Learning via multimedia computers

Reviewer: John R. Ray

Introduction In the introduction to this special issue, guest editor Elliot Soloway states, “education stands in stark contrast to our other institutions where communications technologies are integrated into the daily fabric of activity. These technologies are the new infrastructures, the new way in which people communicate, make decisions, and develop artifacts.” The editor has grouped papers addressing educational issues into three broad categories—“Educational Systems and Designs,” “Educational Tools,” and “Educational Policies and Issues.” The breadth of coverage is outstanding and the depth—allowing for the restrictions of space—is good. Topics include those expected (reading, science, and computer science) but also school organization, technologies for knowledge building discourse, and designs for the new American school. Part 1: Educational Systems and Designs Hawkins Hawkins notes that discussions of the promise of technology for improving education have focused too narrowly on “isolated learning” with machines and too little on a deliberate emphasis on designing and using technology to improve the “organization of schooling.” He takes the position that students learn well when they are engaged in active exploration, interpretation, and construction of ideas and products with multiple resources and people throughout the disciplines. Second, he notes that students learn well in the environment where they are personally well known. The best instructor offers individualized diagnosis and help. It is unlikely that the use of current and emerging technologies can be incorporated into the present system without precautions being taken requiring careful planning for restructuring. More flexible scheduling; reorganized space; and relationships among staff, administrators, and students are significant factors needing deliberation. Just because technology can support significantly enhanced learning conditions does not mean that it will. The experiences of the last decade provide abundant evidence that technology does not of itself radically alter the conditions of schooling. Ruopp and Gal LabNet—a prototype teacher support project—is designed to excite the curiosity of young minds about the major questions of the physical universe. Three important points interface throughout LabNet: science projects used to intensify scientific learning for students; a supportive community of practice among LabNet teachers; and the promotion of new technologies in scientific teaching and learning. LabNet teachers demonstrate the effectiveness of this dedicated network by discussing the information shared by two classes collaborating on a project; searching for additional financial and technological resources; exploring different teaching aids and science activities; and generally improving their technological expertise. Scardamalia and Bereiter Some pervasive strategies for schoolwork may be broadly characterized as knowledge reproduction strategies. They have limited potential for advancing knowledge, and often are not very effective for purposes of memorization and organization of knowledge. Knowledge building strategies are, by contrast, focused on the development of understanding. These strategies, however, are comparatively rare among schoolchildren, and they seem destined to remain so because school discourse effectively excludes them. Todays educational computing tends to support knowledge reproduction strategies rather than knowledge-building. While this is obvious regarding much of the courseware on the market, it is equally true of the software tools that are popularly thought to encourage more active learning. The authors discuss second-order computing facilities and a system being developed to foster and support knowledge building in schools. The system is computer-supported intentional learning environments (CSILE). The aim of this system is to engage students in the same sorts of intellectual and cultural processes that sustain real-world scientists in efforts at knowledge advancement. The goal of computer-based knowledge-building environments in education is to fundamentally alter educational discourse so that knowledge reproduction processes give way to knowledge-building processes. The CSILE is designed to encourage group processes and progressive discourse via its communal database. As authors of public-access material, students come to see themselves as contributors to knowledge, not passive recipients. Hunter This paper focuses on two main ideas. First, new models of learning and teaching are made possible by the assumption that learners and teachers as individuals and groups can interact with geographically and institutionally distributed human and information resources. Second, application of the concepts and technology of internetworking may make it possible for separate reform efforts of diverse groups and individuals to contribute to the building of a new educational system providing more accessible, higher-quality learning opportunities. A central characteristic in many educational reform projects is that learners are contributors to the collaborative knowledge base of the learning community. A growing number of teachers and students participate in networked communities such as those formed on FrEdMail (a free educational electronic mail network initiated and maintained by teachers throughout the US) or on electronic mail lists on the Internet, or on newsgroups on USENET and K-12Net. Pearlman At the time this paper was written, 11 identified design teams were at work developing designs for the new generation of American schools under grants from the New American Schools Development Cooperation (NASDC). The author contends that these design teams would benefit greatly by adopting and adapting the experience of those exemplary innovative schools launched in this country during the past five years. Many of these schools started with an assumption that technology would play a major role, but that first the curriculum, school organization, and learning environments would have to more fully exploit the role technologies could play. Pearlman states that technology by itself does not transform schooling. All components of a school must be changed simultaneously. Newman Newman contends that computer networks hold the key to any large-scale implementation of school technology. In the big picture, two choices are apparent. One is the system that delivers traditional instruction from a central repository, which has been the dominant system. This system puts the student in a passive role. The access approach allows the learner to gather information and assume an active role in exploring complex problems. The access approach is consistent with a pedagogy that puts the learners in an active role in exploring complex problems and favors constructing collaborative environments. Often the computer becomes a tool or a stimulus for projects that let students delve deeply into subjects and example problems. Local area networks (LANs), the generally existing delivery system, are used for distribution of courseware, management instruction, and tracking student progress. This system closely matches the traditional style of teaching from textbooks. As noted by Newman, wide area networks (WANs) tear down school barriers to outside resources and opportunities. The author contends that a solid connection between the LAN and the WAN is needed to strengthen educational duties. Under pressure, vendors are beginning to distribute computers in classrooms where continuous use is changing the potential of LANs. Part 2: Educational Tools Barron and Kantor The National Science Board Commission on Pre-college Education states (according to Barron and Kantor) that education must go beyond the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic to include communication, higher-level problem-solving skills, and scientific and technological literacy. In the future, it is hoped that students will have the time to solve complex, meaningful problems, conduct investigations, discuss findings, and reflect on their work. In one example of an approach to teaching called “anchored instruction,” the authors purpose was to describe ongoing efforts to provide interesting, challenging, and effective problem-solving environments for students. They hope to connect videodisc materials to other forms of technology. These include participation in distance learning technology and development of simulation software and multimedia software. Schank According to Schank, the best piece of educational software was the flight simulator. Schank believes that learning by doing is active learning and holds the interest of all. Passive learning does not involve more than “press button for next page.” Students ought to be doing, not watching, remarks Schank. Items listed by the author to guide software use in education and training are simulation of the task to be learned; an on-demand video database; and control by the student of the process. Simulation of real business situations for training or activities such as traveling motivates the student and guides the teaching. On-demand video consists of a large set of video clips, each telling a short story. Two indexing problems occur in on-demand video: absolute indexing (asking for a certain story by name) and relative indexing (used to relate to program states, to actions taken by a user, to buttons pressed by a user, and to clips just presented to the user). Grant Grant comments that a certain element in the computer industry makes it a race to package greater amounts of computer power into smaller, mobile consumer products. Personal digital assistants will equip consumers with a form of “smart paper” that recognizes handwritten characters and will also interpret and execute operations symbolized by the handwritten mathematical formulas. These new devices will open doors to new situations and make computer power accessible anytime, anywhere. The author tells of research by Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow in 1991 that permitted teachers and students to experiment with the use of mobile computers connected by wireless local area network (WLAN) and WAN. The experiment was named “Wireless Coyote” and involved 21 sixth graders, four teachers, a naturalist, and support personnel from Apple Computer. Several unwanted issues emerged, such as rigid field trip timing, increased reliance on voice, and unorganized requests for data that gave the groups ways to improve future learning situations. A careful watch must be kept on new technologies and modern learning theories in order to allow them to merge into more productive learning experiences. Pea Most educational settings teach learning-before-doing instead of the recommended way of the author—learning-in-doing. An example of his approach was illustrated in the National Geographic Society KidsNet Project, where children investigated acid rain in each of thousands of communities and compiled their data over networks. Pea observes that we see science learned by participation rather than preparation. Learning-in-doing requires that the normal boundaries of the school and business be torn down so that they can be linked to communities in a meaningful way. The author also feels that, since schools are underfunded, a federal policy needs to be implemented for a nationwide technological infrastructure. If not, schools may become stagnant in obsolete technologies. Rubin Rubin observes that such tools as microscopes, calculators, visualization tools, and computers can be used to provide an investigative approach to learning in mathematics and science. Technical Education Research Centers (TERC), an educational research and development organization based in Cambridge, MA, has developed a project, Video for Exploring the World, that supports the use of video as a type of laboratory instrument. Students are able to analyze real rather than abstract phenomena when video captures real action. This approach contrasts to the education most students receive with the use of video as in Channel 1, which uses videotaped lectures. Video technology is becoming inexpensive, and the hope of the author is that it will open the scientific and mathematical intuitions, curiosity, and creativity of students. Part 3: Educational Policies and Issues Braun In 1990, the International Society for Technology in Education, a leading professional organization of technology-using educators, was awarded a grant from IBM to prepare a set of recommendations to educational decision makers about technologys role in restructuring the US educational system. Braun remarks that the project developed ideas for restructuring schools, uncovered evidence of the usefulness of technology in schools, and studied ways to finance technology in schools. While aimed at changes proposed in order to reduce the number of at-risk and dropout students, results of the study will also affect high school graduates. Braun considers the following points important as schools move into the 21st century: The way systems prepare their students for their future role The need for a new paradigm that addresses the needs of a postindustrial information society Technology, because it removes constraints of time and distance, and because it provides students and teachers with access to information and to an essential element in an intelligent plan to restructure schools We can pay now to improve our educational system, or we can pay later for its failures. Braun observes that according to the study, if society values every individual, we cannot accept the loss of human potential represented by dropouts or inadequately educated high school graduates. Becker Becker states that in order to understand algebra or physics better, students in secondary schools should be taught to use computers because such learning will enable them to be more productive in the future, or because by learning to use computers, they can learn more or be more productive in their other classes. During the 1980s and early 1990s, most computer time was dedicated to teaching computer skills instead of applying computer knowledge to learning and teaching other subjects. High school students spent approximately 42 percent of their computer time on computer programming in 1985; by 1989 it had decreased to 20 percent, but was replaced by word processing, database programs, and instruction in basic keyboarding skills. Even then, more than 50 percent of a students time was spent on computer education and not in applying it to other subjects. Becker concedes that it may be necessary to teach students about computers, since novices need time to become productive with the computer. In order for computer education to be meaningful to schools, the author contends that we must avoid teaching just another set of skills and procedures and we must upgrade the curriculum. Anderson At the start of the 1990s, the US had approximately 110,000 schools (including colleges) serving over 60 million students. Inside these educational institutions at least 3.5 million teachers and 4.5 million computers served students. Colleges have more than twice as many computers as teachers, compared with elementary and secondary schools, which have about one computer per teacher. Many elementary and secondary schools placed their computers in classrooms, but the majority of the computers occupied student labs. The number of computers for precollege instruction has been growing at the rate of at least 10 percent per year, and software purchased by precollege schools has been growing at the rate of about 20 percent per year. With an annual total education expenditure of about $5,500 per pupil, the annual hardware and software expenditure per student is less than one half of one percent. Roughly 1 percent of the total cost of education is spent on computer-related technology at the K–12 level. The growth in CD-ROMs and videodiscs indicates movement toward multimedia systems, while the modems and networks show rising activity in data communications. Driving acquisitions of multimedia devices and networks is the diffusion of these technologies in other markets, notably the business and home markets. From this statistical vantage point, the technological infrastructure appears to be fairly primitive. Not only is much of the hardware obsolete, but many students do not get to use the technology that is in place. To improve schooling we must confront the challenge of the technological infrastructure. Hawkins et al. The goals for education have changed dramatically during the last decade and have made it a priority to develop new ways to assess student learning. The thinking and problem solving that dominate education are hard to measure with multiple-choice testing; therefore, approaches such as authentic assessment (which attempts to record and judge the qualities of actual performances linked to standardized sets of factual and procedural questions) are being considered. Performance and portfolio assessment are often mentioned as types of assessment showing promise. Performance assessment asks students to perform complicated tasks and then evaluates their skills. Portfolio assessment provides a sample of the students work over a certain time frame. Four elements listed by the authors are required to understand and use performance-based assessment: a set of tasks, criteria, a library of exemplars, and a training system for scorers. Performance and portfolio assessments need to develop practical ways to collect students work and reliable ways to score the work. Students work must be validly and reliably compared in order for any new assessment to be successful. Human judgment instead of machine scoring is normally used, which makes expense one of the dominant factors. Edwards Electronic tools have broken obstacles such as poor transportation, lack of expert teachers, and fear of street crime and have made learning a lifelong reality. It no longer makes a difference how long it takes to learn a subject because, according to Edwards, learning with technology can be nonjudgmental and self-paced. Working together to encourage lifelong learning is encouraged by two organizations listed by Edwards: the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and SeniorNet. NCFL tries to use the motivation of parents to help their children begin school with a solid educational foundation and to open up a world for parents with limited literacy skills. Parents attend literacy and parenting classes while their children are in early learning experiences classes. SeniorNet began in 1986 and now has over 4,000 members and 40 learning centers in the US and Canada. It teaches senior adults (over age 54) computer skills in community centers, hospitals, college campuses, and retirement homes. Grants from corporations support the centers. George et al. George, Malcolm, and Jeffers contend that many minorities, females, and economically disadvantaged persons may fear computers, seeing them as the cause of job displacements or as new, difficult job requirements. With VCRs, CD players, microwave ovens, cable television, and multiple telephone applications, many such Americans are being pushed into the computer age. According to the authors, schools, community organizations, and businesses are banding together to develop and implement computer training programs for people without access to computers. Since 1985, more than 200 sites have been established for the economically disadvantaged and those with disabilities, offering services in mathematics, science, reading, vocational education, and independent living. Conn Art and technology teachers in Chicago were contacted in November 1991 concerning a SIGKids event the following summer. SIGKids was an educational conference for young students developed to give them access to some of the latest technology. SIGKids and SIGGRAPH ran concurrently in 1992 and provided 44 students in grades 6 through 12 with exploratory opportunities on computers, video, multimedia, high-end three-dimensional software, LEGOLogo, digital journal keeping, access to Internet, and interactive projects. The SIGKids art show was an opportunity to show what had been accomplished. SIGKids participants were allowed to “collaborate, adapt, design, create, shoot, edit, model, render, lay-off, composite, record, build, calculate, explore, make discoveries, teach, demo, write, present, learn and to fully participate in SIGGRAPH.” Perl In answer to the present anxiety in the US over the state of education compared with countries such as Germany and Japan, ACMs Executive Committee established a task force in 1991 to establish the role ACM should have in K–12 education. The focus of the first meeting was on two pertinent questions: How can computer professionals provide input to the policy process with respect to the integration of technology and education and How can model programs be identified for ACM members to work with schools Now called Forum on Technology in Education, the program has developed into a series of bimonthly meetings attended by high-level technology representatives from 30 major national education organizations. ACM volunteers work with models such as SIGKids, NASDC, and CoNECT and have now been included in programs initiated by other groups. ACM has also participated in making recommendations on the School Funding for Technology Act. After three years, ACM continues to work for ways to help bring technology into classrooms and to support the Forum on Technology. Lidtke and Moursund Lidtke and Moursund note that in 1982 there was approximately one computer per 125 students in K–12 education. The ratio now is 11 computers per 125 students. Most students now have some exposure to a computer, and most people are persuaded that computers should be routinely used in the schools. It appeared that by the mid-1980s computer programming was dominant, but not for long. Since the 1980s, software and computer-assisted instruction (CAI) packages have become readily available and there has been a marked decrease in teaching BASIC. According to the authors, CAI has produced courseware that included detailed lesson plans, handouts for students, and other support materials. Because of HyperCard and LinkWay, however, many students are still able to learn some computer programming. The authors remark that parents and other interested people believe more must be done. A list of things that can be done by volunteers includes: organize fundraising projects to buy software and hardware; help students with computer assignments or be an advisor to a student computer club; provide speakers for computer issues; let the class see hands-on use of computers in various industrial settings; develop partnerships between companies using technology and the schools; write letters to leaders at the local, state, and national level about support of computer use in schools; lead a technology advisory committee; and support development of standards for students and educators at the local, state, and national levels. Task Force of the Pre-college Committee of the Education Board of the ACM The Task Force observes that a need exists for computer science just as a need exists in education for natural science. Because computer technology has such an effect on society and is constantly changing, everyone needs to be familiar with its effects on school, workplace, home, and community. This need gave birth in 1989 to this Task Force, which included high school, college, and university faculty. Their task was to recommend ways to include computer science in the high school curriculum. The Task Force developed area guidelines for high schools. Algorithms; programming languages; operating systems and user support; computer architecture; social, ethical, and professional context; additional topics; and computer applications are included in their recommendation. The authors give the following models to introduce computer science: applications-based; breadth approach using applications and programming modules; breadth approach interweaving applications, computer science topics, and programming; and project development approach using programming language, apprenticeship model, and advanced placement computer science. Conclusion The major impact of these papers lies not only in their attention to the issues of K–12 education, but in the scope of the coverage, the breadth of the authors knowledge, and the diverse areas represented: private sector, industry, higher education, governmental agencies, hardware vendors, and software developers. Clearly this CACM issue is a positive influence on the continuing debate on alternatives that will influence education for years to come.