A recent commercial for computers features a deaf girl using the family personal computer. As her mother looks on while her daughter works, she says and signs: "When I was a girl, we used to watch a lot of TV," to which the child simply replies "Why?" Through clever scripting the girl's one word response reflects why computer-mediated communication (CMC) is becoming so prevalent and popular, especially among children, by subtly indicating to the viewers some of the benefits of CMC, such as a lack of geographical and social barriers and unfettered access to informational resources. The girl represents the new "Information/Communication Generation" of computer users, who asks "Why watch television if you can interact with people from around the world at any time, day or night?" and "Why watch television if you can find out just about anything in seconds with a few key strokes and button clicks?" This 30-second sales pitch speaks volumes about the role of CMC and its advantages in today's information-driven era. CMC promotes more organization, productivity, flexibility, interactions, individualized learning, and greater access to global networks of information than any other medium.
Although CMC can be applied for personal and entertainment purposes, this chapter attempts to answer the "Why use CMC in the classroom?" question by exploring the numerous advantages of this instructional vehicle. CMC has been defined by Santoro (Volume I) as including interpersonal computer-mediated communication, informatics, and computer-aided instruction, and both Santoro and Collins (Volume IV) describe the basic tools for Internet use. This chapter highlights some of the drawbacks of CMCas an educational medium, and then looks at advantages for both students and teachers.
Whereas CMC is an enabling medium for human interaction, research, and instruction, it is not practical for all purposes in education. CMC is a good instructional vehicle for information collection, writing, analysis, problem solving, information gathering and dissemination, and sharing interests, feelings, and attitudes in the cognitive and affective domains of intellectual skills and attitudes. As most CMCoccurs on a computer screen, it is difficult to directly assess most physical behavior (other than keyboarding and mouse skills), so the psychomotor domain is best addressed in face-to-face interactions.
O'Neil (1995) discussing the Office of Technology Assessment 1995 report, notes that "getting the technology" sometimes overshadows the question of how teachers want to change their instruction, and what role technology can play in assisting that. To interact electronically, a computer, modem, telephone line, and communication software is needed. Although about one third of U.S. schools have access to the Internet, only about 3% of classrooms do (O'Neil, 1995). For those who have older hardware and software, there is the problem of securing upgrades capable of supporting advanced applications, such as CD-ROM's and networking. This can represent a significant capital investment for school districts already short on cash, when you factor in the need to upgrade the wiring within buildings and add additional phone lines for Internet access. The case studies in the books in this series represent the exception, not yet the norm, for the majority of school districts across the nation.
To feel prepared to use technology and computers in their classrooms, preservice teachers need to take "Introduction to Computers" and "Technology in the Classroom" courses, see technology use modeled by their instructors in methods courses, have "hands-on" opportunities to become comfortable with their own personal computer use, observe computer use by their supervising teachers, and use technology in the classroom during their clinical and student teaching experiences (Handler, 1993). This is problematical as universities are hard-pressed to prepare and encourage their faculty to use technology in their teaching; not all supervising teachers use technology and computers in their classrooms.
The learning curve required to use CMCeffectively is steep, and teachers need someone to coach them through the process until they are comfortable, a responsibility increasingly assumed by school media center personnel. Teaching students to use computers is often a school's first priority, leaving teachers neither time no access to hone their own skills. Occasionally students end up coaching their teachers (Mizell & Kontos, Volume III).
CMC is a great medium for reaching out to others, but it cannot replace face-to-face human contact. CMC will never, and should not, replace face-to-face human interactions. Human contact is necessary and important, especially in this information age in which students and teachers are bombarded with information at every turn. It is easy to become desensitized to the real world. However, as illustrated by the case studies in this book, CMCis able to conveniently bring people together who, by any other means, would never have the chance to interact.
It is important to address some of the drawbacks of CMCto illustrate that it is not infallible. Although there are limitations, CMCoffers a myriad benefits that can enhance, improve, and support education.
The example of the deaf girl in the computer commercial demonstrates some of the advantages of computer-mediated communication. Oneadvantage is that there is an abundance of online information that can be turned to instructional uses. The deaf child is no longer dependent on watching someone sign to her to interact, nor is she limited to books to discover new knowledge. A new world of information is opened to her that appeal to her interests and enhance her education. She can also find this information in seconds from the comfort of her home. Three chapters in this book describe how CMC, used by students with disabilities, has enriched their learning experiences.
Teachers can communicate with their colleagues about online instruction, download useful files for classes from remote databases, and post lessons and tutorials online. They can take advantage of the "shareware and freeware, and lesson plans-much of it related to science, math, geography, and technology" (Baker & Buller, 1995, p. 192), as well as discussion groups and electronic magazines accessible on the Internet. Similarly, students can form e-mail study groups with their peers and can research assignments using the numerous Internet resources for class assignments.
CMCshifts the focus from the teacher's instruction and places the responsibility of learning onto the shoulders of the students. Instead of passively sitting through class lectures and endless seat work, CMCempowers the students to actively master the material. The deaf girl featured in the commercial is reflective of this traditional teaching method. In a classroom she would be resigned to having others to instruct her, but in CMC she is not reliant on her teacher of on signing to learn.
This active command of building knowledge and having the students make the content uniquely "their own" is reflective of constructivism. Jonassen, Davidson, Collins, et al. (1995) describes the relationship between CMC and constructivism in that:
Dyads or groups can work together to solve problems, argue about interpretations, negotiate meaning, or engage in other educational activities including coaching, modeling, and scaffolding of performance. While conferencing, the learner is electronically engaged in discussion and interaction with peers and experts in a process of social negotiation. Knowledge construction occurs when students explore issues, take positions, discuss those positions in an argumentative format, and reflect on and re-evaluate their positions. As a result of contact with new or different perspectives, these activities may contribute to a higher level of learning through cognitive restructuring or conflict resolution, leading to new ways of understanding the materials. (p. 16)
Because of the learner-centered approach typical of CMC courses, teachers are forced to think about instructional design in innovative ways. Traditional lesson plans may not lend themselves to online instruction. Besides choosing appropriate instructional activities that will cater to the various needs of the students, teachers must also take into consideration staffing, class schedule, budget, varied learning styles, and the new frontier of the online environment (Eastmond & Ziegahn, 1995). Although some teachers may view this as just more work, the benefit is that instructors are again asked to consciously examine a process that may have become innate in order to ensure effective instruction (Dwyer, 1994). There are a variety of issues, such as suitable online content, varied ways of learning, instructional methods, and interactive activities, that best address the content, the technology itself, and time to be considered when designing online instruction.
Everyone has a different style of learning. The hearing-impaired girl in the commercial is a visual learner who may learn best through reading. Another student may learn best through taking part in discussions. CMCallows students to use several different styles of learning, including instructor-directed discussion, group discussion, guest lecture, presentation, and brainstorming (Eastmond & Ziegahn, 1995). This flexibility and diversity allows the learning experience to become more personalized and individualized.
Increased interaction is another inherent asset of CMC. The deaf child can only effectively interact face to face with others who can sign, but CMCbreaks the confines of her limited communication, enabling her to talk with anyone via her computer. In well-designed classroom activities the electronic materials from the springboard for interactions with teacher and peers.
Computer-mediated communication activities can be designed to promote increased cultural awareness. Not only can students communicate directly with people all over the world, but they can research interesting topics about various countries, cultures, and natives. The history, politics, philosophical and religious beliefs, way of living, customs, traditions, and so on can be communicated first hand by natives or researched in various databases. In this context, CMC can serve as a powerful tool to eliminate stereotypes and preconceived notions about "foreigners" and their native countries. It can transform the local classroom into a global classroom with students from around the glove interacting with each other first hand. Although continents apart, CMC can bring students together and foster mutual understanding by overcoming local, regional, national, and international boundaries.
CMC can overcome geographic barriers. Students do not have to be physically present in the same room in order to communicate. This is especially beneficial to students with physical disabilities of those in remote locations who can take courses that otherwise would not be available to them. CMC can also augment the holding of school libraries by bringing the international resources of the Internet as close as the nearest modem. As several chapters in this book illustrate, library media centers have taken the lead in making these resources available to their schools.
Besides eliminating geographic barriers, the dual temporal nature of CMC bridges time barriers. Students can interact regardless of time zones, and "penpal" projects carried out over the Internet allow many more interactions in a given timespan than those conducted by "snail mail."
In the television commercial, the astute computer manufacturer shows in its choice of casting a deaf girl that there are no social barriers in CMC. This is a faceless, nondiscriminatory medium, with only the "textual personality" that communicators choose to give it. People with whom the deaf girl in the commercial interacts will have no indication that she has a hearing impairment unless she tells them. Whereas she may feel awkward or intimidated in face-to-face communication with people without hearing impairment, she has no qualms about communicating with others via the computer; rather, she looks forward to socializing by means of this nondiscriminatory medium. The same hold true for the students with disabilities and impediments who use CMC. For the blind there are electronic Braille keyboards, synthetic speech technologies, and scanning devices that convert text to Braille (Fetton & Blenkhorn, 1986). No social group is excluded from taking part in communicating electronically with others because CMC is able to overcome the space, time, and social boundaries that were so difficult to bridge in the past.
The casting in the advertisement also demonstrates the changing demographics of computer users. With the falling prices of computers, more families can afford to buy a computer, and an increasing number of younger people are showing proficiency in using the technology. Whereas computers were seen as complex technological tools in past years, they are now used by "average" people for entertainment as well as educational benefits. Education is no longer confined to the classroom, nor to the youth of the learners.
Using all facets of CMC, students can collect information in multiple formats and then organize, play, visualize, link, and discover relationships among facts and events. Students can then use the same technology to communicate their ideas to others, to argue and critique their beliefs, to persuade and teach others, and to add greater levels of understanding to their own knowledge. Simple put, an array of tools for acquiring information and for thinking an expression allows more children more ways to enter the learning enterprise successfully. These same experiences provide the skills that will enable students to live productive lives in the global, digital, information-bases future they all face (Dwyer, 1994).
The chapters in this book first take an overview of the use of CMC in the classroom, followed by case studies in social studies, math and science, and the use of CMC with students with disabilities. The final section illustrates the role of library media centers in the implementation of CMC and the training of both teachers and students. The book concludes with a resource chapter and a glossary.
The new opportunities that Internet-available resources offer to eduction are exciting, but capitalizing on these resources entails much more than simply switching on computers in the classroom. Hester and Songer examine three teachers' efforts to incorporate the Kids as Global Scientists (KGS) curriculum and activities during Spring 1995. The changes these teachers perceived, including changes in the locus of control in their classrooms, their roles as teachers, and the roles of their students, can be interpreted as grappling with the implications of constructivist approaches to teaching. Factors that facilitated or impeded the classroom incorporation of online tools included the time needed to learn the tools, the support required to do so, the expectations placed on teachers, and issues surrounding access to information and technology. Implications about the need for both technical and "people" support are discussed in light of the struggles teachers face as they attempt to simultaneously implement reform approaches to teaching and learning, new technologies, new content, and community building.
Marcinkiewicz and Carlson explain how multiple access systems for microcomputers (MAS) are capable of integrating computer-aided instruction (CAI) into both cooperative and competitive learning environments so that classroom management techniques can be varied and accommodating. These management techniques themselves can be improved because CAI can be integrated into them. The reason that the typical computing configurations do not successfully integrate CAI and cooperative or competitive learning is because they do not allow more than one individual to input information into a microcomputer at a time thereby restricting interaction with a computer to one individual. Whether the intention is cooperation or competition, the limitation of a single input is a bottleneck to computer-mediated group instructional activities. Because an MAS allows for a s many as 128 (currently) input devices to a single microcomputer, a consideration for educators then is designing instruction that utilizes the features of an MAS in achieving either cooperative or competitive instruction. This chapter discusses the planning of cooperative and competitive learning using an MAS and gives examples of successful lessons that were designed for both formats.
Since the mid-1980s, there have been many changes in the technologies available to teachers in Australia for telecommunication activities. Chandler and Loosely suggest that each technological change has heralded in new opportunities and challenges in terms of curriculum and professional development, a process that can be portrayed as that of journeying through a changing landscape. Since 1993, a relatively small but self-consistent group of teachers have journeyed together. In this chapter, the authors describe the changing technological landscape, the ways in which this group has changed its core activities and foci in response, and the formation of the group as an online community.
This section opens with a chapter from the directors of a televised current events program for children who turned to CMC to gather feedback on the efficacy of their efforts, and is followed by a description of interactive storytelling used to develop historical understanding. Mutual understanding of Japanese and American culture is the theme of the next chapter, and the section ends with a description of a virtual museum in which students will be able to interact with the exhibits.
What's In The News is a current events television series designed for use in fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade social studies classes. Butler and Swartz state that the objective of the series is to explain to young people the complex issues and events in the news, as well as the historical information background to those events. This in-depth examination of current events provides students with a context for understanding world issues and the impact those issues have on their lives. The authors explain that they have three formal objectives in their use of CMC. As a current events series, much of their material is "fresh" for a limited period of time. Therefore, their first goal was to provide teachers with up-to-date information about upcoming programs and useful materials to help incorporate the programs into their classes in a timely manner. The second goal was to provide teachers and students with a simple and immediate way to respond to the producers of the program with comments about the show. Lastly, Butler and Swartz wanted their telecomputing service to be used as a forum for students and teachers in different locations to talk with each other and discuss their reactions to current events.
Riecken describes the Camelot Project, which wa an exploration of the potential CMC hold for helping students develop an understanding o a time period other than their own. Drawing on theoretical work regarding the role of imagination and story in learning, the Camelot Project linked university teacher education students with middle school students for the purpose of enhancing the middle school students' understanding of medieval times. Students at both institutions communicated within the context of a fantasy role play that evolved around a variety of medieval themes, including the emergence of Christianity in pagan Europe, medieval warfare, relations of power in feudal society, and the role of women in medieval times. Although structuring the format for the CMC proved somewhat problematic, the project proved CMC to be a valuable medium for stimulating student thinking about the past. The Camelot Project also yielded an unexpected outcome in that the CMC provided some of the more reserved students with a vehicle for a kind of creative expression not normally seen in the regular classroom setting.
Eleventh-grade students in Osaka, Japan, wanted to connect with American students to discuss the senseless murder of a 16-year-old exchange student in Louisiana. Through a posting on the Internet, they linked up with seventh-grade students in Cedar Falls, IA. Zeitz and Kueny explain in their chapter the curricular and technical preparation used to involve the Iowan students in a correspondence that required them to question their rights to own guns as well as they ability to change the world in which they live.
"KNOWMAGINE," a prototype of virtual knowledge park, is currently under development at the Knowledge Technology Lab of the Science and Technology Center in the Tel-Aviv University. Oren and Miodusar seek to develop an interactive multiuser virtual museum as an Internet site and to examine how new communication technologies might promote the learning of science, technology and culture. In the process of defining the environment they addressed three question: (a) why a museum, why a virtual one, and why on the Net; (b) what are appropriate features of a virtual museum, and (c) what is the structure of the virtual museum as a learning environment? The answers to these questions constitute the rationale, the structure, and the features of the prototype "wing" in the virtual museum that Oren and Miodusar describe.
These case studies examine the use of spreadsheets to teach math in a situated learning environment and the use of computational science to solve real-world problems.
In the chapter by Dirksen, the author presents a case study of the implementation of CMC into a middle school integrated mathematics class. The case study focuses on a teacher who utilized the Internet in concert with spreadsheets to teach mathematics content in a situated learning environment. The Internet was used to develop each unit and as a resource by students. Students examined problems that are of current concern and relevance. In developing this curriculum, Dirksen explains how a teacher can feel constrained by the traditional assessment requirements of the educational system. She outlines some ways to remove such administrative constraints and how to use CMC as a problem-solving tool.
Biggerstaff, Laffey, and Nazworthy state a need for teachers and students to work on activities that include challenging, authentic projects in the school curriculum. Otherwise, students will not truly understand what they learn in school until provided the opportunity to apply their knowledge against meaningful challenges. Their chapter tells about computational science at Lees Summit High School, where computer technology has advanced to the point of allowing real problems to be solved in a more timely manner by people of varying learning abilities and styles. They conclude that students are interested in real problems and can be expected to look at ways of solving them.
The use of CMCby learning-disabled students introduced them to the notion of writing for an audience outside their own classroom. Deaf students in an elementary school used an electronic journal to connect with other deaf students around the state and to improve their written language expression.
The Electronic Emissary Project and Math Pen-Pals both learner-centered programs, reveal a highly creative application of e-mail in a science-based curriculum. Improving the reading and writing communication skills of learning disabled students through innovative projects is documented. The nurturing environment of the classroom is structured to allow these learners to explore and respond to subject matter experts (SME). Winrich explores the Internet to find listservs, resources, and research to incorporate into her established classroom curriculum. The overwhelming response of the learning-disabled students to these resources demonstrates the quantitative and qualitative literacy skills improvements that CMC allows. Access to the Internet in the classroom permitted the e-mail exchanges to become the curriculum. This study concludes with improved oral and written communicative skills and abstract thinking skills for learners.
Happenings is a project that was developed at Ashland Elementary School in Lexington, KY. It was designed to allow deaf children the opportunity to connect through the exchange of writing with other children who are deaf from around the state, nation, and world. Brandt describes the project's aim as giving the students an immediate as well as an extended purpose for writing. Happenings features articles from students in Frankfort, KY's state capitol, as well as from around the world. Students wrote articles about school events, personnel, each other, and themselves. Primary children submitted personal revisions of popular poetry. Brandt explains that a major objective in Happenings and similar newspaper projects include having the students communicate their ideas and information to a variety of audiences for a variety of purposes. In classrooms around North America, children too often are writing solely for the purpose of pleasing the teacher. Once a child's writing clears the teacher's desk, it may go directly into a garbage can. A few pieces may make it to a refrigerator of a proud parent. For some students this lack of sense of the reader or writing for an audience hinders thought development and quality writing. Brandt concludes that specific audiences and purposes provide students a distinct focus for writing.
Peyton and French explain that, historically, numerous aids have been employed to allow deaf learners to communicate through spoken English. The earhorns, loops, and hearing aids of the past have been surpassed by the technology of computer-mediated communication. Speech and auditory training instructs children in receptive and expressive features of spoken language. Communication, however, remains partially inaccessible for most deaf people. Peyton and French distinguish between Deaf and deaf used in cultural terms. American Sign Language, which is visual and not a written language, permits face-to-face communication. They document CMC's impact on literacy programs, which provide the opportunity for deaf learners to use written English spontaneously and creatively for genuine communication. After several years of using and documenting the use of real-time written interaction with college students at Gallaudet University, this program implemented and studied network applications at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School on Gallaudet's campus. Postprogram evaluation revealed three features: the intensity of reading and writing at the same time is initially overwhelming for learners, teacher role changes from expert to one of learner in small group interactions, and network conversations include more than one thread or focus that learners might grasp and choose to respond to.
The role of the library media center has traditionally been that conserver and purveyor of information. As more and more information is available in digital form, school media centers are often at the forefront of change in their schools. Media center personnel are often proactive in acquiring information acquisition and management skills and teaching those skills to both teachers and students. Such skills are especially valuable in rural schools and school districts and in areas where money to spend on current hard copy books is in short supply.
As we more forward into the electronic age, Wright, Schell, and Johnson insist on the importance of educators recognizing the valuable role that the school library can play in facilitating innovation in instruction across the curriculum. A unique perspective is gained by the school library program as it monitors and supports instruction within the school and experiments and tests new instructional technologies. At the same time it is important that library media specialists understand the value of promoting their services as a part of a collaborative vision of school improvement because this ultimately leads to the development of a healthy and active library media program. This chapter illustrates how one library program has grown as a result of maintaining a keen interest in how new instructional technologies might improve learning while actively working with teachers in designing and development new curriculum.
Rural schools have traditionally lagged behind their urban and suburban counterparts in the quantity and quality of resources available to students and faculty. The Internet promises the opportunity for students in rural schools to gain more equal access to detailed and up-to-date reference materials. The library, as the information center for both students and faculty, is the preferred setting to introduce the Internet into the school. The librarian is in a unique position of understanding the information and research needs of the teachers and students in the rural school.
Schroeder addresses the issues of acquiring access to the Internet and integrating it into the rural K-12 library. Issues surrounding the selection of an Internet service provider are discussed. Strategies for training the library staff and, in turn, students and faculty are provided. The concept of certifying student Internet skills with a "Cybernaut License" is presented. Special attention is given to integrating Internet into the reference section. Additional discussion is included on meeting the needs of individual teachers and classes. A variety of specific applications that have been successfully implemented by K-12 librarians are described.
One of the strengths that school library media specialists can bring to teaching partnerships is their knowledge of information resources and practical criteria for using and evaluating those resources. The chapter by Latrobe and Havener discusses information specialists and how they can help identify external sources of information available through CMC. Latrobe and Havener continue by discussing how to complement those sources with others, both print and nonprint, already available in the school. In addition to aiding in accessing information, media specialists can also instruct young people on how to evaluate the information that abounds in unedited form on the Internet. Librarians, in partnership with classroom teachers, can place such instruction within the specific context the teacher is planning for.
December, in the final chapter, provides a listing of resources available to K-12 teachers. The book concludes with a glossary of Internet and CMC terms.
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