Information Highway

In response to “Ways Sought to Lead Poor Onto Information Highway,” Jan. 11:

One only needs to look at Val Verde Unified School District to see how it can be done. Val Verde School District, 15 miles south of Riverside, is composed of a very broad socioeconomic group. In five or six years we have gone from a handful of computers to almost 1,000 computers in the district.

The article quoted MacWorld Magazine’s Charles Piller, saying that the computer in the classroom should go to the teacher first, and that there should be sophisticated in-service training. We have done that. Two years ago, teachers who completed 40 hours of training received a computer for their use. During the past two years we have installed a districtwide network putting a sophisticated workstation on 80% of the teachers’ desks--all of which are connected directly to the Internet. In addition to the initial training, we offer ongoing training.

Of course we haven’t left the students out. The district technology trainer visits classrooms and assists the teachers in training the students on the use of the computer. We now have students in grades four through 12 using the computers and the network to compose and publish their school newspapers.

JACOB P. MILLER

Perris