NCSA NEWS

A Systems Approach to Building the 21st Century School

released 1.13.98

 

Contact Information
Karen Green
Public Information Officer
kareng@ncsa.uiuc.edu
217.265.0748 phone
217.265.0460 fax

CHAMPAIGN, IL -- If bringing your home into the computer age can be difficult, imagine the problems involved in installing an educational technology system -- including computers, software, and networking. Today, kindergarten through 12th-grade schools are adopting more technology-based learning tools. Unfortunately, the complexity of the medium can cause schools to duplicate efforts and overextend their budgets.

The 21st Century School project helps educators and administrators cost-effectively plan and implement a complete educational technology system by guiding them through a multistep, systems-orientated design and implementation process.

The project has been tested on 16 Illinois school network hubs and has been demonstrated in Arizona, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, and London to professional school consultants, business representatives, and educators. So far, it has received universally favorable reviews.

The 21st Century School project was conceived and developed by Raul Zaritsky, a senior researcher in the Education and Outreach Division of the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), and Alfred Zeisler, president of the New Jersey-based Integrated Technology Education Group.

The project is funded by the North Central Regional Education Laboratory (NCREL), through a grant from the U.S. Department of Education. NCREL is a not-for-profit educational organization that helps K-12 schools -- and the students they serve -- reach their full potential. As an informal partner in the National Computational Science Alliance, NCREL is developing research and resources for use by K-12 educators and helps support the Alliance's National Education, Outreach, and Training (EOT) efforts to help schools integrate technology into their instruction.

The project's website walks educators through the entire process of upgrading a school's technology -- including team building, planning, and the implementation process -- by use of a functional flow chart diagram called the Infrastructure Decision Tool. Each step suggests issues to consider who should participate in the decision making process and what should be accomplished.

Coupled with the site's resources is a customizable fiscal spread sheet that can be used to quantify a school district's projected complete costs. "The process of planning is as important, if not more important, than the plan itself," Zaritsky said. "Our website walks school administrators and technology planners through the entire process of formulating a concept to implementing their plan. And the cost spreadsheet plays an important role in this because it includes the direct cost of technology-related products and services for education, the costs to support the building infrastructure, student ergonomics, staff training, and a myriad of other indirect costs."

For example, imagine a 50-year-old grade school that is creating a computer lab without the Infrastructure Decision Tool Site. Suppose the school installed an air conditioning system a year earlier without considering that new computers in the school could put an extra strain on the system. As a result, the cost of the computer lab increases because school administrators may have to invest additional money to replace the building's electrical wiring and install a stronger cooling system.

By using the 21st Century School Site and its Infrastructure Design Tool Site, the need for additional cooling would have been anticipated and some of its costs could have been incorporated as part of other necessary building modifications. In the long run, money and time would have been saved.

The 21st Century School project is pioneering because it is technology driven. Project co-founder Zeisler believes "a systems design approach to creating user-friendly, technology rich environments could save America's taxpayers up to 10 percent of the estimated $200 billion cost of upgrading the physical condition of our K-12 schools and providing necessary classroom technology."

Both Zaritsky and Zeisler foresee a future in which the use of their Web-based decision making process will be one of the most important tools educators will have for integrating technology into their schools. Zaritsky envisions ". . .school boards regularly using our website to make their technology decisions, save money, and make the integration or updating process smoother and more effective. By the turn of the century it could well be a standard component of all technology programs."

The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is the leading-edge site for the National Computational Science Alliance. NCSA is a leader in the development and deployment of cutting-edge high- performance computing, networking, and information technologies. The National Science Foundation, the state of Illinois, the University of Illinois, industrial partners, and other federal agencies fund NCSA.

The National Computational Science Alliance is a partnership to prototype an advanced computational infrastructure for the 21st Century and includes more than 50 academic, government and industry research partners from across the United States. The Alliance receives core funding from the National Science Foundation and cost-sharing at partner institutions.

NCSA Access ©1998 Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.