High-Tech Homeroom - Schools Streamline the Day with Technology

Originally published: Nov-02-2003

In a few weeks, teachers at Buffalo's Enterprise Charter School will no longer take attendance. And clerks won't have to stitch together attendance lists from 19 classrooms. Computer chips will do it instead.

In what is believed to be a first-of-its-kind development in Buffalo Niagara, the school's 422 students in grades kindergarten through 8 will check in by swiping identification tags across the screens of computer kiosks.

The system is designed to give teachers more time for instruction, reduce paperwork and produce more accurate attendance records.

And while Enterprise is the first local school to use computer chips to monitor student attendance, that move reflects a growing reliance on technology to streamline operations, track student performance and improve safety at schools throughout the area.

"Absolutely," said James Brotz, superintendent of the West Seneca Central Schools. "We're seeing greater use of technology every single day."

For example:

? In a growing number of districts, students are using bar-coded identification cards to buy cafeteria food or check out library books.

? Computerized records allow teachers to check student performance at the touch of a few buttons, and to use that information to individualize instruction.

? Classroom teachers are using computers - rather than the traditional paper-and-pencil method - to take attendance. But that system does not rely on identification cards or computer kiosks in the hallway.

? Staff members are being issued swipe cards to get into their schools at off-hours, rather than ringing buttons and waiting for someone to open locked doors from the inside.

Though technology is proliferating in local classrooms, schools remain behind business and medicine in its use, said Chris Dede, chairman of learning and teaching at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education.

"Schools typically have been behind the curve," he said. "School are very conservative in their decision-making. Somebody gets elected to the school board who has seen his own business gain so much through technology, and he puts it on the table."

At the Enterprise Charter School on Oak Street, a few classes tested the new attendance system before it is introduced schoolwide in the next few weeks. It has already been used successfully at schools in other parts of the country, educators said.

A more efficient system

Teachers will be stationed at two kiosks - one near the entrance and the other on the second floor - where students will display their cards, get acknowledgment on the computer screen that they have been signed in, and head to class.

That will allow teachers to get right down to business, rather than spending the first five or 10 minutes of class taking attendance. Attendance sheets will no longer be taken to the office to be put together on a master list.

"Now it's all on a server," said Gary Stillman, director of the Enterprise Charter School. "I ask for a report, and it's ready to roll. It saves us so much time."

Later this year, the system will also be used in the cafeteria.

Concerns about privacy

The computer chip system - which relies on radio frequency identification - is similar to that used in the Thruway's E-ZPass program or in the system that times runners at the start and finish lines of races.

Wal-Mart stores and the U.S. Department of Defense use it to automate their inventory operations, said David Straitiff, president of Intuitek, which is providing Enterprise its system for $25,000.

The computer chip is generally viewed as the next generation of bar codes, and there are fears that it - like other technologies - could become an invasion of privacy if used too extensively.

Stillman said students at Enterprise must hold their identification cards close the computer before their presence is recorded.

"There seems to be this false sense that we've got antennas and that we're tracking kids as they move around," he said. "If we had done the same thing with a bar code, nobody would have cared."

Although the system seems sound, it's hardly foolproof, said William Jackson, director of security for the Buffalo Public Schools. Though Enterprise received its charter from the Buffalo Board of Education, it operates independently and makes its own rules and procedures.

"Just because a kid walks in the door and swipes a card doesn't mean he can't turn around and walk back out," Jackson said. "You've got to have some checks on it."

Jackson also said computer chips are far more expensive than bar-coded identification tags, and questions whether they are more effective for school use.

In addition, Jackson said, the system could become counterproductive if it prompts teachers to become lax about attendance. "Every teacher should know who's in class when every period begins," he said.

Stillman said that the potential pitfalls have been considered and that the system will be evaluated and tweaked as needed.

But Enterprise officials are quite certain they're onto something useful and are happy to be the pioneers, even though the school has been in operation only since August.

"We're doing what I think charter schools are meant to do," Stillman said. "We're going out and giving it a shot."