It has been almost 20 years since Apple Computer dropped its ][e models in every elementary school in the nation. Since then, we've seen the computer used as a teacher's aide, a teaching tool, an always-up-to-date encyclopedia, and a disseminator of tests and drill sheets. Without a doubt, these are all fine examples of how to use technology in education.

But we've also seen computers evolve from those simple Apple boxes to full-blown multimedia devices equipped with CD-ROM drives, speakers, scanners, printers, and Internet access capabilities. We've seen the sheer number of classroom computers explode in recent years as Congress, parents, and educators demand that schools have more technology tools in an effort to improve educational quality. However, all the hardware in the world will not alone provide what is truly needed in today's classrooms. What is most needed now is not more technology in education but more technology education. Students need to learn how to most effectively use the technology we already have.

Computer skills are required for most high-paying jobs. As technology continues to advance, the importance of high-tech job skills will continue to rise. Then years ago, employers were willing to train. Today, they expect staff to be computer literate-and everyone is now looking to the schools to provide this skill.

Teachers First

So how do we provide this skill? First, we must deal with the fact that many classroom teachers are computer illiterate. They must themselves learn how to use the equipment-and one course on using computers in the classroom is not enough. Teachers need to master computer technology, just as they have mastered reading, writing and arithmetic. As with these earlier subjects, teachers need to master the skills they try to pass onto their students.

Teachers can gain competence with computer technology through structured staff-development classes that feature a solid technology curriculum geared toward adult learners. The curriculum should cover 10 core technology areas: desktop publishing, telecommunications, spreadsheets, databases, programming, multimedia, applied technology, word processing, operating systems, and graphic design. Other elements required for a successful staff-development program include hands-on computer activities and instruction on integrating technology into lesson plans.

Now that we know how to make teachers competent computer users, when do we start teaching technology skills to students? The answer is: As early as we can. Experience shows that children as young as three can to some degree learn to use the computer effectively.

I have served as the principal of a primarily Hispanic elementary school in downtown Los Angeles for a number of years. Almost all of my students live below the poverty line. The only computers they see are at school. For most, the only English they hear is at school. They come from a neighborhood where only a third of all students complete high school and most parents have less than a sixth-grade education. I often wonder how these children will make it in society as they grow older and try to enter the workforce.

The State of California recently sent me a wake-up call. The voters passed a referendum that ended affirmative action preferences for college admission and in the workplace. I knew I had to provide my students with skills that would allow them to compete not only in the classroom as they progressed toward college, but also in the job market they would enter in the twenty0first century.

Because my school didn't have the technical expertise or resources to develop its own program, I began looking outside for a way to teach the children how to use the computer as a tool. I wanted them to learn how to word process, desktop publish, set up spreadsheets, and build databases. They also needed to know how to access information from the Internet and CD-ROMs. Most important, they needed to learn to adapt to new technologies, operating systems, and software programs. After all, these children will see amazing changes in technology before they even learn to drive.

I knew the key to teaching students how to use computers was implementing a technology curriculum that is well organized in its approach and exciting in its content. You wouldn't think of teaching American history without a curriculum, so why would you consider teaching computers without one? Yet many schools take exactly this approach to technology education. Students get shuttled to the computer lab once a week to learn basic keyboarding and how to click the mouse in response to an on-line prompt. This turns students into passive learners who receive minimal exposure to the true power of computing. In short, students do not become masters of technology.

I needed to have a program that had a well-defined scope and sequence with age and grade appropriate learning objectives. A scope and sequence identifies when a task is introduced, practiced, and mastered. After the scope and sequence is established, the next challenge is to create lesson plans that deliver the tasks to children in the proper sequential order. Students often fail to grasp a specific learning objective because they have not mastered an earlier objective. For example, it would be difficult for a student to understand spreadsheet formulas if he or she did not first learn what a cell is.

Curriculum Specifics

I found a program, FUTUREKIDS School Technology Solutions, that offers a good example of useful technology curriculum for grades K-8. Curricular units offer academic themes such as language arts, math, science, and social studies, and the content promotes the development of higher-level thinking skills through discovery learning. All of this can be taught in a way that students find both engaging and fun.

My school started with the 1996-1997 curriculum titled, Operation FUTUREKIDS, which required an hour a week in the computer lab. The premise was that students had been commissioned by various international organizations to travel around the globe troubleshooting problems using their advanced technology skills. Along the way, they encounter mystery and intrigue as they undertake various secret missions. Students created portfolios in which they stored maps, time lines, plans, glossaries, and other elements vital to their success throughout the year.

In this year's curriculum, students assist a fictional media organization by using their computer skills and ability to integrate technology into the organization's activities. For instance, they use desktop publishing skills to generate a cutting-edge computer magazine, and they resuscitate FMI's (FUTUREKIDS Media International) television weather network through the use of weather satellites and maps. They use spreadsheets to put the company's radio station back on its feet by surveying the audience and charting programming formats against advertising revenues.

In addition to implementing the curriculum, my school implemented the 45-hour teacher technology training program to ensure that teachers became just as computer literate as their students. FUTUREKIDS also provided instructors, technical support, and 10 networked computers with printers, scanners, and CD-ROMs.

The results of this approach to technology instruction are impressive. We had students publishing newsletters three months after they first saw the computers. The computer classes are so valued by the students that almost no one misses school on our technology days. Students take greater pride in their work, and their parents are thrilled.

From my view, the key to success in creating a solid technology program at the elementary level is using a systematic technology curriculum, ensuring adequate teacher training, and purchasing the right hardware and software. Just as government, parents, and educators realized over the past two centuries that all children needed to read to compete in the workforce the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, those groups now recognize that all children need to be computer and technology literate to compete in the twenty-first century.