"A Case for Educational Technology"
Presented to
The Western Educational Computing Conference (WECC)
Sponsored by
The California Educational Computing Consortium (CECC)
Palo Alto, California, November 1989
by Merrill Tew
Palo Verde College
Some of what I say may be considered by some as heresy in education.
If I offend some, I apologize, but I think I am addressing a concern
of many, if not most, computer educators. The educational tradition
has prevented us from using more of that which can make learning more
efficient, effective and pleasant: educational technology. Several
case studies of the advantages of computer aided instruction were
presented at the WECC conference in Irvine in 1986. Yet there has not
been a significant increase in the use of educational technology. We,
here, are aware of the advantages of educational technology, so
perhaps this presentation can be considered as an appeal to join
forces and influence those who govern the educational system, a
"position paper," if you will.
Educators seem afraid to advocate an increasing role in the use of
computers and other technology in education because we fear we may be
replaced by the proverbial button. We seem to have adopted the 3 laws
of Isaac Asimov's robotics in I. ROBOT, here paraphrased: First Law:
"An educator may not injure the traditional educational system, or,
through inaction, allow the traditional educational system to come to
harm"; Second Law: "An educator must obey the orders given it by the
traditional educational system except where such orders would conflict
with the First Law"; Third Law: "An educator must protect his own
existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First
or Second Law."
During the decade of the 60's, a magazine article projected a possible
result of the use of the predecessor of today's VCR:
... And Mom may have to add adjusting the little EVR schoolhouse
in her living room to the skills of making great coffee.....
Sounds kind of creepy, doesn't it? The kiddies will need only to
go to the mailbox for the week's audio cassettes and EVR
cartridges with only telephone contacts with teachers or computers
that answer questions about the canned school lessons.
Although tongue-in-cheek and skeptical, this suggestion of such an
educational aide is altogether too slowly developing into reality.
When cable TV was emerging in the early 1970's. A writer proposed that
"all the schools in America could very well be replaced by TV sets in
the next 5 to 10 years"; the article was accompanied by a photograph
of a disabled high school student who "communicated" to school by way
of a two-way cable TV system. School administrators, conscious
primarily of job preservation rather than effective delivery of
educational products and services, are not aware that the students, in
their own minds, have indeed replaced school with TV as a primary
source of information demonstrated by that well known reference to the
fact that high school graduates had spent 18000 hours watching T.V.
compared to 12000 hours in the classroom. And perhaps this
irreversible inevitability is right! Experiments such as that reported
by Marshall McLuhan demonstrate that students remember better, by
virtue of the medium, information delivered through TV than from
either a live lecturer or text.
Innovative history educators, who don't suffer from the "frustrated
actor syndrome," realize that presenting video dramatizations of
historical events, followed by discussion, is much more effective than
having the students hear about them from a lecturer or read about them
in a book. This concept was convincingly demonstrated at a convention
of the CCSSA held during the 1970's in Medialand Hollywood. A flyer
was distributed there which contained these poignant remarks:
Education is being chastised for not being able to teach the
"basic three R's" like "the good old days." What society does not
realize is that our young people are living in a media oriented
society and are using a substitute diversion to replace reading
and writing - Television.... School administrators are baffled by
the inability of many of our young people to learn as they
did....
This is not to condone the present trivial programming content of
commercial TV. Nor does it advocate neglect of learning to read and
write.
Students have become TV literate and consequently better understand
the information that is presented through it than from other sources.
Rather than hear a lecture, students can more effectively learn from a
computerized simulation and TV demonstration, providing, of course,
that the presentation is an appropriately packaged video lesson which
does not resemble the "Miss Frump" classroom.
Ironically, although schools rarely use TV as a means of information
delivery, some teachers use TV programs that children watch at home as
bases for classroom activities. Joshua Meyrowitz suggests that this is
"a new means of 'leading' children by running after them as quickly as
possible."
Although many of the points raised in the "Nation at Risk"
Commission's report were relevant, sufficient emphasis was not devoted
to the inevitable change in procedures and values due to technology.
The general concept of education is that it takes place only in
schools. Television and computers should be central to the educational
process, and these can be available at home.
The so-called "decline of American education" does not exist. Indeed,
present-day youth have much more information than their counterparts
in previous generations. It is a different kind of information,
relevant to them, and derived from different sources.
Institutionalized education is only a small, and increasingly
ineffective, part of a person's total learning experience. The
evaluation of educational achievement cannot continue to use
traditional means of measurement.
Meyrowitz cites a 1968 report about what may be considered the first
TV generation:
....the best informed, the most intelligent, and the most
idealistic this country has ever known....., a prime cause of
student disturbances....
Meyrowitz further writes:
Electronic media have been blamed .... for the recent decline in
scores on Scholastic Aptitude Tests. Less attention has been paid,
however, to the possibility that electronic media may aid the
development of other forms of "intelligence" that we do not yet
even know how to name or measure. . . It is possible that video
and computer games are introducing our children to a different way
of thinking that involves the integration of multiple variables
and overlapping lines of simultaneous actions.... It is also
conceivable that the video game wizards will grow up to find a
complex cure for cancer.
Researchers in geriatrics recently studied the effect of video games
and concluded that playing them helps senior citizens improve mental
abilities.
Joel Swerdlow reports
"... that by relying on the information coded in images, TV
watchers may be developing hitherto unused portions of their
brains.... the average I. Q. may be rising because of children's
increased capacity to handle spatial visual problems."
One may correctly assert that there is a "decline of _traditional_
American education," as there probably should be. Traditional
education stresses the values of a former society and fails to
recognize the emergence of the technological age with its rich flow
of information through electronic media. Indeed, it's no wonder
students rebel at the lack of intellectual stimulation at school
after being forced away from their information rich environment of
involvement -- involvement is the key -- with TV, home computers and
video games.
Tony Schwartz succinctly expresses the dilemma in The Responsive
Chord:
Educators .... would like ... students to .... not miss any
information. In an age of information overload this is a death
warrant. The student must learn to scan to live. The educator's
new job is to sharpen this skill..... Since the information stored
within a child is patterned in a different way from previous
generations, we are not going to reach him with new information
patterned in the old print-based linear structure ... The media
child demands participation ... If the educator does not allow
participation ..., our system will push the child out of the
school entirely. Unfortunately, the present education
establishment is more concerned with filling time than involving
students ... _Concentration_, for example, is a valuable skill in
reading but unimportant in electronic learning ..[One's]
perceptual orchestration is geared by media experiences early in
life to provide an open channel for electronically mediated
communication.... With electronic media...... openness permits
auditory and visual stimuli more direct access to the brain.
Deborah Dashow Ruth concurs:
Schools take the young child, who uses a style of imagery derived
from direct perceptions through all of his senses, and, by
teaching him the alphabet and its related linear skills of reading
and writing, effectively reduce the child's sensory world to a
series of visual abstractions. Unless the educational system
integrates multisensory experiences into the curriculum, youth
will continue to categorize school activities as separate from --
and irrelevant to -- their own multisensorily stimulated lives.
CD-ROM technology and the video disc player's ability to be interfaced
with a home computer may provide the ultimate learning station.
Computers are effective educational tools, providing instant feedback
to student responses. In a speech, "The Shame of American Education,"
delivered to an American Psychological Association convention, B. F.
Skinner, well-known behaviorist, advocated the use of computers as an
effective remedy for the problems facing education:
Students do not have to be made to study; abundant reinforcement
is enough. In a well designed instructional program, students
gobble up their assignments... It is characteristic of the human
species that successful action is automatically reinforced. The
fascination with video games is adequate proof... it is all a
matter of scheduling reinforcements.... We could double the
efficiency of education.... by letting each student move at his or
her own pace .... When students move through well-constructed
programs at their own pace, the so-called problem of motivation is
automatically solved.
Dr. Owen C. Geer's testimonial supports this:
I was employed .... as superintendent of the ARAMCO schools in
Saudi Arabia. Two years later the schools were described by the
Wall Street Journal as "perhaps the best in the World!" Many
things took place in the interim but the main event was the
installation of a system-wide, computer-managed
software-curriculum ...
The Duval (Florida) County schools were llth from the bottom of the 67
districts in the state. With the use of computer aided instruction and
after-hours telephone assistance from teachers, students were able to
increase their average scores from 56th of the 67 districts to _first_
in both communications and mathematics.
In addition, vast quantities of information from many sources are
available to the personal computer through datacommunications.
Informational text and drills for increasing skills can be available
on one's computer; consultation for clarification with specialists
(the emerging teacher) can be available by voice phone and electronic
mail; and demonstrations of information conveyed most effectively
visually can be provided by VCR & TV. Educational technology can
eliminate the need to build more expensive classroom buildings and
congest campus parking lots.
For example, the following are excerpts of an abstract of a then
potential presentation to the National Institute for Staff and
Organizational Development last May regarding TELECOURSES on the
IBM/University of Washington's ISAAC electronic bulletin board:
This experiment was undertaken to test the feasibility of
offering a computerized remote learning college-level composition
course... The class was a test and was offered by Cerritos
Community College in Norwalk, California.....
The aspect that made this program innovative for the community
college was that the students uploaded their essays onto a
computer located in the instructor's private office. In turn, the
instructor downloaded the essays from the office onto his own PC
without ever leaving his home.....
The office computer was autonomous....., allowing the students to
use the system at any time of the day or night, any day of the
year ...
Research shows (Bork, 1987; Meeks, 1987; Moore, 1988; Ostendorf,
1988; Riel, 1988) that the number of colleges ... and
universities using distance learning and educational computer
networks ... is continuing to grow at a rapid pace. This growth
represents a fundamental change in direction for higher education
and "allows for new forms of communication and with it new
educational settings that extend across time and space"
(Riel)..... (George Jaeger, Ed.D., Cerritos Community College)
The technology for this possibility is available now; the vision to
use it is lacking. The need to use it is pressing. A new concept of
education is emerging. Educational tools are becoming increasingly
necessary to accommodate the information explosion, which requires us
to learn how to use these tools of information, extensions of the
mind. Electronic symbiotic memory extensions must be acknowledged as
valid, viable and necessary substitutes for mental acquisition and
retention of information.
Articles such as "Computer Replaces Human Instruction," in a
university alumni magazine, make the traditional teacher squirm. But
the innovative educator, realizing that his role is becoming as much
producer as deliverer of information, is aware that it takes over 100
hours of time to design one hour of a tutorial package and a semester
long computer based education course could cost as much as a million
dollars in man hours. Administrators and legislators need to recognize
this trend and compensate educators for the time spent in the design
of these products. Educators must be recognized more as mentors,
advisors and designers of the educational process.
One can learn almost any subject through computer aided self tutorial
packages on a computer at his own pace. Their proliferation is
unfortunately antithetical to the manner in which most educational
institutions are funded. We may witness the demise, due to technology,
of the educational institution as we know it. Courses by mail -
indeed, by direct telephone modem access to vast sources of
information by computer - are part of a growing trend away from the
physical educational institution.
Technology can significantly increase learning efficiency. It can
contain all possible teaching procedures: text, lecture, audio-visual,
participatory and combinations of all of these; it can adapt to the
student's rate of comprehension and present information to students of
all preferred learning modes. A good example of the possibilities of
such an ideal learning station is provided by the Fort Collins,
Colorado based National Technological University. The _Chronicle_ _of_
_Higher_ _Education_ reported in its 15 July 1987 issue that the
N.T.U.'s consortium of 24 engineering schools uses satellite
television and videocassettes to present information to students
nationwide. Electronic mail messages through computers to and from
students and instructors, as well as telephone, provide the individual
one-on-one consultation necessary for clarification and enrichment.
The N.T.U. president claims, "We have the data showing that our
students are doing as well or better than the on-campus students in
the same courses. The professors grade the regular and off-campus
students together, so we know our students meet the same standards."
The general educational establishment should be doing something
similar. But its past record suggests that it is not adaptable.
Indeed, the educational institution may have become officially
recognized as what it has been for many years, a museum.
D. Stuart Conger reported in the World Future Society publication,
1999: THE WORLD OF TOMORROW, that it takes about 50 years for a new
educational invention to come into use in half the schools. We may not
be able to observe this, because, during the next decade, 50 years
after Colossus (1943), Mark I (1944) and ENIAC (1946), traditional
schools may have disappeared due to their inability to adapt to the
new technology.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME
A CASE FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY
WESTERN EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING CONFERENCE
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA --- NOVEMBER 16 & 17, 1989
Merrill L. Tew
Palo Verde College
I have a bias against repeating, in a lecture, that which students
are assigned to read (unless for clarification, of course). I
choose, consequently, to add more recently acquired information,
amplify and vary that which I have already written in the
PROCEEDINGS. Lecturers since the Renaissance seem to have overlooked
Gutenburg's invention of the printing press, as many present-day
educators seem to overlook the recent inventions in educational
technology. Information is more efficiently available from other
sources than lecturers. I trust, then, that you will permit me to
title my remarks "Variations on a Theme, 'A Case for Educational
Technology.'"
I began my piece in the PROCEEDINGS with an apology to the
traditionalist. Considering my background as a musician, let me
justify what I say with that which the German poet Goethe stated
to the effect that the function of an artist is to disturb all
settled ideas.
After reviewing what I had considered for overhead projection,
including a graphic of a dinosaur to represent the education system
in general, I realized the only ones that would have been valuable
are the front cover of a journal and a textbook ad. The first
symbolizes the school as a computer, with windows replaced by the
computer screen, doors replaced by what may be enlarged function
keys and front steps replaced by the keyboard. The second compares a
magnified computer circuit board with an office building standing
next door to it; these symbolize and suggest the potential
replacement of the school and office building by computer
technology.
I inferred from the recently distributed "Celebrating Innovations"
advance St. Louis Conference Program about technology in education
that most educational institutions must be using it. But, when I
look at reality in educational environments, I don't see extensive
use of it. We still are subject to requirements to be physically
present and have students warm seats in classrooms for specified
lengths of time, not necessary in courses with well designed
objectives typical of the effective individualized instruction
possible with computers. We still don't have a wide-spread offering
of educational delivery options through electronic media. In this
presentation I hope to re-emphasize the educational value of
technology, quote some advocates, examine reasons for resistance to
it and proffer some solutions.
Although difficult to quantify, I believe I have acquired more
information, which, with skill development, is a primary objective
of education, sitting in my recliner with my computer keyboard in my
lap in the last four or five years than I did in all my years of
formal education. So, why do we not generally offer students the
same opportunity?
There is much resistance to the idea of replacing, even partially,
the traditional campus with home based educational tools. However,
the option of learning via computer and other electronic media
should be available to all who prefer this manner of learning to
traditional methods.
Albeit too slowly, some are beginning to recognize the value of
educational technology.
The California Business Roundtable, in its recommendations about
restructuring education, recognizes that "More money, higher
standards, and minor improvements will at best result in small
gains. THE PROBLEM IS THE SYSTEM ITSELF." It consequently recommends
more use of technology.
The 1989 theme of the Christa McAuliffe Institute for Educational
Pioneering is "Preparing All Students for the 21st Century: Teaching
with Technology for Diversity and Change."
T. H. Bell, former U. S. commissioner of education, made this
observation in a radio interview last April:
". . . Education has not moved as aggressively as other
segments of our society in utilizing and taking full advantage
of. . . .computers and all the electronic marvels to make
teaching more motivational, to make it more effective and
relieve teachers of a lot of paper work burdens. We haven't
modernized education the way we see the banking industry being
revolutionized by computers and electronics. . . .We can teach
the basics more effectively by utilizing the technological
marvels that we have today."
Denis Doyle advocates in his book, WINNING THE BRAIN RACE.....
The emphasis in the schools of the future must shift from an
industrial metaphor, ...... organized like factories, to a
high-tech metaphor, ...... organized like professional and
scientific companies. . . [which] rely heavily on technology at
all levels to increase productivity, improve communications and
reduce repetitive and boring tasks to a minimum.
Douglas K. Schooler, author of BRINGING EDUCATION ONLINE FOR AN
EXPANDED CLASSROOM, projects that "The isolated, protected and
highly conservative institutions we call public schools are on the
verge of social and academic obsolescence."
This supports the observation that the traditional school system is
so archaic and unadaptable that those who want to obtain information
and a valid education will circumvent it. It will disappear as a
consequence of lack of patronage or clientele, who will abandon it
to obtain information and skills more efficiently, effectively and
enjoyably elsewhere. Theodore Nelson, author of COMPUTER LIB and
DREAM MACHINES, made an observation as a panelist in a session at
the 1987 Computer Faire, which I here paraphrase as I recall it, "We
need to get the schools out of the way of education."
Due to the wonders of technology, some of you may have already read
some of the comments which I shall quote, because they were
contributed on the IBM/University of Washington sponsored academic
electronic bulletin board system, ISAAC, promoted at this Conference
last year in San Diego, which many find to be an excellent
educational tool. I and several other instructors have been able to
continue our education about the topic of this presentation and
others. We are continuing to learn from each other, and this means
of learning should be made available to students at all levels.
The following are examples of how some educators view and are
contributing to the replacement, at least supplementing, of the
traditional campus by home based educational technology:
Ken Blystone of the Academy VS-BBS has written an article that will
soon be published in COMPUTERS IN THE SCHOOLS journal entitled "An
Introduction to Virtual Schools;" he explains that all education is
distance learning, it's just that most educators prefer a distance
of about 20 to 30 feet.
The academy VS-BBS is a multi-line computer system set up to
encourage the development of the virtual school concept in
educational telecommunications. .... [It] provides a
sophisticated teleconferencing capability to.... teachers,
students, parents, and those interested in modernizing
educational methods.... open 24 hours a day . . . Education
will move in the direction of virtual schools for both
pedagogical and economic reasons. In light of technological
advancements, much of what we do and how we do it in the
traditional educational setting is archaic educational
technique. Virtual schools hold the potential to save vast
amounts of money while at the same time improving instruction
through individualization...... What remains to be seen is
whether people will have the foresight and courage to use
schools that have no halls, lockers, bells, or desks...
The following was contributed by Steve Eskow, President of the
Electronic University Network: The recent conference on distance
learning in Oslo had 700 attendees from 60 countries, all interested
in "distance learning"--using the mails or fiber optics or whatever
works to move learning from where it is housed to the nations and
the people who need it. ...... The computer and telephone technology
make it possible for education of quality to be moved around the
world. In other words: to get the benefit of the computer as
instructional aid you need not come to the place called campus to
get it.
The awesome potential is recognized by Dr. Paul Catorce, but he has
some reservations about its eventuality:
Educational tradition (i.e. classroom learning and testing to
earn grades) is your biggest road-block to your very innovative
idea. After all, where could all this lead? Possibly MILLIONS
of people could stay at home and earn perfectly valid degrees
or certificates; could you imagine what this would do to the
"traditional" university? Possibly extinction. Educational
costs could become reasonable, access granted to all ... the
ramifications are incredible; however, I think you have a
formidable problem in convincing the "establishment" to support
your efforts.
To ameliorate the concern of traditionalists, Eskow responded:
We are not interested in improving instruction on campus for
those who can get there:..... [Our concern is for] "the single
parent who can't get to campus, the disabled, the imprisoned,
those in rural and remote areas, those in other countries. . .
But I maintain that we no longer need to contribute to smog and
congest campus parking lots. The technology can benefit everyone. We
ARE interested in improving instruction for everyone and making it
unnecessary for students to go to campus except to meet directly
with advisors and mentors; the electronic cottage can suffice.
Campuses can be replaced by educational media centers, host
computers, and, for those who require or desire physical presence
and interaction, seminar rooms. Contributor George Jaeger, who
recently opened his Electronic English classroom at Cerritos College
in Norwalk, California, considers this futuristic suggestion
controversial because
"If what is proposed threatens to remove a privilege or disturb
the nature of someone's reality, then, yes, futuristic is at
the least controversial...... It's always dangerous to mess
with established procedures. They're so comfortable.....
This is similar to the controversy created by the invention of the
telescope. Those in the comfortable "establishment" could not
tolerate the new truths the telescope revealed.
This is from contributor Fred Kemp:
"The virtual campus will happen, and it will be something of an
amalgam of .... numerous ... projects... For those who don't
suffer under the traditional academic fear of the technology,
this is an exciting time.
From Ray Chasse:
I have a great deal of experience in International ... use of
computer networks for instruction. ..... I have about 70
students in countries from Austria, South Africa, Nigeria,
Italy, to Thailand who work with me over Compuserve, Delphi,
MCI, ITT, Source, and GENIE. I am a faculty member of [four
institutions of higher education].
Technology makes being virtually everywhere a possibility. Dr.
Chasse considers himself a "facilitator of learning" rather than a
professor of "stuff" he knows.
One can develop acquaintance with some extraordinary individuals on
these electronic mail and information sources in one's own remote
electronic cottage; indeed, global electronic cottage. Students
ought to have the same opportunity.
The following is from a Professor Koch:
Many obstacles exist to making distance learning available to
anyone who wants it, but technology is not among them. Human
beings and human institutions are. The accrediting agencies are
not set up to deal with non-traditional delivery systems and
try to evaluate distance learning against standards designed
for traditional education. They sometimes seem to be more
worried about counting contact hours and faculty work loads
than determining whether there is any learning going on.
Tom Kirk reports that Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada has no
classroom students. They support all of their students with distance
education.
According to ISAAC contributor UCLHOWEL, the Mind Extension
University is a cable television network devoted solely to
continuing education via distance learning. The Library of Congress
Information Bulletin of October 23 reports that the Mind Extension
University donated a million dollars to the Library of Congress for
a global library project which will link the vast repository of
information of the Library of Congress with the basic cable
television services of Mind Extension University. Former
commissioner of education T. H. Bell has advocated educational
television since the 1950's. Nearly 40 years later TV is finally
accepted as a viable educational medium.
Last month's TeleCon IX featured distance learning, desktop video
production and business television. Keynote address topics were
"Building Electronic Bridges: Videoconferencing and Digital Fusion
at Apple Computer," "Taking Higher Education to the Distant
Learner," "High Definition TV" and "Opening the Doors of Education
to All: Using the Power of Telecommunications." Although one ISAAC
participant considered my views more progressive than his, and he
considered his on the "cutting edge," based upon information from
the TeleCon IX announcement, we are both far behind in the use of
educational technology.
Other electronic enhancements of the traditional system include
computer aided learning packages. According to the 3rd in the
Chrysler Corporation produced "Learning in America" video series,
Gene Portwood's computer game "Where in the World is Carmen San
Diego" is doing a better job of teaching geography than geography
texts and is one example of technology's replacing what are
considered to be bland and boring text books. Students who are
exposed to that computer game have, in effect, replaced, at least in
part, the classroom with entertaining and effective educational
technology.
Learning via computer is enjoyable. My wife, who worked for a few
years as a computer coordinator of a rural elementary school, found
that students were extremely enthusiastic. On one occasion the
principal entered the computer lab to witness students excited about
learning on the computers. He asked "What class is this?" Response:
"Recess."
Progressive demonstrations of CAI through interactive videodisc were
presented at the Electronic Educational Technology "Multimedia
Today" seminar at Ventura College in Southern California last April,
in which videodisc/computer interface was reported to be the most
effective of seven compared educational delivery systems. Military
and industry use interactive videos to increase training efficiency.
Why does education lag so far behind?
At a Cal State University System music symposium on electronic music
last spring, the Dean of the Fine Arts College at CSU Fullerton,
whose training and experience were in graphic arts, said that CAI
and use of computers in graphic design have drastically improved the
learning curve for his students.
Time does not permit me to share very many exciting recent
developments, including HyperText, plans by the Global University
and more details of what the Library of Congress proposes.
Inasmuch as educational technology has demonstrated its
effectiveness, and we have these testimonies to support it, why is
there yet resistance to it for reasons other than educators'
un-founded fear of being replaced by the proverbial button?
Here are a few reasons which advocates wish to remove:
As in business, administrators have not yet learned to manage
subordinates whom they cannot see, who are not physically
present.
Educators are frequently embarrassed in front of their
classrooms by their inability to solve some of the technical
equipment problems.
It is difficult to fit the new means of information delivery
into the old patterns of educational administration: credits,
degrees, faculty salaries, .... lengths of class periods and so
on.
DENNIS LOPUT, a CARNET participant, observes that THE "OLD
GUARD" ... INSISTS THAT YOU CAN'T PROGRAM THE HUMAN ELEMENT
INTO THE COMPUTER....
Steve Eskow proffers these:
a) The emphasis on "technology" suggests that
technology--films, records, floppy discs--will be doing the
teaching rather than human beings;..... as in "telemarketing";
education becomes ..... dehumanized;
b) the loss of the idea of education as community: images of
students in carrels interacting with CRT's rather than each
other and teachers;
c) education that fosters nonlinear image-based styles of
thought rather than education that uses print to inculcate
skills of logic and orderly thought: the conviction that
children and adults are immersed in television from infancy and
only the school and college offer the hope of standing against
television to produce readers, and that teachers betray their
trust when they join the technologists.
d)..The people on the [educational] tv programs are often more
informative and inspiring presenters and teachers than the
college profs, and thus tend to undermine the respect the profs
want from their students.
Perhaps these or similar objections to educational technology,
radio, TV, CAI, distance learning, etc., were raised as
arguments against the book in Gutenburg's day. Could opponents
have objected that books dehumanize learning? All media from
print to the electronic present have increased awareness and
enhanced humanity. All media contribute to greater humanistic
values. Humans are better served as a consequence. An analogy
with music is appropriate: the violin, flute, trumpet, etcetera
were all extensions of the human voice. These "tools" of music
have not dehumanized music but have enhanced it, have
contributed to a richer musical environment for humans, as our
electronic media, extensions of the human mind and soul, have
made a richer learning environment and contributed to the human
joy of learning.
Educational television presentations have been criticized for
merely transporting the lecturer from the front of the
classroom into a tube with no substantial change in making the
"old wine" of educational delivery fit the "new bottles" of
technology.
Traci Collins provided this optimism:
The 'talking head', professor centric, video lecture method of
telecourse production is a stereotype based on a reality which
has been gone for 20 years. Today's video telecourses ........
make good use of all the potential available in the video
media. These telecourses take the students places we couldn't
physically take them for field trips, present speakers we
couldn't afford to hire to address our students, and present
the material in a professionally scripted, professionally
produced, thoroughly entertaining fashion.... We have come a
long way from the graduate student with a video camera pointed
at a professor in a lecture hall doing business the same way he
always did business....
A Professor Jerniga suggested this:
Another reason for resistance to technology I am finding on the
University level relates to the emphasis on research.
As a result, faculty in this kind of situation are hard-pressed
to keep up with the "irons" they already have in the fire and
do not want to be bothered with having to deal with anything
new -- including learning how to use computers to their fullest
potential.....
This objection demonstrates all the more reason that faculty should
become more familiar with computers. Those involved in research can
use the computer to expedite their finding, through on-line database
searches, precisely the information they want in much less time than
by their using traditional periodical guide research methods. It
takes several hours of traditional periodical guide research to
obtain the same bibliographic information that on-line database
research can acquire in a few minutes by using modern information
retrieval techniques possible on computer. Incidentally, for an
information junky, on-line databases serve as an excellent source of
instant euphoria. A professor's saying that he doesn't have time to
learn to use new tools of the research trade (or information
delivery trade, education) is like saying he would rather walk than
take the time to learn how to drive a car. If a person doesn't need
to go any farther nor faster than a he can walk, he doesn't need an
automobile. Likewise, if a person has no more to do intellectually
than is required from the use of a pencil and paper, he doesn't need
a computer. But we in education need to encourage the use of these
electronic tools which make learning more efficient and effective.
This appropriate Wordsworth poetry was submitted by English
instructor George Jaeger:
Prophets of Nature, we to them will speak
A lasting inspiration, sanctified
By reason, blest by faith: what we have loved,
Others will love, and we will teach them how;
Instruct them how the mind of man becomes
A thousand times more beautiful than the earth
On which he dwells, above this frame of things
(Which, 'mid all revolution in the hopes
And fears of men, doth still remain unchanged)
In beauty exalted, as it is itself
Of quality and fabric more divine.
Wordsworth, The Prelude, bk xiv, line 444
I rest my case and thank you.
n education that uses print to inculcate
skills of logic and