Economic and technological changes are occurring at an accelerating rate in our information and communication-based society, making life-long learning for everyone a necessity. There is, however, a relative imbalance between the demanding pace of change for students and teachers compared to that in the curriculum and our schools. This chapter suggests that technology needs to become as interwoven in educational delivery as it is in society-in order to become an integral part of teaching and learning throughout the student's life-long learning environment.
In this turbulent transition period from industrial production to a knowledge- and communication-based society, rapid economic and technological changes are also occurring. The confluence of technology, demographics, and work/family requirements make life-long learning for most adults a necessity, and those foundations need to be laid during primary and secondary grades. High school graduates must now be proficient in accessing, evaluating, and communication information, and solving complex problems (Dwyer, 1994). Students are bombarded on every side with information and they need to develop effective filters while building a sense of themselves as members of a global society. This, added to new knowledge about teaching and learning, demands concomitant changes in the roles of students, faculty, the curriculum and our schools.
Not only is the ubiquitous use of technology causing societal and cultural change, the use of computers, telecommunications, and other emerging technologies allow educators to "fulfill age old dreams. We can individualize instruction. We can create simulations through which students can discover important relationships and construct new knowledge. We can even put the reins into the hands of students and watch as these tools take them to destinations they envision" (Peck & Dorricott, 1994, p. 14).
We need to change the way we think about technology in our schools. Even though technology alone is not enough (Reinhardt, 1995), it can be used to create learning environments that boost student achievement, improve student attitudes and self-concept, and enhance the quality of student-teacher relationships We have had such technology available for many years but have not significantly changed the way we do education. Ehrmann (1995) concludes that:
Ordinarily what matters most is: not the technology per se but how it is used, not so much what happens in the moments when the student is using the technology, but more how those uses promote larger improvements in the fabric of the student's education.
Training of students and teachers is needed, as are new curriculum materials and activities, and, most importantly, changes in the models and strategies we use in teaching and learning. Unless we appropriately use various technologies we cannot meet the access needs, nor improve the quality of, education for tomorrow's students (Twigg, 1994). The following are some ideas about the changes taking place within the technological environment in our schools.
As the learning environment becomes more technology rich, teachers can encourage and guide students in using information resources and in appropriate, collaborative work with other students (Twigg, 1994). Given this, tomorrow's students may learn in ways more like today's researchers and develop qualities of increased independence and self-reliance. Twigg (1994) considers one of the explicit goals of the design of a technology rich learning environmentto be that students will learn more independently, using materials that meet their own individual learning needs, abilities, preferences, and interests, and spend more time in small discussion groups or working on collaborative projects with their peers. When working with telecommunications technology in well-facilitated learning environments students become excited about what they are learning and aware they are members of a global community.
Teachers often seem to take the attitude of "prove that technology will work for me, in my classroom, and I may give it a try (if I have time)." Although those persons whose mission it is to promote computer technology in the classroom try their best to demonstrate its capabilities to teachers, success takes, as we discuss below, support and direction from the highest levels of administration. Integrating computer technology into classrooms involves shifts to unfamiliar materials, creation of new types of assignments, and inventing new ways to assess student learning often using new techniques and devices (Ehrmann, 1995). Because it is a Herculean task for individual teachers to find the time and resources to implement the changes needed, as members of a community-bases institution, teachers must involve administrators and parents in redefining the school culture to open it up to accommodate changes in their roles and teaching styles.
Yet, as the role of teachers change from expert and controller to facilitator and coach, the teaching/learning process sometimes moves out of the direct control of the teachers. This transition is an often painful and disconcerting change, so much so that veteran teachers might resist the use of computer technologies that can accomplish important goals for students (Jette, 1994).
Computer technology can help teachers extend their most valuable resource-their time. Technology and computer-mediated communication permit learning and instruction to take place even when the teacher and student are not in the same place, nor necessarily communicating at the same time (Klaphaak, 1994). The computer and modem can become a transparent bridge between students and teachers at different locations, without time and energy being wasted in travel by either student or teacher. In the classroom, students can be set to gathering and analyzing information individually or in small groups using the computer while human teachers devote their time to what teachers do best-teaching little human learners (Dexter, personal communication, February 23, 1996).
Many teachers are concerned about changing their delivery methods as, in most cases, a teacher alone can no longer develop all the learning materials and activities possible in a technology rich chang. It takes a team of people, sometimes with the serving as subject-matter expert. This is frightening in some ways because it opens a teacher's knowledge base and teaching style to the scrutiny of others.
Changes to curricula can be facilitated by a technologically rich learning environment. For example, Ehrmann (1995) points out that teachers are more inclined to ask students to "do it over again." When computer technology lessens the mechanical effort of writing and revision, students are more willing to draft, edit, revise, and try again-that is, to take a more authentic approach to problem solving than before (Berge & Collins, 1995). The problems posed can become "messy" and require more realistic demands for calculations.
Word processors, databases, spreadsheets, communication, and presentation packages are tools enabling students to plan and revise complex projects, conduct team discussions, and gather resources from around the world. When using project and problem-based learning, teachers can employ these computer technologies to situate problems and help students working in stages to plan, draft, discuss, redraft, and submit their work. Each of these stages offers a chance for students to rethink, expand, rearticulate and generally improve on their problem-solving efforts. In this way computer technology may enable important changes in the curriculum and program even without changing the content. It is when a technology rich environment exists across all problem solving and project areas, available to be used in a seamless way throughout a student's education, that the power of technology to change the curriculum will be realized. When students see their teachers describe, demonstrate, and model expert methods of inquiry, hypothesis generation, and data collection and analysis and begin to practice what experts in each discipline do each day, the true nature of curriculum change due to technology will be seen.
In far too many cases, administrators have not examined the role that computers plays in institutional change-at least not in the strategic planning for applying technology to the problems of changing learning and teaching (Ehrmann, 1995; Twigg, 1994). Using technology for place-based and distance teaching is generally brought about by the efforts of individual teachers or school media center personnel for individual assignments or individual classes. It will take a systemic change effort on the part of administrators at the highest levels to have schools reflect ongoing technological and sociocultural changes.
In essence, computer technology needs to become as interwoven in district strategic planning and educational delivery as it is in society in order to become an integral part of teaching and learning throughout the student's life-long learning environment. This change cannot be forced from the grassroots level by the students or individual teachers or even a department or college. This use of technology as a strategy for learning needs to be part of the strategic plans within and among our schools. To do otherwise is to let the technology support the status quo. Is that what we want?
To work toward changing models of teaching and learning is important. It takes courage to move away from the idea of classroom lectures of stable content, delivered by expert teachers to students who are homogeneous, passive recipients and who work alone as they learn. Computer technology can ease the transition by providing networked access to worldwide information, collaboration with other people, multimedia, and powerful computer simulations while engendering learning environments where students are encouraged to explore and learn in teams, where there is sensitivity to the diversity of students, and which places teachers and other experts as mentors, guides, and collaborators in learning new and ever-changing content.
Certainly there are barriers to technologically rich learning environments: teacher reward structures, "parents" attitudes, high front-end equipment and wiring costs, training, equal access, student support, administrative and technical issues, copyright issues, and teachers' resistance to name a few. But these barriers to the use of technology also involve the culture of our institutions and the people within them. The type of structural changes required for facilitating changing roles are those most resistant to change but most are constructed and socially negotiated so they can be reconstructed and socially renegotiated. That will require schools and communities to work hand in hand to ensure a broad base of support for activities that can redefine their individual and collective roles. Communities need to be reassured that the schools will not depart from their traditional role of socializing and teaching students and preparing them for membership in the workforce but doing it in ways better suited to a technologically sophisticated, knowledge-based economy.
How will computer technology affect the changing roles of students, teachers, the curriculum, and schools? Although we cannot predict all these changes, we must surely have an influence upon them.
Berge opens the first section of this book with a discussion of the use of technology in education followed by Santoro's explanation of what an "online" classroom is. McGreal looks at the effects of technology and computer-mediated communication on school restructuring, and Dexter follows with a description of the process and suggestions for developing district-wide technology plans. Norum examines the principal's vital role as a change agent and acknowledges that little can be done to bring effective technology use into the classroom without the enthusiastic support of the school administration. Acceptable Use Policies, as Schrum and Day explain, need to be in place before students venture onto the information highway.
For perhaps as long as there has been a formal educational system there have been attempts to reform education. Reform efforts usually represent the inception of a different model to be used for instruction, often reflecting new educational insights. Berge wonders if using computers and emerging technologies in education should be called reform. It may, however, be useful to think how these tools could transform various aspects of the educational environment to include more of what we are learning about good practice in teaching and learning. Berge takes the perspective in his chapter that the search for the answers to important questions about education and the implementation of educational goals and objectives should be the forces driving the use of computer technology.
Santoro defines CMC and what is meant by "the online classroom." He categorizes CMC in three ways: computer-based conferencing, informatics, and computer-assisted instruction. Each is described in terms of the level of human-computer use, interaction, and communication. Although the chapter functions similar to the one he wrote to open the earlier, higher education series, Computer-Mediated Communication and the Online Classroom: Volume I, (Santoro, 1995) this chapter expands and augments that effort. Among other topics, Santoro includes sections on client/server systems, electronic mail, group-conferencing systems, interactive messaging, campus-wide information systems, online databases, computer-assisted instruction, and the special case of the World Wide Web.
The developing knowledge economy, based on the convergence of computers, telecommunications, and service delivery industries, is also propelling the convergence of learning with the workplace. As McGreal writes, learning and training will become part of everyone's job. With all elements of society adjusting to these new realities, our educational structures are becoming strained. McGreal focuses on strategies for promoting needed restructuring of our educational systems. His concerns are not only in "keeping up" with rapid changes but also taking advantage of the opportunities presented by the new technologies. Some of the topics needed for successful education in the future include changing attitudes, reeducating and training teachers and staff, supporting increased research and development, seeding information technology applications, extending distance education models, and giving attention to systemic change in education to parallel that in other sectors of society.
"Technology, Then Uses" or "Uses, Then Technology"-one or the other of these describes most school districts' technology planning and implementation approaches. They represent two different ways of gathering, sorting, and processing knowledge about technology, then organizing the information for implementation. When a large suburban school district of a major metropolitan area took the "Uses, Then Technology" approach to planning for and implementing technology, Sara Dexter became part of a technology integration staff development framework based on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)/International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) technology goals. Arranged into a continuum, these goals start with personal productivity and stretch to the use of technology for reforming instruction. This continuum acknowledges that learners must first connect what they are learning to what they already know, after which they can extend meaning making to new areas.
Much attention has been given to the role of the teacher and how it needs to change as innovations such as online Classrooms are implemented. However, Norum points out that local school administrators (assistant principals and principals) are a critical connection in creating and sustaining innovations such as online classrooms. Principals play a very influential role in shaping the school culture, and that culture shows up in the classroom. They need to be ready to function as change agents and strategic leaders. Norum describes the assortment of tools change agent administrators will need to sharpen their own understandings of the elements that create organizational change. Norum also discusses new paradigms that need to be created and nurtured for such change to take place.
Many school personnel dream of the day when they will be fully connected to the Internet for professional and curricular activities. However, every classroom teacher and media specialist (who are vitally concerned) knows that open access to unrestricted materials may cause concerns from parents and members of the educational community. Schrum and Day first review of literature, which reveals a great deal of information about the promises of the Internet, but far less is found that addresses how schools are formulating policies concerning appropriate use of the Internet by students. To alleviate these concerns schools need to establish a procedural policy for the use of computers when accessing information, known as "acceptable use policies" (AUPs). Schrum and Day examine the current trends in developing and implementing these AUPs and have compiled both the most recent thoughts from the literature and present school-based Internet users regarding the development of AUPs. Results should guide others as they write their school's AUPs. The chapter concludes with recommendations for school districts as they begin the process of creating an AUP.
Three different implementations of the use of computer-mediated communication is the subject of the next three chapters. Grandgeorge describes an elementary school where CMC is fully integrated into all facets of the curriculum. Gerrior and Allen describe a charter school where all instruction is conducted online. Wilkinson and Hartley describe summer institute where students had the opportunity to meet their faculty mentors face-to-face, then used laptop computers from their homes to continue their individualized studies.
Grandgeorge describes Bailey's Elementary School for the Arts and Sciences in Fairfax, VA. Their Center for Research and Technology offers an environment in which student learning is achieved through interactive and cooperative research on topics that integrate subject areas and are relevant to each other and the real world. Knowledge is generated, sometimes through traditional modes, sometimes via technology. It is assessed, accessed, adjusted, and shared in a variety of technologically appropriate ways. The outcome is the existence of a community of self-motivated, life-long learners who are technologically literate and can confidently travel the information highway making connections, adjustments, assessments, crossovers and/or transfers.
The emphasis at Bailey's is on critical thinking and problem solving as opposed to rote learning, and technology is one tool that is used to motivate, enhance, and stretch student thinking. Technology is critical in another area important to Bailey's "magnet" concept in that it offers a variety of ways for students to show what they have learned beyond a paper-and-pencil test. The uniqueness of this program lies in its ability to promote active student research into concepts relevant to the child's life and interests, to utilize technology, and to teach that which is required by the Fairfax County Public Schools program of studies.
Imagine a school where everything is designed to ensure that all students can realize their full potential-a place where teachers, administrators, parents, and the community are working together as a team with a shared vision. What would it look like? What would it entail? The Charter School Act of 1993 encourages parents and educators to design and create schools that meet all California certification requirements in ways that uniquely suit diverse segments of the state's student population. Gerrior and Allen describe CHOICE 2000, a state-of-the-art, totally online school in Perris, Riverside County, CA. CHOICE 2000 puts a complete, fully certified, Grade 7-12+ adult program within the reach of every student in the state who needs something beyond traditional day school approaches. The school serves students who want to complete their diploma at home via modem from their personal computers. Gerrior and Allen write about how students complete comprehensive courses of study provided to them over a sophisticated computer network accessed from their home computers. This school provides an alternative by innovatively harnessing telecommunications, educational software, and dedicated teachers. This is done by making lessons, designing texts and auxiliary materials, and offering professional guidance and feedback to secondary and adult students via the Internet.
The Shasta County Office of Education received a grant from the California Department of Migrant Education to conduct a summer telecommunications training academy with eight teachers and eight migrant students. Wilkinson and Hartley describe how each participant was given extensive training in the use of e-mail and Internet navigation, as well as a dial-in account and a modem-ready laptop computer. These Southeast Asian students communicated electronically with teachers, school administrators, and each other, and utilized their training to complete "benchmark" activities as well as regular school assignments. Because of the its success, further funding has extended the program into the normal school year.
Hackbarth continues by examining the value that commercial online services can add to CMC for teachers and students. Luthra discovers that CMC is not as easy as it appears when trying to link a school for American students in India with an American service provider. Szabo is concerned that teachers' mental models must be rethought before effective use can be made of CMC in their classrooms. Tiessen and Ward discuss the potential changes in classroom discourse that result from the introduction of CMC technologies and explore one example of how classroom activities can take educational advantage of many-to-many communication. Shapiro reviews the research on learning using hypermedia technology, and this section closes with Burgstahler examining the uses of information technology with students with disabilities.
There is quite a large gap generally between teachers' knowledge of computer-mediated communication and our students' unbridled enthusiasm for all things Internet. Hackbarth illustrates ways in which commercial online services can help bridge this gap. Over the past decade especially, commercial online services have developed well-organized storehouses of information, first-rate tools for easing searches and transactions, and wholesome virtual communities of dues-paying members. Now these services provide friendly gateways to the relatively raw and chaotic Internet. Hackbarth describes how within schooling contexts commercial online services contribute to productive communications, information retrieval, and information sharing. He conclude that they are responsive to teachers' highly regarded criterion of efficiency in the achievement of both the mundane and highest of educational aims. Thus, they serve well to bridge the gap between teachers' knowledge of the emerging information superhighway and students' ever-growing fascination with it.
Luthra describes the difficulties she encountered with a project designed to link classrooms around the world via telecommunications. The project's organizers, a commercial company, provided the participants with both the direction and support necessary to creatively integrate communications technology into the classroom. For overseas American schools the idea of bringing telecommunications into the classroom is attractive. An increased awareness of the potential frustrations can make the experience of communicating with other schools educationally beneficial. Luthra explores both the excitement and the technical and logistical problems that turn the information highway into a rather rocky road.
Next Szabo reflects on what he has come to understand as a significant, inhibitory issue in the use of CMC and other innovations for educational purposes. On the surface, the complexity of learning how to use the technology effectively and access to it are certainly inhibitors. But a deeper problem exists with respect to how educators view teaching and learning with CMC. Over the years, Szabo believes we have built up belief systems and ways of knowing about this and other aspects of our real world. He refers to these as mental models. Szabo believes many of our mental models are stagnant and need to be reevaluated. He discusses the concepts of mental models from the point of view of constructivism and why they should be reviewed. At the end of the chapter, he selects several topics that relate to mental models possessed by educators based on his years of work with CMC.
The processes and patterns of classroom communication can be significantly altered from their traditional forms through the use of computer-based communication technologies. The use of CMC to shift away from one-to-one or one-to-many toward many-to-many communication patterns offers new possibilities for classroom discourse. Tiessen and Ward describe some specific ways in which CMC technologies can afford nontraditional communication patterns and directly support educationally valuable activities which would be difficult through traditional media. During a 3-week history unit, students used a Computer Supported Intentional Learning Environment (CSILE), a communal hypermedia database system, as a medium for many-to-many communication. Students' distributed and collective efforts resulted in a single knowledge web that explained the relationships among 78 short texts. From this communally created artifact, students were able to construct their own deep understanding of the topic. This unit demonstrates that with CMC software, many-to-many communication can be manageable and productive and can shift the onus for control and content of communication to the students, making them more responsible, active learners.
In the first part of her chapter, Shapiro presents an historical perspective on the debate over the utility of hypermedia (e.g., World Wide Web on the Internet and hypermedia systems) in the classroom. She ends this section by concluding that the shortage of controlled research on the subject precludes any definitive resolution to the conflict. In an attempt to address this need Shapiro next discusses studies aimed at analyzing the effectiveness of Web technologies on learning. This research provides evidence that such systems do offer some advantage over linear presentations of material (as in books). However, it also provides evidence that aspects of learning in this medium are shallow. Shapiro concludes that user training is in need of improvement and draws on the evidence presented in earlier chapters to suggest such improvements.
Burgstahler summarizes the specific benefits of technology to students with disabilities. The approaches to overcoming the barriers to standard computer input, output, and documentation for people with a variety of disabilities are delineated. The chapter concludes with a description of project DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology), which promotes the education and employment of people with disabilities through extensive use of computes, adaptive technology, and the Internet network.
The final section of the book is concerned with the use of instructional design of computer-mediated communication. Eastmond examines the topic in general, Ahern focuses on designing learning groups for optimal interaction, and Laughon looks at the design of effective CMC projects.
Given the expansion of Internet resources and possibilities for CMC exchanges, educators can be guided by an instructional design model to develop effective online learning experiences. Through presentation of one such model, Eastmond outlines the steps in analysis, planning, design, development, implementation, and evaluation to which educators should attend in preparing instruction. Also, the production processes for other educational media that possess similar attributes can inform the design of CMC instruction. Eastmond recommends building CMC materials and activities based on one's own educational philosophy and through identification and adaptation of the effective CMC activities of other educators on the Internet.
In general, Ahern argues that in order to achieve optimal participation in online systems a better understanding of the basic nature of the classroom is necessary. The traditional classroom is better understood as a large group. Essential components of the group are discussed briefly as well as the impact CMC has on group dynamics. Finally, a selection model is provided that helps teachers use CMC technology based on planning for different types of goals, structure, and social factors. To improve interaction online, Ahern contends it requires a better understanding of relationship, task, and group dynamics.
Laughon examines projects to determine the features making them attractive to other educators and meet successful completion. The projects discussed here use the Internet for connecting people and classes. The World Wide Web is a source of information for projects but also a conduit for communication between educators as it becomes more interactive. Laughon points to the Web component of courses as providing complementary activities for communication among educators and feels it will become a powerful force in the future. The chapter's focus is on how to develop a project using the Internet as a conduit for connection, not just as a source for information.
This book concludes, as do the other three in this series, with a glossary of commonly used Internet and CMC terms.
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