By Glenn M. Kleiman, The Center for Online Professional Education (COPE) at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
Only a clear-eyed commitment to using technology to help meet central educational goals will enable us to get a substantial return on our investment
This article appeared in 'The Digital Classroom: How Technology is Changing the Way We Teach and Learn,' a book-length special report from the Harvard Education Letter featuring articles and essays on topics such as professional development, distance learning, the digital divide, special needs, using technology to teach science, math, reading and writing, and much more. Authors include Howard Gardner, Chris Dede, Margaret Riel, and Larry Cuban. Available in paperback for $16.95. To order call 1-800-513-0763 or e-mail orders@edletter.org.
We are in the midst of an explosion of multimedia digital technologycomputers and all that goes with themin K12 schools throughout the country. Propelled by federal, state, and local initiatives, schools spent an estimated $6.9 billion in 1999 on desktop computers, servers, routers, wiring, Internet access, software, and everything else involved in making modern technology available. Education funds are enhancing the bottom lines of Intel, Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, IBM, and other high-tech companies.
But will we receive an adequate "return on investment" to the educational bottom line? That is, will all this technology improve education for large numbers of students? Will it make our educational systems more effective and efficient? Will it help schools better prepare students for their lives in the 21st century?
As we begin this new century, the investment in technology for schools resembles
the investments being made in many "dot-com" Internet companies.
In both cases, the investments are based on the potential of
new technologies, in the hope that this potential will be fulfilled in the
coming years. And in both cases the investments involve significant risks
and may be a long way from yielding adequate returns.
Maximizing our investment in technology requires a clear vision of our goals
and well-developed plans for achieving them. Unfortunately, the rapid influx
of technology into schools is, in many cases, running ahead of the educational
vision and careful planning necessary to put technology to good use. In fact,
what is being done is often based on misconceptions or myths about what is
required to gain substantial educational returns.
Computers are powerful and flexible tools that can enhance teaching and learning in innumerable ways. However, the value of a computer, like that of any tool, depends upon what purposes it serves and how well it is used. Computers can be used in positive ways, such as to help make learning more engaging, better address the needs of individual students, provide access to a wealth of information, and encourage students to explore and createor in negative ways, such as to play mindless games, access inappropriate materials, or isolate students.
Many computers in schools, even up-to-date multimedia computers with high-speed Internet access, are not being used in ways that significantly enhance teaching and learning. There are many reasons for this, including the following:
The reality corresponding to Myth #1 is that all this expensive technology will yield little educational return until schools and districts address the need for professional development, technical support, the availability of appropriate software, classroom management, and curriculum integration.
What educational purposes should computers serve in the classroom? When
we explore this key question, we often find many different implicit views
within a school or district. Unless these are articulated and clarified, and
a consensus is reached, the diverging views can lead to conflicting expectations,
approaches to implementing technology, and criteria for evaluating its impact,
all of which can create barriers to moving forward effectively. The most
common goals for using technology in schools include the following:
Of course, a school district may strive to meet more than one of these goals at the same time. But each goal selected will make demands upon resourceshuman as well as technologicaland will lead to certain strategies for implementing and supporting the uses of technology. And, most importantly, different goals will lead to different criteria for evaluating whether the technology is used successfully.
So the reality corresponding to Myth #2 is that educational goals must be clarified and that plans for purchasing, using, and evaluating the impact of technology must be developed to fit those goals. We don't want the cart filled with computer hardware to be leading the educational horse.
Technology can affect what needs to be taught, how it can be taught, how classrooms are organized and managed, and the roles and expectations of both teachers and students. That is, a technology-enhanced classroom may have both different goals and a somewhat different culture from a traditional classroom.
A long-term study of the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow (ACOT) project followed teachers over several years as they learned to use technology in their classrooms (with lots of computers, software, professional development, and support available). The researchers identified five stages of "instructional evolution" for using technology:
The ACOT study also documents the types of training and support that teachers need as they advance through these levels. Clearly, a basic introduction to computers supports only the first stage of this multi-year evolution.
The reality corresponding to Myth #3 is that for technology to be used fully in K-12 schools, significant changes are required in teaching practices, curriculum, and classroom organization; that these changes take place over years, not weeks or months, and require significant professional development and support for teachers; and that the needed levels of training and support change as teachers progress through these stages.
Almost every school district has a technology plan in place, often developed as a requirement to be eligible for federal or state funding. Typically, these plans specify a three-to-five year vision of what hardware, software, and networking capability will be purchased, along with some planning about teacher training, technical support and maintenance, acceptable use policies, and budgeting. Some plans also address integrating technology into the curriculum, evaluating the impact of technology on teaching and learning, and reviewing and updating the plan, but, unfortunately, these critical elements often receive only cursory attention.
Technology plans tend to turn technology into a goal in and of itself, and to separate it from other educational goals and plans. But technology is a tool, and technology planning is like planning for the purchase and use of construction toolsthe first step is to design the structure to be built.
The reality corresponding to Myth #4 is that to use technology effectively we must fully integrate it into school improvement plans, special education plans, curriculum plans, professional development plans, and all the other plans formulated by schools and districts. Significant educational returns require that technology be viewed as providing tools to meet central educational goals, not as defining a new, separate set of goals.
The federal E-rate program and many others have helped schools in inner-city and poor rural communities purchase computers and Internet access, with the goal of reducing what is often called the "digital divide"the gap between "information haves and have-nots." While making the technology available is critical, it is only a first step. Recent studies have documented that teachers in poor inner-city and rural schools have significantly less training to use technology than teachers in wealthier schools, that technical support systems are not as well funded, and that the uses of computers in the classroom tend to be very different. Students in underserved communities are more likely to use computers for drill-and-practice and integrated learning system lessons, while students in other communities are more likely to use computers to support inquiry-based, project-based, and collaborative learning. The difference is very significant: for the first group, the computer is in control and leads the students through the lessons, while in the second group the students are controlling computers for their own purposes.
The reality corresponding to Myth #5 is that when considering issues of equity we need to examine all the essential conditions for making computers into effective teaching and learning tools, not just the number of computers purchased.
The central theme underlying all these myths is that while modern technology has great potential to enhance teaching and learning, turning that potential into reality on a large scale is a complex, multifaceted task. The key determinant of our success will not be the number of computers purchased or cables installed, but rather how we define educational visions, prepare and support teachers, design curriculum, address issues of equity, and respond to the rapidly changing world. As is always the case in efforts to improve K-12 education, simple, short-term solutions turn out to be illusions; long-term, carefully planned commitments are required.
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