September 2002 — Features
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The Litany
Investigating the Organizational Changes Needed to Make Technology Effective in the Classroom and Create an Environment Where No Child Is Left Behind
I tire of hearing the same litany: "Teachers must be facilitators of learning; students must be allowed to progress at individual rates of learning; all students can learn; technology can transform student learning; students should be responsible for their own learning; students should be engaged in active learning; no child will be left behind; etc." It's not that I don't agree with these approaches; to see these ideas brought to fruition would make me ecstatic. What bothers me is that politicians and educators seem to believe that if "the litany" is repeated often enough, it will be so. We have been hearing the same party line for many years now and it's still not so, except for a few groups of innovators sometimes called "Islands of Excellence." Unfortunately, islands are isolated, remote, and few and far between.
Curing Education's Ills
If people who are "in the know" believe that these things are the answer to curing education's ills, then why d'esn't it seem to happen? While the infusion of technology seems to make some differences, why don't we see technology being used to produce broad organizational changes that focus on improved student learning? Why can't technology be used to diagnose and follow student progress?
If I went to a doctor who attempted to diagnose my illness by putting me in a group of the first 30 patients he saw and gave a group diagnosis, I would look elsewhere for a doctor. But in a majority of U.S. classrooms, students in the same class get identical prescriptions. While there seems to be some changes in some isolated islands, for the most part, schools still maintain the organizational status quo from 50 years ago. We need to applaud the islands, while bringing their expertise to the mainland.
In most enterprises, technology changes the way business is conducted. To allow technology to work effectively, it must be accommodated. It would be ludicrous to purchase an automobile and then pull it with a horse. When computers were introduced in schools, many educational institutions, in their zeal to have students learn about computers, did exactly that. The new technology was forced to replicate the status quo. In many cases, computers were used to produce the same effect as scratching fossils on slate.
Schools have made progress as they begin to see some integration of computers as a tool instead of an additional curricular item. They are beginning to utilize other mathematical functions besides addition - namely substitution and subtraction - when addressing change. To have technology provide effectiveness and efficiency, new requirements need to be substituted for old ones. Instead of adding onto the curriculum, we must be innovative enough to combine learning objectives or eliminate irrelevant ones. Instead of spending more money, we need to look at places where reallocation of money makes sense.
Diagnosing Student Learning
