BY BILL KAUFMAN
STAFF WRITER
WITH THE CLICK of a computer mouse, advanced placement students on Shelter Island and their teachers will attend classes in their own homes, as the Babbage Net School makes its Long Island debut.
This week, Shelter Island will be-come the first school district to implement the high-tech Internet classroom put in place by Cliff Dittrich, founder of Babbage.
Mainly geared for school districts with fewer than 1,000 students, the on-line courses will be offered for an hour twice each week at 7 p.m. After entering their passwords, students will communicate directly with their teachers by way of their video screen and by direct voice link. Everyone taking the class will hear and see material simultaneously.
The Shelter Island district, with 268 students, is among Long Island's smallest. A key reason for arranging with the Babbage Net School to run these interactive courses for gifted youngsters in grades 9-12, said school superintendent Lydia J. Axelrod, is "to enable students to learn subjects not taught at Shelter Island School as a result of class size and staff restraints."
She added that every junior and senior in the school, which has grades K-12 under one roof, has been equipped with a laptop computer to take home. "By offering these courses in the evening, students will not have to sacrifice participation in afterschool activities," said Axelrod. As with all advanced placement programs, the students can accumulate college credits. "The whole school is excited about our new computers," said Walter Bringham III, the school's technology director.
Dittrich, 53, a math teacher at Centereach High School, has a strong technical background. An engineer, he worked early in his career for such firms as Unisys. He said he developed the interactive educational system several years ago.
It's been operating on a limited basis for about two years at Dowling College in Oakdale and is used for in-service teacher training by the Suffolk County Organization for the Promotion of Education "Teachers have busy, complex lives that don't always fit into the traditional classroom instructional model," said Susan Gubing, who teaches on the Babbage Net School online.
"This is right at the cutting edge of technology," explained Dittrich, "It works just as if the student was sitting in the classroom." For example, Dittrich said, instead of raising a hand the time-honored way, a student with a question clicks a mouse and the teacher sees a hand icon appear next to the youngster's name on the class roster. When the teacher acknowledges the student, the youngster connects verbally and on screen instantly, with everyone tuned in. E-mail is used for tests and other back-and-forth communication outside the class hour.
"I always wanted to learn another foreign language besides Spanish and this is my opportunity to do so," said Bethany Clark, a sophomore at the high school who signed up for the year-long electronic classroom.
Dittrich explained that the system derives its name from Charles Babbage, a British mathematician who built the primitive mechanical computing machine in the early 1800s. He said he has about 25 teachers available for the 24 subjects that can be taught online.
Like the students, the certified instructors can click on from the comfort of their homes. Dittrich said the potential for the virtual classroom is unlimited. He intends to market it on a national level. "Think of how this can be used in, say, a rural or inaccessible area," said Dittrich.