From the September
1997 Issue of FamilyPC: SchoolPC
PCs at School: Dark Days Ahead?
Poor planning, exaggerated expectations, and a backlash against
computer technology can darken the future of PCs in education.
By Joe Panepinto and Dan Muse
Don't let it happen to your school.
When Lynne Christensen took the job of principal at the William E. Norris Elementary
School in Southampton, Massachusetts, she walked into a good news/bad news scenario not
uncommon in the 1990s.
The good news: She was taking over a school fully equipped with the latest computer
technology. Each of the school's 26 classrooms has a multimedia PC connected to a $300,000
computer lab that also provides 56-kbps access to the Internet. The school is also stocked
with digital cameras, scanners, and other high-tech goodies. Each classroom even has a
scan converter to let computers connect to TVs for classroom viewing.
The bad news? The technology plan submitted with the new school's budget didn't include
funding for a full-time lab instructor or computer coordinator. Since the lab's network is
based on Novell Netware (the kind of network used in many large businesses), it wasn't as
if a teacher could simply step up and administer it. Christensen put it succinctly:
"We are technology-rich and staff poor." So she made what seems like a drastic
decision: She announced that the computer lab would close until she found a solution.
Christensen's dilemma is the result of poor planning, an eminently avoidable problem
that we help you address in our sidebars "How You Can Help" and "Technology
Plan Checklist." But there are other threats to successful PC use at school --
including a growing backlash against computers in the classroom, as techno-skeptics blame
computers for not living up to unrealistic claims made for them. We believe the question
"Will computers save our schools?" has been wrong all along. A more realistic
question -- and expectation -- is, "How can computers help?"
How Computers Help
It's clear that simply plunking a computer down in the classroom or lab and plugging it
into the Internet will not ensure a quality, twenty-first-century education. So it's
important to look at what we know works when computers are used to support rather than
supplant good teaching and curriculum planning.
Good teachers find ways to use the technology effectively. In case after case,
SchoolPC has found computers-in-the-classroom success stories -- see "Award-Winning
Ideas" in our September 1996 issue and "Breaking Boundaries" in March 1997.
The common thread among these stories is a commitment on the part of a dedicated teacher
to use the technology to help kids master well-defined skills and challenges. Studies on
effective teachers in academic journals like the Journal of Research on Computing in
Education show effective teachers have several things in common, such as a community
of other computer-using teachers, a school committed to teacher training, clear
educational goals for using computers, and demonstrated effectiveness as a teacher first,
a technology-savvy teacher second.
Computers offer students both tutorials and tools. Parents of school-age kids
grew up at a time when "learning computers" often meant learning word processing
or programming. Today, computers and educational software are used in one of two primary
ways -- as tools, or as tutorial, educational, or (shudder) drill-and-kill opportunities.
Our look at "How Software Teaches" offers some explanation of the educational
value -- and limits -- of educational software, whether you're using it at home or your
kids are using it in school. There are, of course, implications for relying too heavily on
any one method of teaching or learning. A recent study by Susan Haugland from Southeast
Missouri State University suggests that children who are heavy users of educational
software do not develop multiple methods of problem solving. We suspect an overemphasis on
any one teaching method will result in the same problem.
In contrast, using computers as tools helps ensure that kids are learning how to learn.
Microsoft's laptops-for-schools program with Toshiba aims to put a discounted laptop in
the hands of every school-age child. Instead of being loaded with instructional software,
however, the laptops will have basic tools like spreadsheet, word-processing, database,
and presentation programs, as well as access to not-so-basic tools like the Internet. The
goal is to teach kids to use the tools available to them in the modern world. Computer
literacy -- and in some ways literacy in the modern age in general -- involves knowing how
to use effectively the tools, languages, and paths to knowledge that are readily and
widely available.
Computers increase student motivation and enthusiasm (and sometimes even test
scores). Lots of studies have examined whether computers are making kids smarter as
measured by students' performance on standardized tests. Most professionals agree,
however, that the results have been mixed, inconclusive, and nonprojectable. Sometimes
test scores rise dramatically (for example, in cases like Christopher Columbus Middle
School in Union City, New Jersey); other times they don't rise at all. Education experts
agree that the changes, for good or ill, are not attributable to the existence of
computers alone, but to cultural changes in the learning environment.
We know that in every case in which computers are introduced into a classroom,
motivation and enthusiasm increase. It seems the difference between success and failure
depends on whether that motivation and enthusiasm are harnessed to achieve clear
educational goals -- only one of which is increased test scores.
Computers and the Internet offer new communication opportunities. Classrooms
today participate with other classes from all over the world in projects ranging from
science to social studies. In addition, students from small, often rural, schools do not
always have the resources and choices available to students at large, suburban schools.
The Internet and the distance education opportunities it offers expand choices without
increasing budgets. Research suggests that distance education and online use in
traditional classes can increase student-student and student-teacher interaction. Plus,
teachers, librarians, and administrators have praised the Internet as a research tool and
for offering communities of educators that end classroom isolation.
Computers help reach many at-risk students. The self-paced, patient, appealing,
and private nature of educational software helps at-risk students in several ways.
Educational software gives students multiple levels of immediate feedback, works with them
at their own pace and level, motivates them to learn, and offers them multiple
opportunities for extra practice and drill.
Again, this is not an across-the board, one-size-fits-all proposition. For some
students, the animations in software are a distraction; for others, using software
emphasizes getting the right answer over learning the right strategies to get there. The
opportunities computers offer for effective teaching are just that -- opportunities. There
are no magic formulas for successful teaching, with or without a computer.
Questions for the Top of Your List
So, in this time of techno-skepticism, here are some questions to ask yourself, your
school, and your technology committee.
Computers: tools or tutors? Do you plan to use the technologies in specific
tutorial ways in specific subjects or as tools to be used across the curriculum? Plus, at
what grade level do you plan to introduce computers? Many educators suggest that schools
wait until after elementary school, when children have a solid base of basic reading,
writing, and mathematics skills.
What are you giving up? Educational spending is often a zero-sum game: If you
spend some money here, you have to cut it there. Years ago our editor in chief argued for
a computer lab at her kids' school, but, to her concern, it came at the expense of a new
gym. Lynne Christensen will be able to open her computer lab if she hires a networking
expert -- at the cost of one classroom teacher. Expect some hard choices.
Are teachers ready and committed? Teachers are on the front line, so they are
the key to successful computer use.
Next Steps
The cycle of press coverage on computers in the classroom has run a familiar course --
the time of fear and dread passed into a period of unbridled optimism, leading to today's
period of not-so-quiet questioning. The challenges are healthy, the demands of naysayers
expected. The real work begins now.
So what's next for Christensen and her darkened computer lab? She says she's hoping the
town approves an override amendment to the school's budget. It would allow for a
non-teacher-certified, part-time network administrator. Christensen says she is also
working on grant proposals, and "maybe," she says, "some coverage in a
national magazine will help generate some suggestions."
Joe Panepinto is executive editor and Dan Muse is editor of FamilyPC. E-mail
them at joe_panepinto@zd.com or dan_muse@zd.com.
Copyright 1997 FamilyPC. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction in
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