HART SCHOOLS EMBRACE COMPUTER LEARNING.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

The state public schools superintendent last week advocated an $11 billion push to enhance technology in kindergarten through 12th-grade classrooms, so there would be one computer for every four students.

At six students per computer, the William S. Hart Union High School District isn't far from that goal.

The district, with an enrollment of 12,500 in grades seven to 12, created a technology master plan a few years ago that covers how to provide students at its four junior highs and four high schools with the tools and skills they will need in the future.

Several Hart schools have computer laboratories and access to the Internet. Courses in computer-aided drafting are taught, and industrial education covers subjects like robotics and electromagnetism, where once only carpentry, auto repair and machine shop were taught, said Superintendent Robert Lee.

Implementation of the plan has proceeded as funds and donations come in through school booster clubs and parent advisory councils who work to raise money to buy the equipment, Lee said.

``We're a far cry away from where we want to be,'' Lee said. ``We need a lot of resources to get where we would like to be.''

A state task force titled Connect, Compute and Compete calls for the installation of modems, computers, cable TV, fax machines, telephones, VCRs, color printers, videodisc players and high-speed copiers in public-school classrooms.

``We're hopeful that the state Department of Education, through (State Superintendent of Public Instruction) Delaine (Eastin)'s vision, can move the whole implementation of technology in California's schools forward,'' said Lee, adding state block grant money would help his schools wire for that technology.

The Saugus Union School District, with about 7,000 students enrolled in 11 elementary schools, has a technology plan shaped in part on the direction of the job market and classroom equipment that can help prepare students for future employment. Monitoring technological trends and forecasting future developments also figures into the plan, said Gloria Alkire, assistant superintendent of instruction.

Saugus district parents have been active participants in the effort. ``They've donated money, they've donated computers that are old, and they've donated new stuff,'' Alkire said.

Some school principals use federal funds, earmarked to help economically disadvantaged children, to purchase computers and related equipment for classrooms. ``The PTAs are very active in fund-raising,'' Alkire added.

Still, the Saugus schools could use more state funding to buy equipment and train teachers how to use it, she said. In fact, Alkire is pushing for the inclusion of a technology lab and districtwide teacher training center at Plum Canyon Elementary, which will be the district's 12th school when completed.

``We're sorely lacking in the things that we need to have a good technology program in the schools and districtwide,'' Alkire said. ``We have a plan to improve the technology at every single school, and we see it as one of our top two priorities,'' she said.

At Canyon Springs Elementary, in the Sulphur Springs School District, the simple act of reading becomes an interactive experience between the child and the computer through Living Books, said teacher Kathy Rose.

The CD-ROM program features stories with moving images and sound, which students can control and direct with the mouse, Rose said.

``Kids are more excited about learning,'' Rose said, adding youngsters tend to seek out the related book in the library once they have read the computer version. ``It's another tool that provides a fascination,'' she said.

Children seem to soak up their lessons more readily when the material is presented with modern technology, Rose said. ``They think they're just playing on the computer. But underlying it all, they are reading . . . they are comprehending, they are picking up the skills,'' she said.

``It's a great motivation tool. They'll do anything to get on that computer,'' Rose said, adding Canyon Springs is hooked to the Internet.

Schools have entered the technological revolution with support from businesses in the community. Time Warner Cable in Canyon Country, which donated cable TV to Valencia High School, is one of many corporate sponsors who help district schools, Lee said.

Other community efforts to ready public schools for the 21st century have fallen short. Last year, a Hart district bond measure couldn't quite muster the two-thirds vote it needed to pass. ``A large portion of that bond was to go to bringing technology to the district, and it barely was defeated,'' Lee said.

Alkire said computers in the classroom are vital not so much to give students a competitive edge, but just to keep them from falling behind in a world increasingly shaped by the dizzying pace of technological advances.

``(Technology) not only supports the instructional program, it helps the child understand how these tools are going to be an integral part of their lives,'' Alkire said. ``The computer can be used to find information, to make decisions . . . relevant to the workplace and to their education.''