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Wednesday, February 02, 2000
By Eleanor Chute, Post-Gazette Education Writer
Finding a good piece of educational software is like finding a good pair of shoes: You can't rely on what other people say. You have to try them.
Keystone Oaks School District technology coordinator Kathy Clark recalls when she relied on good reviews of "Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing."
"Years and years ago, I bought some of them without having previewed them. In terms of teaching a sequential typing program, it's terrible," she said.
Instead, the district relies on UltraKey and Typing Tutor 7.0 and uses Mavis Beacon's program only for enhancement.
Now the district has a formal evaluation process for purchasing software, and it includes trying out review copies before a purchase. "We're more sophisticated in what we do and can select," Clark said. "Now that the teachers have used software, they're pickier."
Charles Blaschke, president of Education Turnkey Systems, an education market research firm in Falls Church, Va., estimated that districts nationwide will spend as much as $200 million of their E-rate money on software and staff development.
While software isn't covered by the E-rate, many districts spent their own money on E-rate-eligible expenses, and then spend their reimbursement checks that come later on software.
Finding educational software that fits with the curriculum can be a challenge.
In the Pittsburgh Public Schools, each student computer in the new technology plan has an array of software tools: Microsoft Word, Excel, Power Point, Access, Publisher, Encarta encyclopedia, Outlook, Internet Explorer and Bookshelf, including a dictionary, thesaurus, atlas and almanac. Newer computers also have Encarta Africana. Computers for teachers include a grading package.
Rick Wertheimer, district technology coordinator in the area of instruction, said some available software relates to a subject area - such as Math Blaster or Reader Rabbit - but it doesn't tie into the curriculum.
"Slowly, there appear to be software packages that are coming out that are working much harder at integrating with the curriculum, with lesson plans keyed to textbooks, keyed to assessment standards and the like," said Wertheimer.
The district's recently adopted seventh-grade language arts book, "Elements of Literature" by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, included a software package, said curriculum specialist Ruth Leff.
The language arts book cost $357,000 for three grade levels. The publisher included two CD-ROMs, a writer's workshop and language workshop, for each of the 40 seventh-grade teachers at no extra cost.
But even if the district had had to pay for them, at about $37 each, the software would have been much less expensive than books and other materials.
The writer's workshop software lets students interact with videos of authors in eight genres of writing and then helps them work through their writing in each genre.
"It's very motivating for kids. It's not gamey. This is really instructional yet you see the kids actively involved in it," Leff said.
To help school officials become more scientific about evaluating software, the Buhl Foundation has awarded the district a $165,000 grant for developing a software review program.
"By the end of the year, we'll have a sense of what software really lines up with what we're doing," Wertheimer said.
The district now owns the software and doesn't pay any additional fees or receive any upgrades or tech service.
Most software adoptions in Fox Chapel are more modest. More typical software prices are $25 to $100 per computer, Gusky said.
Obrosky said buying software is a never-ending cycle of not only acquiring new programs but updating old ones. Last year, the district updated its computer-assisted design software at a cost of $1,100 per machine or about $20,000.
Keystone Oaks' Clark said the ClassWorks program was worth the cost because it is used by about 1,900 students a year and can help teachers to meet the needs of the lowest to the highest performing student and keeps track of the student's work. "One of the big things software does is it helps us to teach to the differences. If the software doesn't adapt, work at one level and adjust to another level, it's not much use to us," she said.
Here's a sampling of the software policies and practices in some other local districts: In Moon Area, the school board votes on curriculum software, said Kimberly Jones, technology coordinator. For example, a recent math adoption of the Silver Burdett Ginn Mathematics included about $12,000 of curriculum software. In Quaker Valley, Joseph Marrone, director of technology and information services, said software that ties directly into the curriculum is reviewed by curriculum committees and adopted by the school board, just as textbooks are. In 1994, Fox Chapel Area School District spent about $600,000 for the Computer Curriculum Corp. math and reading programs. That permitted 300 students to use it simultaneously. The district paid an annual fee of $75,000 a year for three years, including upgrades and tech service. In Upper St. Clair, Robert Obrosky, director of technology, said much of the district's software budget is spent on the Jostens integrated learning system, a new version of which the district is buying for about $150,000 over three years. The district previously invested about $350,000 for software and hardware to get started with Jostens. About four years ago when the district issued bonds to upgrade its technology, the Keystone Oaks School District spent $400,000 on software, including the $80,000 ClassWorks program for reading and math in kindergarten through eighth grade. Now the annual software budget is about $21,000.