often missing key elements of their
education or repeating courses covering content
they already know. This lack of coordination
leads to students dropping out, because they
become disillusioned with going to battle with
every institution to prove their worthiness for
enrollment.
- Systems for communication need to be put into
place to facilitate interactions among groups.
Every instructor and administrator within
educational institutions in Arizona should have
email, phone, fax and video conferencing
capabilities available to him or her. Master
lists of addresses and position information
should be developed for each institution and made
available to all the other K-16 institutions.
Currently, if a high school teacher is looking
for a university faculty member who has
information about a particular topic such as the
ecology of the Tortilla Mountains, the process
involves multiple phone calls, sometimes never
reaching someone who can provide the information.
Likewise, if a university professor is looking
for teachers who might want to try a new
technique or new materials being developed, there
is usually a long chain of word-of-mouth
recommendations before the professor actually
reaches a real classroom. Middle school teachers
might be looking for university students who
could tutor or mentor middle school students. The
best vehicle now is probably to advertise in the
paper and hope. If every professional in the
institutions had the communication capabilities
and the information available about whom to
contact, these connections could take two minutes
instead of several hours (Kimball, 1995).
- The basic standard for communication currently
existing is the lowest level of Internet
electronic mail. Within most larger districts
there are wide area networks which are used for
communications within the district and transfer
of student records. Each district has set its own
standards. Between the educational institutions
there is no standard except for the basic
Internet standard. The common connection for K-12
schools is the State Department of Education.
Therefore, the State Department of Education is
in a position to take the leadership in setting
standards for K-12 communication. The
institutions of higher education are governed by
the Board of Regents, which could set standards
for that group. However, it is critical that
basic standards for communication for email and
file transfer from these two groups must be the
same! The future standard must come from a
collaborative team including representation from
the State Department of Education, the Board of
Regents, the State Telecommunications Office and
the entities they govern. For new standards to
work, they must take into consideration what is
currently being used within the institutions.
- Technology stakeholders need to develop a more
collaborative and less competitive communication
process. Competition has developed because of the
inequity of resources since most of the funding
has come from competitive grants or local bonds.
Local control has determined what types of
standards will be used in each situation. The
State Department has not been in a position to
dictate standards and there has been no
cooperation among the educational institutions.
Site-based initiatives will continue to
exacerbate the problem. To have a more
broad-based standard, the funding needs to come
from the state in an equitable fashion. Standards
would have to be met in order to receive funding.
State grant partnerships between K-12 and higher
education would also encourage standards and
increase communication. "The absence or
under-involvement of a critical participant group
can dilute or derail the integrated efforts of
other contributors" (Willis, 1992).
- Personnel need to be devoted to supporting
connections between the different stakeholders.
Within each K-16 school and district, people must
be trained to keep the communication system
working. This must include technical support and
teachers. Without teacher training, the
communication opportunities will not become
available for the students. If people providing
technical communication support are not available
in each district or institution, the connections
will not occur. In addition, the State Department
of Education and the Board of Regents need to
assign personnel to oversee the connections. In
order to keep these people, salaries must be
competitive with business and there must be
on-going training available to them. The purpose
of these positions is to ensure seamless
communication and ease of use for end users. They
would also ensure security, perform
troubleshooting and maintenance, and obtain
support from outside vendors. These people would
also work with district coordinators and the
state entities to enforce the standards and
determine modifications as new technologies
arise. Master address lists of mentoring
opportunities must also be coordinated to promote
a state-wide network. This is required to foster
the human connection.
These personnel are required to keep the network
functional and usable. To keep it functional, the
systems must be integrated, connections must be
reliable, and administration of the network must be
consistent with the standards. To ensure the use of
the network by individuals in all K-16 institutions,
support personnel must be available to provide
training and must facilitate instructional projects
in addition to the electronic mail component.
- Research has shown that telecommunications access
can have a positive impact on student achievement
and school reform. Riel’s study of the
AT&T Learning Network indicated that students
learn to write better when physical distance
makes clear the need to provide explicit content
for the reader (Riel, 1992). The studies also
noted that the teacher’s role changed to
becoming a participant in the learning process
because the responses from other locations could
not be predicted (Riel, 1990). The Technical
Educational Research Centers (TERC) project where
students collected data via telecommunications,
analyzed the data, and then shared the results
gave students the opportunity "to experience
the excitement of science that scientists
feel" (Julyan, 1991).
Curriculum within all K-16 institutions can be
strengthened using these connections. More options
will be available to students, since they could be
enrolled in more than one institution simultaneously.
By having students linked to higher education
institutions, opportunities for research, access to
experts, and transitions are improved. Staff
development can be collaborative and cooperative.
Because each of the institutions can share resources,
teachers (preservice and certified) can be better
prepared to integrate technology within their
curricular areas. These opportunities lead to
building a community of learners.
Recommendations
In order to have consistent and high quality K-16
communications, the various entities must participate in
the development of the standards, but these standards
must be enforced by the governing bodies through
directives and funding.
- All classrooms in the State of Arizona should be
connected with a secure Internet connection. (See
Infrastructure and Telecommunications sections
for costs).
- State Department of Education in coordination
with the Board of Regents and the State
Telecommunications Office should develop a
process to establish standards for communications
within education-related government agencies. The
process should begin by inviting a representative
group of State Technology Directors and
representatives from the various departments in
the state to make recommendations for standards.
- Personnel devoted to supporting the connections
through maintenance and training must be in place
at each of educational institutions. These people
are necessary to enforce the standards.
- Communications among different levels of
education should focus on improvement of services
to the clientele, both teachers and students. At
the district level, the promotion of this ideal
could be facilitated by professional development.
Connections external to the district must focus
on shared projects actually impacting students
and teachers, not just communication for
communication’s sake (Dyrli & Kinnamon,
1996). The focus must always be the improvement
of education for students.
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