Part Four Potential
What have we learned, and what real potential remains for the Internet in the K-12 classroom?

This research project was designed to answer two questions

• Where do we really stand in our nation's effort to integrate the Internet and computer technologies into the classroom?
• Based on my experience as a businessman applying computer technologies to business, what could I suggest to educators for integrating this technology into the classroom?

The project's title was meant to capture the essence of these two queries: Hopefully, Promise and Realities reflect on the first question, and it has been investigated in the preceding parts of the project. Also hopefully, Potential reflects on the second question and is the subject of this fourth part. Here is where my experience and self-proclaimed expertise is inserted into the equation. The layman gets to add his two cents.

The promise the Internet and computer technologies hold for the classroom, and for transforming schools, was foreseen by visionaries long before the potential could be made reality. It is my opinion that this promise, which is encapsulated in the so-called "facilitator" instructional model, retains its potential.

Though it appears progress has been slow, if we had made substantial investments as recent as 2-3 years ago, it would have been in technologies already outdated. Based on my experience, I know that only in the last couple of years have the basic technologies (computers, wide-area networking) required to implement the promise begun to mature. Although many new technologies will continue to emerge, most innovation will occur in devices that are peripheral to the desktop computer.

We now appear to be committed to educational technology. My "guesstimate" is that it will take another 10 years before changes to the everyday practice of most classroom teachers will reflect the "facilitator" instructional model. The keystone issues are:

• More progress installing an infrastructure with a focus on bringing up-to-date hardware, high-bandwidth networking and a student/keyboard ratio of no more than 5 /1 to classrooms.
• Continued refining of the high-technology instructional model, creating a clear vision of best practices in educational technology at each grade or developmental level.
• Professional development in the form of continuing education and the realignment within teacher colleges to reflect the new instructional model, both in their own practices and in the pedagogy they teach.
• And most importantly - Content! Content! Content!

Content is King
On the Internet "content is king." I am not the first to say this, and it only takes a moments reflection to realize the efficacy of the statement. It is never more true than for education.

Are educators going to sit around and do nothing, waiting for business to deliver the massive amounts of content ultimately required to put the "vast store of human knowledge" online in the many formats required for a wide variety of students?

Of course not. Just look at what is happening. Educators (and classrooms, and students) are rushing to publish to the web. Since it is already being done, let's encourage it.

The effort by educators to create educational content should be encouraged. It should also be organized and funded. In fact, its already being funded in a variety of small ways. So, let's give it a name, say the "National Content is King Initiative" (not really serious about the name,) and fund it at a level that brings educators to the forefront and creates an atmosphere of excitement among teachers. (Should be a substantial morale booster for the troops.)

Educational content has, obviously, been the domain of teachers since the beginning of the student-teacher transaction. They are in their element, and they create content of various sorts all the time. Now, they just don't have to wait to be published.

The "National Content is King Initiative" should fund:

• Sabbaticals for creating content.
• Consortia of educators, organized by subject, grade level, regions, etc. to produce content acceptable to local curriculum.
• Consortia of educators with private industry to envelope content produced by educators with delivery systems and services created by profit seekers.
• National email registration for teachers. Give all teachers email accounts, organized top down from the federal through the states. The simplest solution to get all teachers familiar with technology is having them check their email several times a day. Begin by having teachers fill out a survey of their skills, etc., then they can be emailed personalized instruction and Internet links geared towards their skill levels and the subjects\age-groups they teach.
• Commission Colleges of Education to focus on refining the Instructional Models for each grade\developmental level. Tie grants on their participation in refining and implementing the Facilitator Instructional Model within their own classrooms and integrating it into their own college curriculum.

In addition, I suggest that we:

• Require college faculty to "Publish to the Web, or Perish." Make it a requirement of colleges and universities for our precious tax dollars.
• Ask communities for volunteers to release teachers from classrooms on a periodic basis for inservice development of teacher technology skills. (Not my idea. I read that this was very successful in a teacher's comment in the Web. Sorry that I didn't save the reference.)

The utility of the Internet for any purpose depends on the quality of the websites. Providing quality content is expensive. Some businesses may very well succeed in providing quality educational content, perhaps funding it as a contribution, perhaps finding a profitable business model. But the likelihood of this being accomplished on the massive scale need to realize the "vast repository of human knowledge" (Tapscott) on the Internet is slim. And that doesn't even address the "ownership" and access issues of this content.

Educators are already eagerly adopting the Internet, their websites abound. We are a mere policy step away from leadership by the educational community to the creation of a universe of educational content websites linked together with a constellation of education portals.

Educational content should be open and free because the store of human knowledge belongs to all of humankind. Humanity progresses by individuals building upon each other's work, not by reinventing the wheel. Progress is obstructed by any attempt to possess and control what we know about ourselves and the Reality that sustains us. Let us freely build upon each other's work to construct the common and shared store of human knowledge.

Educators, "Publish to the Web, or Perish."

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