Part One The Promise: An Educator's History of the Internet
1986 1993 1994 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 Summary
The Comprehensive School Reform Demonstration (CSRD) program from the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Elementary and Secondary Education "aims to raise student achievement by helping public schools across the country to implement successful, comprehensive school reforms that are based on reliable research and effective practices, and that include an emphasis on basic academics and parental involvement."
Teacher preparation and the instructional model are also the subject of Butzin's Using Instructional Technology in Transformed Learning Environments: An Evaluation of Project CHILD (Computers Helping Instruction and Learning Development.)
"As the research literature suggests, a computer can be a positive learning tool. Virtually every American elementary school now has computers. In the early years, most schools placed their computers in separate labs, where access was limited to a weekly visit or two. More recently, the trend is to put computers into classrooms where access will be greater.
"However, most teachers still have difficulty integrating computers into classroom instruction, especially when only one or two computers are available for a class of 25-30 students. And inservice education has been notoriously sparse on technology-integration issues. As a result, teachers tend to use computers as an "extra" for students who finish their written work, or who need supplemental practice.
"But beyond the limited number of computers and the lack of training, the underlying problem is that the traditional instructional model is not designed to accommodate computer-enhanced learning. Traditional elementary teachers teach all subjects for a relatively short amount of time (180 school days, far fewer actual instructional days when non-instructional time is accounted for). Becoming knowledgeable, and especially keeping current with, the wide array of instructional software for all areas of the curriculum is a daunting task for an elementary teacher. And when the computers are competing for the teacher's attention in a lecture-seatwork instructional model, the teacher always wins."
The instructional model is given shape in The emerging contribution of online resources and tools to classroom learning and teaching (TNI) commissioned by TeleLearning Network Inc.
From the Executive Summary:
"Our overall analysis is based on what are considered the four key elements that constitute the teaching/learning exercise: the teacher, the content, the learner(s), and the context.""The endpoints of each continuum define two contrasting models of technology use. For example, most current classrooms would lie toward the left ends of each continuum (TCLC - ): 1) the teacher is a transmitter of knowledge rather than a facilitator of learning, 2) the content is pre-organized by the teacher or 'canned' on a CD-ROM rather than constructed by the learner; 3) the learners have low rather than high access to online resources and tools; and 4) the context offers the teacher and his or her classroom a limited rather than a high level of support for new initiatives and resources.
"In contrast, the overwhelming thrust of research initiatives that examine the effects of online technologies are directed towards the opposite ends of each continuum: teacher/facilitator, content/constructed, learners/high access, context/extensive support ( TCLC+ ). Again, the teacher primarily facilitates student learning, the curriculum content is constructed by the learners, the learners have free access to online resources, and the context supports the use and expansion of the resources.
"There is evidence that the teacher plays a crucial role in the quality of the technology impact on the learning process, and there is also evidence that materials on the web (or on a CD-ROM) that offer stimulating and well-adapted content are a rare commodity.
"Performance that leads to the most promising outcomes in teaching and learning is obtained by teachers whose pedagogies are more advanced and already oriented to search and make effective use of online resources and tools. Those teachers can also count on a champion in the school context which mobilizes resources, thus providing enough external support.
"Effective uses of online resources and tools are now part of the renewal process of classroom teaching and learning."
From the Synthesis:
"To connect schools and classrooms is a necessary first step for teachers and learners to take advantage of the available online resources and tools. To expect that academic results will improve in the short run is unrealistic. In other words, the investment in connectivity alone constitutes a high-risk though, in some exceptional cases, such an investment may pay off substantially (see Unesco's paper at the 1998 Worldwide Higher Education Conference http://www.education.unesco.org/educprog/wche/index.html). A moderate-risk investment aims at combining technology with content (see the first results of Education Ministers' math initiative in partnership with a private company, Western provinces, Canada, in Macnab and Fitzsimmons, 1998) and for more intensive learner's access, this means a relatively easy way to good quality content (interactivity, visualization, simulation; online or on a CD-ROM). For low-risk investments, the favored choice by most people, teacher professional development remains (before, during and after electronic connectivity) the way to go for educational renewal.
"In the early phases of network connectivity, access issues are numerous and the learning is about technology, and the acquisition of computer literacy is the learning goal. As attention turns to learning with technology, a variety of teaching options are available. By far, better results are obtained when teachers know how to take advantage of the teaching and learning possibilities (synchronous and asynchronous) in a networked classroom."
The positive impact education via the Internet has on children is discussed in The Net Generation and the School (Tapscott).
"On the Net, children must search for, rather than simply look at, information. Yes, this forces them to develop thinking and investigative skills-and much more. They must become critics. Which Web sites are good?"
"Further, children begin to question assumptions previously unchallenged. There is great diversity of opinion on the Net regarding all things and constant opportunities to present your views. This is leading to a generation that increasingly questions the implicit values contained in information. Information becomes knowledge through the application of human judgment. As children interact with each other and the exploding information resources on the Net, they are forced to exercise not only their critical thinking but also their judgment.
"Because these kids have the tools to question, challenge, and disagree, they are becoming a generation of critical thinkers. I can think of nothing more singularly important to the future of humanity."
"The ultimate interactive learning environment will be the Web and the Net as a whole. It increasingly includes the vast repository of human knowledge, tools to manage this knowledge, access to people, and a growing galaxy of services, ranging from sandbox environments for preschoolers to virtual laboratories for medical students studying neural psychiatry."
"Needless to say, a whole generation of teachers needs to learn new tools, new approaches, and new skills."
Accountability surfaces in Technology Counts '98: A Question of Effectiveness, and article by Andrew Trotter in Education Week on the Web:
"Twenty years and billions of dollars since the first personal computers were plugged into the nation's schools, policymakers and the public are finally starting to demand evidence that their investments in education technology have been worthwhile.
"In particular, they want to know: Is it effective?"
Later on he states,
"One difficulty in determining the effectiveness of education technology is that there is so little consensus about its purpose.
"Polls show that many parents and business leaders see technology mainly as a tool to prepare students for the workplace."
"Then, there's the matter of raising standardized-test scores, the goal that most educators love to hate. While standardized tests provide a uniform yardstick for accountability and are relatively cheap to administer, they are widely regarded as representing only a small slice of student achievement. Technology advocates often complain that the scores don't reflect the range of benefits students get from using technology."