Educational Computing: Resourcing the Future
Educational Computing:
Resourcing the Future
David Loader, Principal, MLC
Liddy Nevile, Senior Lecturer, RMIT
IARTV Occasional PaperNo 22. September, 1991
INTRODUCTION
This paper was written in response to the recent paper from Wayne Rice "The Provision of Computer Resources in Schools", IARTV Occasional Paper No. 20, May 1991. The aim of this paper is to broaden the discussion of computers in education to include 'the future'.
In developing educational computing, it is important not to be constrained by the past. We believe many of these constraints are based on inadequate models of computers and of education. The models that we have in our minds lead us to define computer use in particular ways: imagining computers as teachers or knowledge transmission devices is an example of this. While computers can at times deliver instruction and information, to see them as only in these roles is to limit unnecessarily their potential for the ' construction of knowledge'.
Tomorrow's classroom, as envisioned by us today, is characterised by the transparency of the computers within it. In the near future these devices will be ubiquitous but not dominating the classroom ambience. They will be found among the students' books, papers and pens. Furthermore, we anticipate that some of the traditional forms of knowledge representation--what we are familiar with now--will be found inadequate for many of our purposes. Thus we expect that the forms and content of knowledge considered relevant and appropriate to students in compulsory education will change.
We also anticipate an extension of the range of cognitive styles being supported within education. We are assuming that 'technology' will be curriculum as well as being integrated into the curriculum in much the same way as English expression is today.
In particular, this paper is based on a constructivist theory of knowledge. As such, it emphasises the subjective and evolutionary nature of knowledge: what is 'knowledge' for one person may not be for another.
In this teaching framework, students are encouraged to broaden their knowledge 'beyond what they know'. They are encouraged to find out ' ways of knowing ' . Students need to develop an awareness of ' what they know ' and 'how they know' it and then negotiate this with their peers and the wider community. For this reason, we advocate 'constructionism' as a pedagogy: the teacher has a special role in this context.
We are trying to develop an 'enterprising' approach to schooling which includes the provision of resources by schools. This assumes it is the responsibility of teachers and schools to generate energy for learning and then to support that learning in ways which recognise the differing needs, interests, abilities and cognitive styles of the students.
In this 'future', teaching will be greatly enhanced by the provision of appropriate media. The traditional forms and ways of knowing can then be extended to take advantage of the development of computational media.
To achieve this requires a proactive stance towards such things as imperative forms of knowledge (including programming) and extended forms of representational media (including animation and hypertext, for instance).
In our model, computing (a process not an object) extends the range of media within which teaching and leaming can take place. We see the computer (an object) as a convivial tool with which humans (our students) can develop their personal knowledge.
We think of the computer as a new sort of 'pencil and paper'. We even go so far as to be interested in whether the computer is an intelligent tool with which we can form meaningful relationships.
In her seminal work, Turkle (The Second Self, p 13) warns us that: "the computer.affects the way that we think, especially the way we think about ourselves ....The question is not what will the computer be like in the future, but instead, what will we be like, what kind of people are we becoming.
The Role of Personal Computer
In our vision of the future, the computer as a personal tool becomes a vital element. A personal computer is not just a computer which has only one owner. It is personal in that it allows its user to create a personal 'knowledge space' with idiosyncratic ideas, data and software of personal value. The ownership involved is not just of a machine, but of knowledge and power.
Personal computers are like diaries. They have our information--often private--the programs that we need, our particular sets of tasks; and all are arranged in a way which is convenient to us. We use personal computers for private purposes such as writing essays, solving a mathematical problem and so on. We are responsible to ourselves for our use of our computers. We consider this view of computers stands in sharp contrast to what we call school computers.
School computers are for school purposes. In arriving at this stance, we have had to work through our ideas of the purposes of school computing. Many purposes to which priority was given in the past have been rejected and some new ones adopted.
For example, we do not believe that schools should feel obliged to give all students a number of hours of exposure to computers. What is the value of experiencing episodes of school computing, such as 45 minutes of word processing per week, when writing with a word processor is not part of the school curriculum?
Using the computer in this limited way does not necessarily merit priority over the many other life skills which our students need help to develop.
There is little evidence to establish that small doses of school computing enhance the lives of our students. There are many professionally-expert teachers who are yet to be convinced they should give up classtime for such activities.
On the other hand, once students have personal computers, there is a substantial role for school computing. That role is the process of making personal computers suitable for educational purposes. In our case we have decided this means such things as school provision of networking facilities. This allows students and teachers both on and off campus to have access via their computers at any time to school resources such as electronic encyclopaedia, international electronic data bases, bulletin boards and mail, and most importantly to each other.
This model of the computer allows for it to be used for interaction with, and communication of, ideas. In this way it supports constructionism in the classroom. School computing, as we define it, does not stop at hardware provision. School computing is an attitude to computer use, a culture which supports computer use, and it must extend into the general curriculum.
Many elements of the established syllabus are no longer relevant in a community where computing is promoted (we adopt a proactive approach to computer use). In addition, schools are forced to make decisions about how students should work and this in turn questions how their efforts should be evaluated. (In our case we have chosen to promote collaboration.)
At this point it is useful to re-consider some models of school computing from the past. No longer will schools need laboratories of computers and computer teachers struggling to give all students equal doses of 'computing exposure'. Instead, schools are burdened with an increasing need for all teachers to be prepared to re-examine their practices and to consider fresh approaches to teaching which will take advantage of the expanding medium in which their students are working.
'Professional development' is not about training teachers to use computers in specific ways so they can train their students to do likewise. It is helping teachers to stand back trom their practices and see which elements are still their exclusive responsibility and which roles the students can assume. This is being 'enterprising'. 'Enterprising' (in the educational context) was coined by the authors of an OECD report some years ago (Ball, 1989). It is a way of thinking which helps bring into focus the real purposes of teaching and aims to increase the energy and resources available for these purposes.
For example, an 'enterprising ' teacher would not consider herself the only teacher in a classroom: while there may well be only one school-employed adult in this role, there are usually available many others who can play that teaching role. In an enterprising classroom, alI participants are teachers at times, in one of three ways: as school teacher, as peer teacher or as inner teacher.
An enterprising teacher does not carry the responsibility for creating all the learning experiences: learners assume responsibility for many of the aspects of the learning/teaching process and they, not the teacher, generate many of the problems on which they work. (This might mean that learners are engaged in investigative work which raises unexpected new aspects of a topic with which they are concemed. Equally it might mean a problem such as how to model a particular idea or how to save data on a computer.)
The OECD model of enterprise depends on giving students REAL RESPONSIBILITY which is not sanitised to eliminate RISK. The three R's (reality, risk and responsibility) are used to generate energy for learning and there are many examples of cases in which they do just this.
In our case, the increased need for skill development among both teachers and students is being responded to in remarkable ways and we believe that the combination of the three R's is working.
Some may think that we are taking unnecessary risks by casting aside familiar practices. While the school gives help in material and technical ways, it is left to the teachers and students to decide how to use their computers and when they need them. Of course personal ownership of the computers magnifies all three R's.
THE MLC APPROACH
The current MLC educational computing program is designed around a personal computer. We have chosen a portable computer because this allows for different types of environmental influences.
At Mallacoota, our residential site, students can take laptops into the rainforest to write their essays, poems, or to write to their parents. At both Mallacoota and Kew, students are freed from desk-driven social placement and are found choosing to sit close to a friend, alone, at a desk or on the floor.
In order to achieve anything like a meaningful experience of personal computing, we have had to find ways of placing personal computers in the hands of all our students. We have chosen to invite our parents to support us in our endeavours. We are pleased to report that the overwhelming majority of our parents have chosen to accept this invitation.
This support has made it possible for MLC to negotiate reasonable prices and financial programs for the purchasing of the computers and to develop an insurance policy for their protection.
MLC provides students with technical support in excess of that which would normally be available to families who, in isolation from others, acquire computers. MLC has also taken responsibility for evaluating available and future hardware and advising parents in their choice of computers.
MLC commenced this program acutely aware of the limited computing expertise within the school community. Rather than try to solve this problem in advance, MLC made it part of the process and have been most gratified to find that teachers and students, once they become the proud owners of laptop computers, will acquire uncommonly high levels of expertise from manuals (the inner teacher again), peers and formal instruction
In a recent survey it was established that many teachers have extended their repertoire of computer use far beyond the requirements for their particular teaching role. Similarly, students adopt naturally the same approach to learning to use their computers as they do to using the family VCR; formal classes in abstract computing skills are not required very often.
In the classes which have fully adopted our new computing policy, the model of computer as medium is taken seriously. This has at times produced some surprising results which have had to be considered with care. A good example is provided by the students in Year Seven whose work in Biblical Studies resulted in a set of animated stories about Moses.
Seen in isolation, it might seem strange to find a Biblical Studies class writing computer programs to make cartoons of Moses running up and down a hill. Given the broader scenario, the fact that these students could use the Cartesian plane so easily will delight any mathematics teacher.
Shifting the focus of consideration of this example back to the teacher, we find that the task of assessing the work is less burdensome than it might be: the promotion of particular models of computing provides the teacher with guidance which helps her make decisions with respect to the students' work. We have used this technique deliberately.
Depending upon the non-school teachers in the classrooms has also been rewarding. Our experience is that there is a great deal more student co-operation in the personal computer classrooms and student social interaction seems to be more often work-oriented than in other classrooms.
THE MLC EXPERIENCE
The MLC experience is based upon more than twelve years of involvement with computers at MLC, two and half years with the Sunrise school and one and a half years with the laptop program.
The staff are now reporting a number of positive outcomes. A culture is developing in which risk-taking is enhanced with the immediacy of feedback encouraging further investigation. For the computer, no idea is too wild or too far-fetched. As a result, imagination and creativity are liberated in new and exciting ways.
MLC parents and teachers repoIt that students are generally more prepared to persist with problems in order to find a solution now that they have a computer. A consensus seems to be that students are becoming more effective and more independent as learners.
THE FUTURE
The future is not far away! Today's Grade 3 students will be graduating from school in the year 2000. What will their world be like? We are living in a society with an increasing rate of change in complexity and technology.
In these times we educators must be bold, so that the future to be achieved is our chosen future. In order to do this, education should play a proactive role now. With this in mind, MLC is planning for nearly 1,000 laptops by 1992 and 2,000 by 1994. This means that by 1994 all MLC students above Grade 3 will be using personal computers.
Written text, of which this paper is an example, is a technology that dominates our present culture and provides us with intellectual capabilities that we could not have without this technology. Is it too bold to assume that with this new computational medium people will be able to unlock skills and intelligences as yet unknown?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
TURKLE, Sherry, Second Self: Computers and the Human Spirit. Granada, London, 1984