Instructional Capacity
South Carolina Technology Plan Goal:
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE), school districts and individual schools will use current and emerging technologies to create learner-centered instructional environments that enhance academic achievement.
K–12 School Technology Initiative Efforts to Support the Goal:
Students must be provided with adequate technology tools and appropriate environments to learn effectively. Such technology must be in place in order for schools to teach science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) as stressed in the SCDE Math and Science Hub’s STEM Initiative. The K–12 School Technology Initiative has actively supported and increased instructional capacity in South Carolina schools by allowing districts to meet state and federal legislative mandates addressed under this dimension.
The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) goal which states that “every student shall be technologically literate by the time the student finishes the eighth grade, regardless of the student's race, ethnicity, gender, family income, geographic location or disability,” prompted the SCDE’s Office of eLearning to administer a technology literacy assessment to over 1,800 students from throughout South Carolina. These students – chosen from varying programs such as E2T2, lottery-funded and laptop districts – were rated below the middle school average in all six of the technology skill areas.
Another initiative that the K-12 School Technology Initiative supports is one that will help to ensure that South Carolina’s students will be better prepared to be effective in the 21st century. The SCDE’s Office of eLearning, using K-12 School Technology Initiative funding, has developed grade-level assessments, resources and portfolios for K-8th grade.
K–12 School Technology Initiative funds also support current technology, including television through school cable systems, satellite and the Digital Education Services (DES) centers, formerly known as Distance Education Learning Centers (DELC). Each DES is equipped to broadcast a minimum of four TV channels simultaneously with educational resources that can support each school’s instructional needs. In addition, K–12 School Technology Initiative funding helped build ETV’s satellite, DES infrastructure, and also funds ETV’s Educational Technology Service to maintain systems.
K-12 School Technology Initiative funding also helped develop the largest closed-circuit television system in the nation. This system is delivered through broadcast technology that is poised to migrate into a robust state-wide broadband Internet cloud. These educational channels use the Education Broadcast Services (EBS) spectrum, and due to FCC re-regulation and changes in technology the state and ETV now have the opportunity to utilize the channel’s excess capacity by leasing to wireless broadband Telcos. The legislature has formed an EBS commission, which is currently in the process of issuing and negotiating a Request for Proposals to lease the excess capacity.
Funding provided through the K-12 School Technology Initiative also helps to support current and legacy technologies, as well as provide for the means of transitioning to and supporting emerging Web-based technologies.
Satellite distribution, supported by the K-12 School Technology Initiative, continues to be a cost effective delivery system to support a wide range of learners. ETV’s satellite system provides distribution of educational and instructional programming to a wide range of areas including
K-12 public schools, colleges, universities, state and local government agencies, state law enforcement agencies and the state emergency preparedness service.
K-12 School Technology Initiative funding has also helped to further develop and improve upon ETV’s digital satellite, DES infrastructure, DES IP distribution technologies and to fund ETV’s Education Technology Department (ET) to assist in maintaining systems and infrastructure.
The Division of State Information Technology (State IT) utilizes K–12 School Technology Initiative funding to provide the mission-critical telecommunications network and Internet connectivity for K–12 schools and public libraries statewide so that appropriate instructional capacity can be achieved in South Carolina’s schools. Without this connectivity, schools and students would not benefit from key initiatives such as the South Carolina Virtual School program and StreamlineSC that enhance teacher, administrator and student learning.
K–12 School Technology Initiative funding also played a critical role in ensuring that the Palmetto state was one of the first five states in the country with telecommunications connectivity including a statewide network and Internet access provided to all K–12 schools. In addition, South Carolina was one of the first states in the country with connectivity to all public libraries.
As a result of this achievement, 100% of the schools in South Carolina meet the CEO Forum’s standard of “high-tech” schools for connectivity. The CEO Forum determines technology readiness through an assessment which ranks schools, districts and states on four levels. The “high-tech” score is the highest an educational entity can receive. These are accomplishments for which each South Carolinian can be proud.
In 2007, the South Carolina General Assembly appropriated funds to initiate the iAm Laptop Project, a venture designed to provide a laptop computer for every ninth grader in six pilot schools located across the state. Working with technology is a requirement for almost all future jobs, and as such, students must possess the necessary skills and knowledge to be competitive in such a workforce. By providing students with the tools they’ll use every day in their jobs, the state is giving them more than a computer – they are providing daily training. Teachers are also provided with computers and incorporate the use of technology into their lesson plans.
K–12 School Technology Initiative funding has historically enabled South Carolina to surpass the national average for student per computer. Unfortunately, however, according to the Education Week’s 2007 Technology Counts survey, this ratio has declined over the course of the past two years to the point where the state and national averages are identical at 3.8 students per computer. While the ratio of students to computers are matching, the numbers tell a different story when dissected into adequate computers (less than 18 months old), moderate computers (more than 18 months old but less than 48) and low end computers (more than 49 months old).
Essentially, while our students have access to computers, the capacity of these computers to run critical programs such as StreamlineSC, Virtual School courses, computer-based assessment and other system demanding hardware is lacking. The legislature is moving South Carolina in the right direction in the areas of virtual learning and online assessment, however, adequate technology must be provided to support these applications and initiatives throughout the state.
See what South Carolina educators are saying about StreamlineSC and other Virtual School courses.
Read the 2008 Progress Report of the South Carolina K-12 Technology Initiative. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view the report. If you do not have it, click here to download it for free.)