Auditors Recommend More Computers in Classrooms

OCALA -- In showcase programs, such as the Forest High School Engineering and Manufacturing Institute of Technology or Fort King Middle School's Technosphere Lab, Marion County students incorporate computer technology into their day-to-day studies.

Both areas were commended by auditors from SchoolMatch, an independent company based in Westerville, Ohio, that conducted an assessment of the Marion County school system.

Most every school made excellent use of instructional television too, the audit said. But there aren't enough opportunities to use computers everywhere in the school system, the auditors said. They recommended beefing up the availability of computers in the classroom and possibly making them available for take-home use or in cooperative efforts with the private sector in homework centers.

"Our world is so dependent on the utilization of technology and first of all having knowledge of utilizing it and being able to utilize it," said Roderick McDavis, Dean of the College of Education at the University of Florida, and a member of the SchoolMatch audit team. "If you look at today's students who are going to become tomorrow's workers, it's important not only that they know how to use computers but have access to the worldwide wealth of information that's out there.

Doug Joiner, director of audio-visual/instructional television, said that the district has about 7,046 computers in the school district that students can learn with. But that includes old IBM 286 and Apple IIe computers that have limited uses.

That breaks down to 3,393 computers in elementary schools, or 5.3 students per computer; 1,353 computers in middle schools, or 6.3 students per computer; and 2,300 computers in high schools, or 4.5 students per computer.

The county would need to buy about 15,000 computers to put one on each student's desk. Joiner said that at an average cost of $1,000 a piece that would take $15 million.

But the school district can barely keep up with replacing outdated-but-functional computers.

While new schools area automatically wired for computer use, old schools must be retrofitted. The school district is still waiting on a federal grant, or E-Rate, funded through a telecommunications tax, that would pay for 79 percent of the cost of running computer cable in the schools. In other words, the school district would pay only $1 million for what's seen as a $5 million job. The money will allow the school district to do eight-years worth of work in one year.

"They are right now sending out waves of letters to notify people they are receiving the discount," Joiner said. "We're checking our mail every day. I'm hoping to receive our notice by the end of the month."

Computers for everyone may not be that farfetched either, Joiner said.

"I think it's coming," Joiner said. "It may be five years, it may be eight."

"We're also seeing electronic books ... but that's in the future right now in terms of affordability for a school system."

McDavis said the district doesn't have to put a computer on every student's desk -- but it must make them more available for student use.

"What we were able to see at two schools, Fort King and Forest, if that somehow could either be replicated in many of the other schools in the district, or if there were homework centers established as sort of a joint public private partnership that would allow young people access (to computers)... that's the key, access," McDavis said. "I don't know if every child needs to be on one every day but access would certainly enhance their ability to utilize the technology and be able to access the information that's on the Internet."