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Program could turn Arkansas' school buses into classrooms Sunday, Sep 28, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - A pilot program that has transformed school buses into mobile virtual classrooms in one Arkansas school district is worth expanding across the state, coordinators say. The Aspirnaut Initiative, launched in April 2007 in the Sheridan School District, equips students with laptop computers and iPods and allows them to take online math and science courses while traveling to and from school. Julie Hudson, a professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and program director for the Aspirnaut Initiative, told a legislative panel last week the program turns what would otherwise be idle time into productive learning time. "There are many students in rural Arkansas, and many rural states in the United States, who have the challenge of long bus rides. There is a tremendous challenge in that that's a lot of time each day, as you know here, perhaps up to 1 1/2 to two hours on the longest routes each way, each day of the week," Hudson told the House and Senate education committees. Hudson said the program also seeks to address the growing need for people entering the work force with knowledge of the so-called STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering and math. A 2007 study evaluating the academic proficiency of 15-year-olds from 30 countries ranked the U.S. 21st in science and 25th in math, she said. Hudson's husband, Vanderbilt professor Billy Hudson, is a native of Grapevine in the Sheridan School District, which covers 600 square miles. The Hudsons developed the pilot program as a partnership between the university and the school district. The pilot program has worked so well that coordinators will ask the Legislature next year for funding to expand it, Julie Hudson said. She estimated that for $2 million in the first year and $1.5 million in each of the second and third years, the program could be expanded at the rate of 2,000 students per year. The money would be divided equally between Arkansas' four congressional districts, Hudson said. School districts would apply to join the program. To date, students in the pilot program have completed 14 semesters of study in addition to their regular course load. One student has completed a year-long Advanced Placement biology course and earned a score of 4 on an AP test. The tests are graded on a scale of 1-5, with a 3 considered a passing grade. Students also have made weekend and summer visits to Vanderbilt and other universities to interact with top professionals in math and science-related fields. The students are given headphones which help them tune out noise from other students on the bus who are not in the program, Hudson said. The non-participating students are offered iPods to give them something to occupy their time quietly, she said, but she acknowledged that "some days are just noisier than others." Sheridan High School senior Ethan Clement, the student who scored the 4 on the AP biology test, said the program has allowed her to learn more and experience more than she could have in her regular studies. The students taking part in the program sit at the back of the bus and are not hindered by the other students, Clement said. "If they have their iPods, they don't care about us. They're caring about the iPods," she said. Hudson said students who live close to school but want to participate are not excluded. Those students come to school early or use study-hall time to work on the courses, she said. "I'm very excited about this, especially for our communities who have had to have their school close and they do take long rides to get to their new school," said Rep. Donna Hutchinson, R-Bella Vista. Sen. Jim Argue, D-Little Rock, the Senate Education Committee chairman, said the funding needed to expand the program is "not a lot of money" in budgetary terms. He noted that the state currently provides schools with $185 per student in technology funding, but according to a recent report schools are only spending $58 per student on technology out of those funds. Diann Gathright, superintendent of the Mena School District, said in an interview Friday the Aspirnaut program sounds like something the district would be "very interested in." Mena students have daily bus rides of up to an hour and 15 minutes each way, she said. But Gathright also questioned whether connectivity would be an issue. "Some of our bus routes of course are very remote, so we don't even have cell service in some of those," she said. Hudson said connectivity has not been a big problem in the Sheridan School District, but she said students are able to take their laptops home to make up for time lost because of interruptions. |
