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It is September, 1996. You walk into the office of a major employer in town. You notice that everyone is busy. The secretary is working hard on outdated equipment -- a rotary telephone, a copy machine purchased many years ago, and a typewriter placed next to a computer purchased in 1982. As you walk through the building, you do not see as many computers as you would expect in this day and age.

Where are you? Of course, at a school!

Computer technological advances in our schools, and especially in our classrooms, pale in comparison to the information technology applications used at businesses. Technology use in classrooms and district offices is falling further behind the real world at an accelerating rate. Recent journals report that there are ten times as many Nintendos and/or computers in homes as computers in schools.

The classroom is under an unprecedented assault, not from curriculum reformers, parents or administrators, but from the rising tide of electronic media available to students in their living rooms. Compare the typical middle-class living room to the typical classroom: the ever-widening technology void becomes obvious. And, compare the billions being invested by private industry in the electronic infrastructure to the minimal investment made to date by schools.

State and federal government are awakening to the urgent need to bring schools into the age of electronic information and communication -- but it still is largely up to each school district to bring classrooms and administrative offices up to date.

The challenge for educators is to understand the real business in which they are engaged, "the knowledge business." Educators need to build infrastructures which give students and teachers world class access to information in all forms (text, video, and sound) and which provide opportunities for students to thoughtfully apply their knowledge in situations as real and meaningful as humanly possible.

School districts that do not plan access to computer technology are creating "ghost towns" in classrooms throughout America.

Many schools, however, are undergoing a dynamic renaissance.

In our district, with 8,750 students and a per pupil expenditure of less than $4,500, we are squarely in the middle of this technical renaissance. In 1993, with 400 computers in our district, we initiated our technology plan. We will begin school in 1996 with almost 1,600 computers for students. The next step will be to add 13 mini-computer labs, one in each grade school, and to connect to the Internet. Our long-term goal is to have a minimum of five computers -- probably laptops -- in every classroom.

Our mission statement is straightforward: "it is time we give our educators a quality set of computer technology tools that will enable them to do the best teaching job they can for our students."

In the course of developing our plan, we identified the following 12 essential steps:

Commit to go the distance. Be strong.

Support and approval from the board of education is essential.

Involve your students, teachers, parents, and citizens.

There is never enough money, but you must begin anyway.

Before you think about hardware, identify the software/programs that are needed for your school district.

Then, identify the computer hardware that will run the programs you need.

Decide the locations and find the space for your computers. There will never be enough room in your buildings. If you are short on space, consider lap top computers and look for equipment with a small "footprint."

Plan your software/hardware purchases and implementation over a two- to three-year period.

Staff development and training must be a priority. Training must begin during the first month for your teachers, secretaries and administrators.

Teachers must be valued for their involvement, participation and ownership of the plan.

The entire school district (staff, parents, administrators, school board members) must be committed to the successful implementation of the computer technology plan.

Be patient. Be consistent. Be prepared to continue to get this job done for students.

Our program in McLean County Unit District 5 is based on the understanding that computers and other technologies have changed both the nature of the work station and the skills needed by the worker. The retrieval and creative manipulation of all kinds of information in complex computer systems is common in the workplace. Thus, elementary, middle, and high schools must blend their curriculum of reading, writing, mathematics, and science with computer technology to increase teacher-students productivity.

Moreover, administrative technology must provide data-gathering and assessment capabilities to provide measurement and accountability, as well as efficient, effective administrative and financial functions.

Our goals are as follows:

To ensure maximum learning experiences that will enable all students to become competent, self-reliant, and contributing citizens in a democratic society capable to shaping the future and providing leadership in a highly technological world.

To provide students the technology tools to become effective "knowledge navigators" with the skills to enter the twenty-first century, either directly into the work force or into post-secondary education.

To provide the tools of technology necessary for the management/business support elements of our school district to operate in an effective and efficient manner.

To recognize the necessity of aligning curriculum to ensure that what is taught is what is being learned by your students. Thus, accountability and the use of computers to audit and assess what is tested and how this data aligns with our curriculum, outcomes, objectives, state goals, and national standards must be analyzed and reviewed often within the school district.

Based on our experience, a reasonable timeline for the initial steps of a two-year plan is as follows:

Review, study, and research software and hardware needs -- six to eight months.

Official decision by the board of education to begin a long-term project.

Order and install software and hardware, including telephone lines and cables -- two months.

Software training for all staff, and initial data entry -- up to five months as needed. This may involve the following projects:

                    -- Enter student demographic data

                    -- Install student scheduling software

                    -- Train personnel to scan for attendance and grades

                    -- Enter finance and budget data

                    -- Put library records into a database

                    -- Enter personnel and human resources data.

Continue implementation of the total project according to your plan for the next 12 to 18 months.

Coordination of technology with the school curriculum, and the necessary training for teachers, is an ongoing process.

To ensure that our plan was carried out efficiently and consistently, we developed written specifications for the selection of vendors, software, and hardware.

All software vendors must meet the following minimum qualifications:

Provides a partnership with the school district in support of the software.

Has experienced, qualified support staff to work directly with the staff of the school district.

Has at least five school districts within the state that are successfully using the software marketed and supported by the vendor.

Offers on-site, telephone and electronic support of the software.

Has a minimum of five references where financial, student, personnel and classroom systems have been installed and where the vendor has provided installation, data conversion, staff training and other software support.

Supports an integrated, full function set of features including an interactive data base, software and system security, menu and/or ICON access, integrated help support, electronic mail, query, reporting tools and other features necessary for "user friendly" software.

Supports the integration of Apple Macintosh, clones and IBM personal computers as work stations in the district-wide network.

Offers full network management of all attached devices including personal computers, non-intelligent work stations, printers, scanners and other hardware essential to an evolving computer network.

Is supported by on-site personnel, telephone or electronic communication.

Supports a variety of industry-wide standards such as SQL, Windows, OS/2, Ethernet, Token Ring, as well as languages such as COBOL, PRG, and others as they evolve.

Is installed and operational in other public school sites in the state.

The proposed financial and student application software must have the following minimum requirements.

Meets the required federal and state reporting requirements as well as generally accepted accounting principles.

Offers a fully integrated set of applications addressing the areas noted below:

        General Ledger and Reporting Demographics

        Budgeting Scheduling

        Purchasing Attendance

        Accounts Payable Grading

        Cash Disbursement Instructional Management

        Warehousing and Bid Management Textbook Management

        Payroll Library Management

        Human Resources Transportation

        Fixed Asset Inventory Student Standards and Assessment

        Provides a completely integrated security access and online documentation system.

        Provides school-selectable functions such as attendance options by period, half-day, day, as well as unique schedules and starting/ending times.

        Provides immediate district-wide reporting and analysis of all information across all schools within the school district.

Supports both on-line input and scanning of such information as student course requests, attendance, grading and other data as required by the school, state or federation reporting needs.

All hardware vendors/equipment must meet the following minimum qualifications:

Provides a partnership with the school district in support of the hardware.

Has the capability of assuming full responsibility for all installation activities associated with successful implementation of the hardware.

Has an awareness and working knowledge of all state and

Provides on-site and/or regional training classes on the hardware.

Meets federal safety and FCC emission standards.

Meets industry standards for computing equipment.

Must be networkable and support existing Macintosh, clones, and IBM personal computers already owned by the school district.

Must incorporate advanced function features including high speed laser and/or line printing, high capacity tape storage, redundant array disk storage, industry standard Ethernet and/or token ring networking, high speed communications, optical libraries.

Has repair parts readily available now and for up to seven additional years after production of the current model of hardware.

Computers are needed in classrooms today, not tomorrow. If schools are to educate students who can compete then every district must find ways to implement a computer technology program.

Robert T. Malito is superintendent of McLean County Unit District 5, in Normal. He may be reached at 309/452-4476.