Stanford Magazine
EDUCATION (March/April 2002)
Teaching Arkansas Children
Well
ELAINE, ARK., is in the heart of
Mississippi Delta country, where the land is made lush by the
nearby river. It is also in one of the poorest counties in the
United States. Storefronts are abandoned and crumbling. There is
no movie theater or public library, not even a McDonald´s.
The schools, most dating back to the days of segregation, have
leaky roofs, broken windows and antiquated computer
equipment-Apple IIe´s and old DOS systems. For the last
couple of years, half the students have scored in the 25th
percentile on standardized tests.
David Fetterman´s job is to bring
the world to them.
Fetterman, a consulting professor of
education at Stanford, last fall completed the first phase of a
program designed to boost the technology skills of students and
administrators in the state´s distressed school districts.
Working with Charity Smith, assistant director of the Arkansas
Department of Education, Fetterman spent two days in Little Rock
training students to conduct web searches, create home pages and
set up videoconferences. His aim is to develop a cadre of students
who can return to their districts and teach those same skills to
instructors and administrators, who could then provide virtual
classroom offerings in subjects not available in the schools.
For Fetterman, MA ´77, MA ´79,
PhD ´81, the contrast between Silicon Valley´s
tech-savvy students and those from rural Arkansas was stark.
"They´ve never been out of the town they are in," Fetterman
says of his Arkansas pupils. Through the lens of a webcam, he led
them to the Eiffel Tower, the Golden Gate Bridge and the ruins of
the World Trade Center. "This was a big trip for them. Their eyes
were wide open."
The 15 students chosen for the program
weren´t necessarily the top students from each school, but
all are interested in technology. Smith believes that having the
kids train the adults will ensure follow-through. "Unless there is
a catalyst on campus to continuously get involved in these things,
they won´t always happen," she says.
Fetterman will return to Arkansas each
month this spring to reconnect with the first group of students
and administrators. He plans to start with a fresh crop next fall.
He is also working with a Stanford PhD student, Carrie Penner, MA
´97, to raise money for improving equipment and
infrastructure.
Fetterman thinks the project already is
producing results. One student trained last fall said that until
he learned to use the Internet, he had no idea what lay beyond his
little town. "Is this what you teach in college?" he asked
Fetterman. When the professor said yes, the young man responded:
"Then I am going."
Stanford Magazine March/April
2002, p. 28