Baackground

Improving access to technology for students and teachers and developing the effective integration of technology into classrooms is a critical part of school reform in Maryland. The 1999 Maryland Plan for Technology in Education, built upon the state's original 1995 plan, set forth a vision and strategy for strengthening technology in schools.

In an effort to monitor implementation of the state plan, MSDE conducted statewide inventories of technology resources in 1995 and 1997, resulting in the 1997 MBRT report entitled "Where Do We Stand?" and 1998 report entitled "Where Do We Stand Now?". For the first time a new online technology inventory system was implemented in late 1999, which resulted in an online report entitled "Where Do We Stand in 2000?". This report provided comprehensive data sets, including individual school by school summaries and district summaries, that were not available previously.

This report is the second that takes advantage of the online inventory system, but takes another step forward by integrated the State's "Free and Reduced Meals Program" enrollment database (FARMS). Integration of the FARMS databases allowed for a detailed analysis of technology access and use in low-poverty schools compared to high-poverty schools. The Committee on Technology in Education will conduct further analysis of the data over the course of 2001.

The primary purpose of the technology inventory is to quantitatively measure progress towards specific targets in key areas of the state plan, including:

1. Technology Infrastructure
2. Teacher Knowledge and Skills
3. Technology Support
4. Student Use of Technology
5. Teacher Use of Technology

This online report allows for the efficient dissemination of comprehensive data sets to the public. Results are available for the State, by local school district, or at the individual school level. Importantly, this allows decision-makers to assess progress and needs at all levels of K-12 education in the state of Maryland.

Technology Inventory Results

Overall, the results of the Fall 2000 Technology Inventory show that Maryland schools continue to make tremendous progress in providing students and teachers access to technology infrastructure resources, especially in improving student-to-modern computer ratios and classroom access to the Internet. Overall the State's student-to-computer ratio improved to 6:1 from 8:1 in 1999. The state target is 5 students to each modern computer. Currently, 72% of all Maryland classrooms are connected to the Internet, a strong improvement from 58% in 1999.

Teachers continue to gain knowledge and skills, especially in using e-mail and the resources of the Internet. However, continued professional development and training is required to improve teacher's ability to fully integrate technology into day-to-day curriculum activities.

The new survey indicates that technology support for school networks and equipment as well as professional development is shared by a number of individuals within local school systems.

Students, teachers, and administrators are using the technology on a regular basis for a variety of activities. Increases in use over 1999 are modest, with the majority of regular use focused on basic technology applications, such as word processing, presentation software, drill and practice software, email and web browsing. Challenges remain, and use is limited, in effectively using technology to engage and foster higher-level thinking and problem solving skills. Increasing use and application in these areas is critical in light of recent research linking improved student learning to these applications of technology.

The Digital Divide in Maryland

The U.S. Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) defines the term Digital Divide as "the disparities in access to telephones, personal computers, and the Internet across certain demographic groups".

A digital divide does exist in Maryland, with the highest poverty schools remaining below average in terms of access to technology, particularly student-to-computer ratios and Internet connectivity in classrooms. However, significant progress was made over the past year to close the gap in technology infrastructure. No school district now has more than eight students per computer.

Unfortunately the digital divide widens significantly with the transition from technology infrastructure to the real use, integration and application of the technology. Students at schools in wealthier communities are more than twice as likely as their counterparts at schools in poorer communities to use technology to gather, organize, and store information. They are three times more likely to use technology to perform measurements and collect data.

Nearly 35% of students at high-poverty schools report they never use technology to display data in charts or graphs. More than 55% say they never use technology to communicate or interact with others within the school or outside of the school.

While there was also some disparity between teacher use at low- and high-poverty schools, the gap was not nearly as wide as the gulf between student use. For example, 47% of teachers at low-poverty schools report using technology to access curriculum or school improvement materials from the Internet, compared to nearly 42% of teachers at high-poverty schools. Similarly, 70% of teachers at low-poverty schools use email to communicate with staff, compared to 50% of teachers at high-poverty schools.

While significant progress has been made, the state must continue to strive forward to maximize the impact of technology on student learning. Detailed results from this survey should be used to focus resources on bridging the digital divide, to provide all Maryland teachers with adequate professional development, and to provide all Maryland schools with effective technology applications and content that foster and grow the higher level thinking and problem solving skills that are ever more critical in today's information age.

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