Many of the families at our school do not have internet access at their homes. Are any of the schools open into the evening so that students can access their homework online? This is something that we had talked about doing, but were not sure if we would have any great success with it due to transportation issues. I know that Valencia library has internet and there are hot spots around the surrounding neighborhoods, but I don't know if many of our students utilize this? Any thoughts or ideas?
Our school is open on Tuesdays from 4-6:30. It is difficult to get parents to come to schools in the evenings. This is a great idea. We need parents to commit to make opening of schools cost effective.
Personally I think that SUSD needs to get the City of South Tucson involved in getting internet access to everyone in the district. I know it's somewhat far fetched, but what if a fee was added to property taxes/apartment rent in order to pay for internet access for the entire city? I have no idea what this would entail but I'm sure Comcast/Qwest/Cox would love to have a contract with the entire City of South Tucson. This way everyone always has the internet and the gap between the haves and the have nots is lessened even further.
As far as current solutions go I think that keeping the school library open later might be a good solution. Perhaps from 3-7 they could have someone there supervisiing internet use of the students or helping with homework. This way students can use the schools internet and get their homework done in a safe environment.
I remember the SUSD "kick-off" celebration in 2009 when Richard Elias stood up and announced that he was going to be working a partnership with Cox to provide wireless access to the entire city of South Tucson. Of course, this was before the economy tanked and traditional revenue resources dried up. In the short term I'm not very confident that the city is going to be willing to shoulder this fiscal responsibility on its own. However, we have see the price of home service drop a bit over the last couple of years. Dial-up service is available from companies like like Net Zero for as little as $10 a month and a basic DSL package isn't much more than that. While I realize that many of our families are financially strapped, we're also getting to a point where internet service is becoming a more essential part of our daily life and therefore more essential for our kids' success (I would say moreso than a new pair of designer jeans or an extra pair of Vans to match their undershirt).
I too have heard that the district is in collaboration with Cox Cable to provide Internet to all house within the districts boundaries. My question is what limitations or abilities will parents have with this Internet. Obviously, their will be some blocks, but there are several parents that have blocks and privileges that have been eliminated for their children to protect them from outside influences. Will parents have those abilities on this connection, and if not can homeowners opp-ed not to have the Internet connection available at their home? Just wondering.
I like the idea of trying to get internet access to everybody in the district. Many of our 5th graders don't have access to internet at home so assigning research homework to them is not possible.
Several years ago, Drexel Elementary hosted an opportunity for parents to come to our school's computer lab from 5 to 9 pm to earn credit through the Tecnologico de Monterrey. Through the grant we were able to hire a University of Arizona student at $10 per hour. This was a win-win opportunity for our students and parents. Students who came with their parents worked on a reading software program and parents earned high school and college credit for free. Maybe we could seek grant funds to open up a few schools across our district for computer access. Without the grant we would need to determine the cost to run a program at each site, this would include electricity to run the computers, and a person to facilitate/supervise the area.
This is a great idea! Once parents commit to a particular time and are able to earn credit for it, I'm sure we could have a lot of participation.
You have answered all of the questions neccesary to put this into play district wide. I am quite sure that our district would be able to apply for a technology grat to put this into play.
Simply opening libraries for parents to play games and answer email would not be an effective use of the library facilities.
Internet access for some families is a luxury that they cannot afford. These are the same families that do not necessarily visit "hotspot" businesses. However, opening up libraries at the different sites would offer access to these families. Grant options should be pursued to be able to fund this important endeavor.
Lorena, this is a great idea. We need to think out of the box when it comes to getting our students/families to utilize their computers effectively at home. I know that Apollo Middle School has broken grounds with their Community School. It is not realistic to expect all homes to have internet access. That being said, many of our teacher will be requiring students to work collaboratively on projects on their own time. It is up to the schools to make this feasible. If that means seeking grants or flexing staff hours, it must be done.
I think having the school libraries open in the evenings is a marvelous idea. Of course, that idea brings up lots of questions. Who is going to supervise the evening hours? How will we pay the person in charge? What are our expectations for what will occur during those hours? Is there grant money available to fund this endeavor? How do we control the number of people participating nightly? Can students come without adult supervision? As you can see I have lots of questions. I do believe that as a district we need to open our schools to our families so they can use the technology we are providing. Let's explore answers to all these questions. We need to make the commitment of time, personnel, and money.
This is a challenge in our district. It's great the students have these laptops but the reality is once they take them home, they cannot submit assignments or do research online because of lack of internet service. From attending the parent orientation for the 1:1 fifth graders, it was clear that some parents didn't understand that in order to go online at home they need to have internet service. I like the idea of the schools opening their doors after school for a short time for students and families to have access to the internet but like everyone has mentioned there are a lot of items that have to be dealt with before the schools/district can do that. Maybe there can be designated schools that have a computer lab that can have after school hours a few nights a week.
Many good questions Edna. Hopefully we will get some answers.
We opened the LRC in the evening for parents and students to come use the computers and the internet for personal use and homework. Our program facilitator or myself would stay for the two hours, without pay. Unfortunately, few families attended, and so we did not continue. With our sixth graders having laptops next year, we may try this again.
I commented on another forum about so many students having cell phones, something I did not see about ten years ago. Once parents realize the direction the district is moving, hopefully they will find a way to get Internet in their homes.
I agree that this is a huge challenge facing our district and I like the idea of schools being open after hours in order for students to turn in homework. Another idea would be to have an after school homework club for these 5th graders to come in and work on their homework right after school. I think this may be easier for the parents and the staff.
I have to agree with all of you that this is a wonderful idea, but where do we get the $ for every school to be able to do this? Can we use extended day funds? Could it be tied in with the after school rec programs that are open until 6?
I agree this is a tough challenge for the district, but if we can open up schools at least once a week after school it would be beneficial to our students/families. This may start leading them to use the library or other hot spots around the district more often. This will also lead to online and face-to-face collaboration amongst students. These are skills they need in the future why not start them now? How many of us had to meet with classmates to study or finish projects when we were going to school? I know there are many questions that need to be answered but I definitely feel this is something the district should start looking into for next year.
It is a good idea to have opportunities for the parents to utulize with the students the wireless internet at school until there are resources for the parents to obtain internet in their homes. Without access to the internet the laptops become far less effective at home. The idea of grant money is very smart. Who is the point person for that in our district?
Question: will students have to have wifi towers with their computers in order to communicate with peers and teachers?
I really like the bus idea that Vail has implemented. 2 hours is a long time to sit on a bus and doing research or homework digitally must surely calm discipline problems. To truly bridge the digital and academic gap internet access in homes is a necessity. Hopefully Cox will continue to work on fulfilling what was said.
Lack of Internet access definitely limits what we can send home for students to do. I really like the ideas on your posts and hope we figure out a solution soon. I feel we also need to communicate more to parents the importance of internet connection. In addition, if students are given enough time with a project they should be able to find a way to get the work done at a time and place that is doable for their parents. For example, if we give them two weeks to complete an assignment that requires internet they should be able to make time for their child to complete their assignment. That may mean going to a relatives house, a local library or any hot spot around town. I feel that parents need to be held accountable and should hold some responsibility on getting these tasks done. My step daughter is in middle school (not SUSD) and she gets regular assignments that requires her to be online. These kids are not provided with a personnel laptop, and they all get their assignments completed. Our expectations of what parents can and cant do needs to change.
I was under the impression that the SUSD neighborhoods are able or should be able to in the near future use a wireless connection that covers the whole area.
I too have heard that the district is working with Cox to provide wifi interent access throughout the district. That being said, there are dead zones, access failures, etc. and things don't always work out the way you hope. And internet access doesn't guarantee that the student has a place in the home condusive for studying and getting schoolwork done. I like giving the kids more options for success by providing more places and times for online use.
This is an issue for many of my students. I have told my students that if one of their close friends lives close and has internet, they could ask their parents to go over and use it. At the same time the kids would have some social time.
I would love if every student had access to internet in their homes. However I did like the initial idea that the district was providing locations where internet was accessible and free. I think that we cannot expect our parents to pay for internet and even less to require our students to do homework online and penalizing them if they don't do it simply because they do not have access to the internet. However I am sure we can think of programs that use the laptops without needing internet access that we can give the students to have a purpose when they are using the laptops at home.
I agree. As I have mentioned before, our students do go to hot spots, for instance, McDonalds, however, many utilize the drive through and eat their meals in the car! It's not a sit down meal in the fast- food dining area!
The fact that not all families have internet access or even transportation to hot spots is something we need to consider when it comes to assigning work to our 6th graders. It is not realistic to expect all families to have internet access. I feel it is up to our schools to provide the students a placed to work supervised after school hours.
I think that is a great idea Kim and one that we must really think about if we want families to really understand the importance of this new learning tool.
I like the idea of giving the students opportunities to use the school after hours. What if we worked together instead of every school having to be open every day. We are somewhat clustered in our district. What if Elvira was open late one night, Santa Clara the next night, Mission Manor and then Drexel. Of course, I'm not sure about Summit View. It would be difficult for some parents to drive down there if they didn't live near there already. Anyway, just a thought...
Great idea!! If we included the middle and high schools in the plan it would give us more options for our families. This idea really helps create community. Maybe we could have a couple of sites open each evening for families.
LOL!! I love this conversation! Many great ideas and I will quickly act on them.
That being said, I'm the Summit View librarian and Karen, you are correct. Our location poses many problems as well as the fact that we are a late start school. Many of our families don't have transportation and walking the five miles to Challenger is unreasonable. Not only that, being close to Raytheon has posed other challenges in getting good cell phone service, let alone internet service. Even I changed cell phone providers to get service out there!?!
In order for students to utilize internet and work on assignments, the library is open 45 minutes before school, during classes, and 45 minutes after school. When I'm given a heads up concerning large projects, I will stay open additional hours when needed. The students do use this time wisely and if they need help, I'm there. I hope the district remembers us way out there when they are adding internet hot spots this summer..HINT HINT ;)
Another relatively inexpensive option to extend internet service to our students is to equip our busses with mobile wireless routers that would provide internet to our students during their ride home. Depending on their site, I know that some of our students spend as much as two hours (or more) a day just riding the bus. Vail has implemented autonet mobile routers on thier busses and they have found the program to be hugely successful, with not only more time for studnets to work, but far less dicipline problems on the bus. It would also provide us with a way of promoting Sunnyside within the community as we could even strategically park these busses at events and allow folks to use our internet signal.
Frank,
I really like your idea of students having access to wifi on their bus home or to school. It certainly would be an extra opportunity for them to connect and get some research or work done, and would prevent a multitude of behaviors that would normally occur on the bus. Interesting idea of serving the greater community to advertise this notion and allow anyone to connect to the busses' wifi and get on the internet. I'm always for helping out the community and it would be really good to see this put into action.
I really like the idea of buses with wifi capability. And serving the community definitely will advertise how our district is moving with the digital age. This could have the added benefit of increasing our enrollment as people see what we are doing and what benefits there are to being in our district. I see that as a win-win proposition.
Great idea! If we look at scheduling elementary schools with the middle school they feed into it would definitely share the load. This would be a great collaboration project for district librarians to be involved in.
Love the idea of keeping libraries open, but we definitely need outside the box thinking to make it happen!