Tuesday, March 25, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Gov. Bob Miller is taking aim at legislators who aren't 100 percent behind his $35 million plan to begin funding a technology infusion into Nevada's classrooms.
"The legislative leadership has commented that if we begin this process of setting up a technology fund, we will be forced to commit more and more money to ensure that every student has access to computers," Miller said Monday at a conference on technology's role in the future of education.
"First of all, wouldn't that be a desirable goal?"
He said embracing the view of opposing legislators is "kind of like the Nevada Legislature telling Governor Adams in the late 1800s that we need to stop investing in textbooks because that means we'll have to buy new ones in a couple of years."
Miller spoke to nearly 200 educators, parents and students at the conference titled "Entering the Millenium -- Embracing the Future." He urged them to e-mail their legislators with support for his school computers plan.
Miller's request before the Legislature is the first of six phases of a $175 million plan that he says eventually would put five computers in every classroom. The first phase would last through his tenure as governor, which ends in 1999.
But some legislators, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Raggio, R-Reno, say Miller's cost estimate is conservative.
Raggio has said that to complete the technology plan it would cost more like $233 million by the year 2003.
Still, Miller is optimistic about getting his plan past the Legislature.
"I think the chances of the Legislature passing the plan are good, but we have some individuals and leadership that don't consider it as high of a priority as I do," Miller said.
"It isn't a clear definition. (Sen.) Raggio is not opposed to technology, but he won't indicate how much he is willing to dedicate to it."
If the technology plan is approved, all of the $35 million won't actually go toward computer hardware. Miller said one-third of the money will go for hardware, one-third toward software and one-third for teacher training and equipment repair.
Schools will receive technology money in the form of grants, and may include in their requests items such as satellite receivers to replace or enhance existing systems, Miller said.
Teacher training will be a critical element of the success of integrating computers into the classroom. In many classrooms throughout the Clark County School District, students are oftentimes more computer literate than their teachers are.
Many of those attending the conference at the Golden Nugget agreed it will take long-range, consistent training to achieve computer literacy and mastery throughout the school district's teaching force.
"It's (teacher training) got to be long range and continuous, not just one-shot training," said Wayne Tanaka, Clark High School principal.
"How a person teaches with a computer has to be taught," he said. "It will take at least a year (of training) for a teacher to reach the comfort level they need" to effectively use computers in the classroom.
Tanaka stressed that for the training to be effective, teachers need to have access to computers on a daily basis to reinforce what they have learned.
LuAnn Day, president of the Ferron Elementary School PTA, agreed with Tanaka and said that's a complaint she's heard many times from teachers.
"The frustration for a lot of teachers is that they go to in-services and then go back to their schools and don't have the tools to apply what they have learned," Day said.
"Maybe the answer is to put one computer on every teacher's desk."
It took Kim Friel, assistant principal at Fremont Middle School, two years to get her staff fully trained, but she doesn't see it as an overwhelming task facing the district.
"I think it's an exciting challenge," Friel said. "If they (staff) have encouragement, it's not that big of a challenge. It took us two years and we had great in-services. Even those most opposed to it got excited about it."
Tyrone Armstrong, a social science teacher at Las Vegas High School, said meeting the challenge of making every teacher in the district computer literate depends on school leadership.
"You have those teachers who want to learn computers and you have those that don't," Armstrong said. "It comes from the administration. They have to get the message across that 'We would like all of you to become computer literate' for it to work. You have to have a clear administrative vision."
Day, who has children at Fremont, Woodbury Middle School and Chaparral High School, supports the governor's plan and is sure the district's teachers can meet the challenge.
"I think all of the teachers have the potential to be able to do it," Day said. "It's just that it's new in the schools and it's going to take some time to get everyone trained."
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