Chapter 7

Basic ingredient four: Use technology to enhance Learning opportunities

I was a classroom teacher when educational technology burst upon the scene in the early 1980s. with the advent of the microcomputer, a tremendous business world. Soon educators began to tinker with this enticing new gadget. Early educational computer programs focused on rote learning of basic skills. One of the most popular was math blaster, which enabled students to practice basic math facts in an arcade-style format. Instead of boring flash cards, kids accumulated points for blasting alien ships with the correct answers to questions such as 2 x 4 = 8. As computers became more sophisticated and relatively less expensive, the educational software application became more advanced. Before long educators were introduced to Integrated Learning Systems (ILS), which offered complete curricula. The ILS software could diagnose individual student weakness, assign appropriate lessons, track student progress, and provide detailed reports for teachers and parents. Some futurists projected that these types of technologies eventually would replace teachers. Other researchers and developers saw the computer as a powerful tool to teach more advanced concepts beyond rote learning. Simon Papert developed a simple programming language called LOGO that enabled young children to write simple programming routines to move turtles around the screen. Children could become active participants in the learning process as they controlled the computer using logic and higher order thinking skills. Major corporations, including IBM and Apple Computer, saw great potential in tapping into the huge educational market. They began to send their marketing and sales teams into the superintendents offices to pitch their so-called solutions to improving teaching and learning. No longer did the textbook publishers own the school market. Since 109-, Americas public schools have spent billions of dollars to purchase hardware and software for classroom instruction. According to Market Data Retrieval, a market research firm based in Shelton, Connecticut, schools spent a projected $5.6 billion on technology in 2001-2002 alone. Educators also saw potential in the explosion of the internet in the 1990s. schools soon were being wired and upgraded to access the World Wide Web. No school dared be left behind as the unprecedented access to information accelerated.

In the early days, elementary school teachers were fairly receptive to this new technology, more so than middle and high school teachers. However, they always struggled with how to integrate computers into daily instruction. As a result, they never did. Computers were an add-on and just one more thing to do in an already overloaded day.

Given the expense and limited number of machines, computers were placed in labs that were staffed by a supplemental teacher. Students were scheduled into the labs on the weekly basis, depending upon the number of computers available. Usually this meant about 15 minutes per week of computer time, hardly enough to make and impact. As computers started appearing in classrooms, they were in such limited quantities that teachers considered them an expensive distraction. With one or two computers and 25 to 30 students, there was no way the computer could be integral to the daily routine. I was one of the early pioneers using computers in my classroom. In 1982, I was a first grade teacher at the Florida State University Developmental Research School. Computers were n their infancy then. Our first computer at the school was a Radio Shack TRS-80 with SK of memory and a cassette tape drive to store data. But the kids loved itand so did I. I could see the potential for this new learning tool. Computers truly could personalize instruction. Computers, along with well-designed instructional software, provide three essential elements for learning: student motivation, opportunities for interactive learning experiences, and immediate feedback. Computers are patient and dont scold if you make a mistake, and they dont embarrass you if you take longer to answer. But as a grade-level, self-contained teacher, I could only scratch the surface. Computer time was still an extra. I had to find time in an already tight schedule to take my class to the computer lab. I also found it difficult to keep up with new software for all the subjects I was required to teach. So, like most teachers, I viewed computers as and added frill rather than integral to my teaching. IBMs Writing to Read programs, developed by John Henry Martin, opened my eyes to strategies for creating small group stations so that computers could be integrated into the learning process. In 1986, my school was chosen by the IBM Corporation to serve as a pilot site for this new program. My first grade class room was included in the original research, so I had firsthand experience using computers and typewriters to teach early reading. After initial skepticism, I was sold. I saw my students learning to read at a much faster pace than ever before. The second year, as the Writing to Read kindergartners became my first graders, I saw even more progress. Before Writing to Read, only a small portion of the kindergarteners came to me as readers. After Writing to Read began, the reverse was true. The majority of the entering first graders could already read to some extent. Technology was making a real difference for my students. But, alas, Writing to Read required a dedicated space, another lab, where we took our students for 40 minutes each day. It was east to see that this type of add-on application had limited potential as you moved through the grades. Where could schools find space for additional computer labs to cover the myriad subjects for each grade level?

By 1988, I had completed my doctorate and left classroom teaching to become a full-time IBM consultant. I remained a strong advocate for technology in the classroom. The IBM PCjr was the classroom machine at that time, along with the Apple II. Memory had gone way past 64K! As a national consultant, I worked with teachers all over the country who were beginning to use computers in their teaching. I saw that everyone was struggling just as I had. The traditional grade school simply could not accommodate this new teaching tool. Something had to change.

Untapped Potential
Fast forward. After more than 25 tears, educational technology has not lived up to its promise. Te bloom has faded. More and more people believe the entire effort has been an expensive failure. To a first-order approximation, the effect of computing technology on primary and secondary education has been zero, write University of North Texas researchers Cathleen Norris and Terry Sullivan and University of Michigan researcher Elliot Soloway in a 2002 report cited in Business Week. Newspaper columnist John Rosemond wrote a column published in June 2003 promoting Jane Healys book, Failure to Connect, which sets forth the nation that pre-literate children should have no access to computers. Rosemond takes the argument a step further and advocates for the removal of all computers in schools until after fifth grade. He recommends that parents homeschool as a way to protect their children from exposure to the menace of computers that deprive children of social skills and imagination. Other critiques, such as Todd Oppenheimers scathing article in the July 1997 Atlantic Monthly entitled The Computer Delusion, decry the fact that the money diverted to purchase educational technology has diluted other important programs, such as art and music. Still other critics point to the dearth of research to prove that educational technology has had any positive effects on student achievement. Where is the value for the money? The failure of computers to live up to the hype to revolutionize education gives credence to the critics arguments. However, I believe their criticism is misdirected. The computer, itself, is not the problem. Instead, the problem lies with an antiquated grade school system that relegates computers to a peripheral role. Take, for example, the grocery store of yesterday and the supermarket of today. When computers and scanners were installed in checkout lanes, they replaced the old cash register. Customers would be outraged if they has to stand in one line to have their groceries tallied by cash register and then go to another line to be scanned. Yes, that is what is happening in schools even today. Students use computers only after they have had their daily dose of textbook work. The self-contained, one-size-fits-all grade school classroom is the cash register approach to learning. Its outdated, but it has yet to be replaced by a better system.

The system must be changed to enable teachers to embrace technology as a partner, not a competitor. Idle computer will not improve student achievement. Computers used only after students work is finished cannot boost achievement. Computers used as substitute workbook pages can stifle creativity and imagination. Computers must be elevated to a higher status in the classroom before their potential can be reached, but the traditional grade school system makes this difficult. The old, one-dimensional grade school must be transformed to make technology work. We must uncover technologys promise before society wastes more billions of dollars on unused machines or schools abandon computers altogether. Like supermarket customers, the student customers are becoming impatient. To keep todays children trapped in low-tech schools borders on educational malpractice. The classroom of today must be transformed. Todays kids live in a high-tech world. They learn differently. They are adept at multi-tasking. They deserve a classroom designed for their future, not their parents past Take a look at CNN Headline News. It was reformatted in the late 1990s to attract a younger audience. As viewers watch the screen, they see at least five images, each containing different information, simultaneously displayed. In addition to the reporter delivering the news story in one corner of the screen, there is a weather report, a ticker across the bottom with headlines, a stock market update, and sports scores. While this is mind-boggling to many older viewers, this is the way young people learn and gather information today. They like to explore to experiment, and to change topics quickly. They are impatient to get on with and move at their own pace. They are ready to be challenged.

Triangulation Makes Classroom Technology Work

The CHILD triangulated model is a system