This Tech Thing

What Is This Technology Thing

and Why Do We Want It in Our Schools?

Gary West

Director of Computing Services

Greenwood School District 50

Greenwood, South Carolina

IT’S EVERYWHERE, IT’S EVERYWHERE!

Technology is everywhere. It has an impact on virtually everything we do. The following examples show the extent to which technology can affect the things that we do:

1. In Oregon, police were called to an apartment complex where a man had emptied his gun into his computer, which is not a crime in Oregon; however, one of the shots went through the wall into the next apartment -- which is a crime in Oregon. Although a motive was never reported in the press, police speculated that the man was frustrated with the technology.

2. While leaving my office to visit a school, I met the “Soda Guy” coming in to re-stock the most vital source of caffeine in our building. He was carrying a little “palm top” computer. I followed him to the staff room and watched him enter the number of cans remaining in each stack in the soda machine. The little electronic wonder then told him how many cans had been consumed since his last visit and how many each column could hold (this latter piece of information was based on the model number of the soda machine). He then went to the truck, off-loaded a sufficient number of cases, and keyed those numbers into the wondrous little wizard. It then updated the inventory for his truck, updated the inventory for our soda machine, told him how much cash should be in the box, and probably gave him the most current stock quotes for the soda company. He said that, at the end of the day, he gave the little device to somebody back at the soda plant. That person then connects it to the network in that building, where it updates the plant’s inventory for overnight transmission to the regional office. Somewhere in that process, I’m sure everyone gets another stock update.

3. Well, needless to say, I was impressed by the “Soda Guy” and his technology. But when I arrived at my destination school, I happened to meet (and I swear this is the truth) -- I happened to meet the “Cookie Guy,” who was stocking the snack machine in the staff room at the school. He was carrying the same little gizmo, whipping in those numbers, getting inventory updates, and showing a lot of pride as those stock prices kept going up.

4. And then there came the news of the Bulls (not the stock market bulls, this time). You know -- the championship-number-six Bulls. Michael and the guys who give him the ball. Money in somebody’s pocket -- most of it in Michael’s, of course. Then, Forbes magazine issued its list of richest people -- and Michael wasn’t on the list. But Bill was -- not the President of the country, but the President of the company that owns the rest of the world. Mr. Gates is worth $51 billion dollars as the richest working man in America. If Michael made $80 million this year (and that’s a decent estimate), he would have to work -- and save every penny -- for a little more than 637 years to equal Bill’s current worth today. That’s Geeks “1,” Jocks “0” in head-to-head competition.

While I acknowledge that these examples may be outside the normal realm for most of us, they do give an indication of the importance of technology in our society. It can have an impact on our mental well-being as well as our economic well-being. The question posed in the title of this paper has some very real implications for the ways in which we prepare our children for the future. And there's more.

IT’S TAKING OVER EVERYTHING!

Computers are not the only technology we have to deal with these days. All the technologies we already use and feel so comfortable with are also changing -- from our cars to our toasters (the two things that Ozzie and Harriett thought were the ultimate up-scale technology of their time -- I just lost 72% of the state’s teachers, all of whom were born after Ricky made his last record).

The most important piece of technology in our homes is the television (I wonder why it never became an important piece in our schools). The 1996 telecommunications act has changed our television forever, however. Now, the U.S. has adopted digital television standards, making our current televisions obsolete by 2006. (By the way, the U.S. is the last major industrial nation to adopt the digital television standards, leaving only the metric system and soccer as the two things the rest of the world does well that we don’t do at all.)

With digital television, your favorite shows will come into your house as a series of zeroes and ones (digital computer data) instead of as a gentle flow of electronic waves (called “analog” data). Digital data can be sent to your screen the same way laptop computer screens show information. Your television will no longer need a cathode ray tube to shoot stuff at your screen; thus, your new digital television (you can get one any time before 2006, remember) can be as flat as an inch or two. It can be as wide and tall as you want, too, and can hang on your wall. In fact, you can plan your next house with one built into the wall. It’ll control all your heating and air conditioning, automatically record your favorite soaps to a digital video disk (DVD), give you Internet access, start your car in the morning (not to mention download the map of your vacation trip to your car’s dashboard computer), force you to dress before you video-call the relatives in South Florida, and stay on 24 hours a day. Your screen blanker can even match your wallpaper -- or it can be a giant aquarium with real fish sounds.

The switch from cassette tape to compact disk for music is also a switch from analog (in this case, magnetic) media to digital media. Music and pictures are already stored in digital format on music CD’s and computer CD-ROM’s -- which implies that your CD player is already a computer (it is) that can read the zeroes and ones from the shiny side (it can). DVD (digital video disk) technology is already replacing VCR technology.

(Looking for a little something extra? Try putting your music CD in your computer's CD-ROM drive and wait a few seconds. Many music CD's have hidden video tracks that will automatically start when placed in your computer. I'm not plugging anything, but you can try the newest James Taylor as an example. Or your kid's Backstreet Boys.)

Why are DTV, CD, CD-ROM, and DVD technologies taking over the stuff that already works so well for us? There are a couple of reasons (most having to do with computers taking over the world); however, there is one main factor that is driving the entire movement -- that factor is you and me and the information we need.

(Oh, yeah. Don’t buy any of those big-screen TV’s when the prices drop from $2000 to $200 next year. They won't work after 2006. You heard it here first.)

IT’S GOT EVERYTHING WE NEED!

There have been several studies that relate to our need for information and the problems we face in getting that information at the time and place we need it (which is almost always "right now, right here").

Consider the projections in Table 1 as a measure of how the Information Age affects you, as it affects students you teach, and as it affects education, as a whole:

TABLE 1

Year	Doubling Factor
1900	1
1953	2
1977	4
1992	8
2000	16
2005	32
2008	64
2010	128
2011	256
2012	512
2012	1024
2013	2048
2013	4096
2013	8192
2014	every 35 days

To interpret Table 1, start with the year 1900. The second column represents the amount of information you had to know in order to be successful at whatever you were doing. By 1953, that amount of information doubled -- that is, you had to know twice as much information to be successful at whatever you did to make a living. By 1977, that doubled again. By the year 2000, you -- and the students you teach -- must know 16 times as much information to be successful as was necessary in 1900.

Note that your information needs -- as a teacher or administrator -- will double twice in 2012, will double at least three times in 2013, and will be doubling every 35 days by 2014. (All of a sudden, don’t you just feel Information Aged? Maybe that comet in 2028 won't be so bad after all.)

Children entering pre-kindergarten programs in the 1999-2000 school year will need to know 500 times as much information to be successful when they graduate in 2013 than we will need to know in the year 2000 when we begin to teach them. And we have to keep up with them in the process. (In case you’re interested in where the 500 came from: Take the doubling factor of 16 for the year 2000 and divide it into the 8192 necessary for the end of 2013 -- it’s about 500, give or take a few thousand facts.)

That says an awful lot about what will be expected of the students we teach over the next decade and a half. It also implies that we cannot teach them 500 times as much stuff unless we know 500 times as much stuff ourselves. After all, if we’re going to be successful in teaching them, we’ve got to know our stuff, too.

Let’s face it: We can’t learn 500 times as much stuff in the next 14 years, we can’t teach 500 times as much stuff in the next 14 years -- and our students can’t learn 500 times as much stuff in the next 14 years. We and they don’t have the time to pack that much stuff into the limited space between our ears.

So where will we put it? And after we put it there, how will we ever find it again? Are you ready for all this? Can you help your students get ready? Not without an immediate change in the way we do our business. Not without technology.

WE CAN’T DO ANYTHING WITHOUT IT!

What does that mean for education -- an industry that has historically based its goals on our need to know everything? What is education supposed to do when it's obvious that we can't possibly know everything?

If we can't know all we need to know, the next best thing for us to know is where everything is -- and how to get to it when we need it. With so much information being created so fast, it's impossible to keep up with it in our regular ways.

Thus, technology. Technology is the only tool we have that can help people and their information get together -- at the time and place they need to be together. And that’s exactly what our technology is supposed to do.

As I said before, we in education have to change the way we do our business. Instead of trying to learn all the information, we must learn -- and then teach -- how to manage the information. We will have to identify the pieces in our curriculum that are not part of essential knowledge. Then we must find places where that non-essential knowledge can be found. Then we must show those places to our students and show them how to find those places on their own. Then we have to forget about it -- and get on with the essential stuff.

Let me give an example by asking two simple questions: (1) Did you ever have to memorize (is that really a synonym for "learn") the capitals of the fifty states? (2) When was the last time you had to know one of those capitals that you didn't have time to look it up? The first answer is "Yes." The second answer is "Never" (except while watching Jeopardy).

Instead, it might be appropriate that fourth grade students know that every state has a capital, that state government goes on in the capital, and that the capitals can be found in an encyclopedia, an atlas, or at www-dot-capitals-dot-org. That's essential. Now let's use the rest of the period for something else.

In effect, we can change the way we do business by recognizing the role information will play in our success in the future. We can prepare for the Information Age (it's really here) by adding the Three A's to the Three R's of education.

The Three A's of education are (1) Access to information, (2) Analysis of the information we find, and (3) Application of the information within some meaningful context.

Access to information refers to the physical aspects of access (computers and networks in classrooms, for example) and the knowledge that the information is out there -- somewhere. If you know it's there and if you have the tools to get to it, you have the foundations for success. Note that you don't have to know what's out there -- only that there's an awful lot of it somewhere. Given the tools, most of us can find something.

Analysis of information is the most important new strategy that we can help students develop. All information is good for something -- but some of it may not be good for what we need right now, right here. Our students must be able to figure out what parts of what they find make sense. We have to help them develop the skills and strategies they need to make meaningful decisions about the information they find.

Application in some context refers to using the information in ways that make sense and satisfy the need for which the information was sought. This is where the real problem-solving takes place, although the whole process began as part of trying to find an answer to something.

It is that "something" -- the way we present the lessons to be learned -- that we have to re-define as part of changing the way we do business.

EVERYTHING CHANGES WITH IT!

Through the use of technology, we can fundamentally change the way we approach learning and the structure in which we cause learning to happen. If the "something" we start with in a learning activity is based on accessing, analyzing, and applying information, we change the direction and focus of education.

If our students start a learning activity by memorizing the ancient Egyptian dynasties, they are not being actively challenged in any of the Three A's. If they know that there were pharaohs, they can find out an awful lot about them -- if we give them access to and the skills to analyze the information they find. They can learn about leadership styles, the types of art that developed, whether they traded with other societies, or if there is significant impact of the Egyptian societies on ours -- or any number of other things that don't require memorization of the dynasties.

Note that more than information is learned in this process. Each student also learns and refines skills related to the Three A's. It's two for the price of one -- in a fraction of the time.

Then, our assessment of their success does not have to be based on correctly naming a certain percent of the dynasties and the most famous pharaohs of each. Instead, our assessment of their success can be based on their demonstrating that they can find, analyze, and apply the information in the areas we help them define.

The following is a brief example that demonstrates how a unit of study might be different because of technology-based resources in a classroom:

There is only one computer in the sixth grade social studies classroom. That computer is connected to the school’s network, providing access to an online encyclopedia (a CD-ROM somewhere on the network), a word processor (on the computer), an Internet connection (through the network), and a class email box (no private student boxes).

Each family has received a copy of the Parent/Student Handbook, which is published at the beginning of each school year. Clearly stated in the handbook is the technology policy for the school. It says something like this: “The use of technology is such an important part of the learning activities in our school that you can expect your child to have access every day. Teachers and other school staff will monitor student access to technology resources in an honest effort to ensure that those resources are used only for educationally sound purposes. The teachers and staff at the school are aware that, from time to time, a student may abuse his or her technology privilege by accessing inappropriate information or web sites. In every case, the school will notify the parents about the inappropriate information and will work with the parents in an effort to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. If parents feel that their child should not be given access to the technology resources available in the school or on the Internet, those parents may, in writing, request that all appropriate materials be provided to the child in printed format. Those materials will be provided in a way to ensure that the child has the opportunity to complete all the activities assigned to the class.”

The teacher plans student access to relevant information long before the students start to look for it. Prior to starting the unit, the teacher has put together a set of links to web sites and local school resources to which the students can have access. As the students investigate those links and resources, they are able to develop their own plans for preparing the information related to their topic or project. One student may choose to look at a particular world conflict from a military standpoint while another student or group may decide to investigate the economic causes for the conflict. The teacher’s web site will provide links and resources that permit many different points of view to be examined.

The teacher also posts each unit of study on the class web page. Each unit contains the links to other sites the students can use for finding information about their assignments and for completion of the project that is part of each unit of study. Students use the class web page to access the resources linked by the teacher. Parents also use the links to help their children learn more about the topics covered in the units and to know more, themselves, about what their children are learning. The teacher is able to post each day’s assignments to the class web page so parents and students can find those from home or from any computer in the school.

The teacher provides directed instruction as part of each day’s activities. That instruction may be delivered more than once during the class period, depending on other activities going on in the room. Individually or in groups, students use some of their time to access information they need for their part of the learning activity. After the information is found, they can save it to diskette for later use in the media center or technology lab. They can also print what they need for use in another part of the room while other students are at the computer finding their specific information.

The teacher helps the students analyze the information they find. That help consists of strategy development that helps the students learn to analyze on their own. As the analysis progresses, the students begin to apply the information to the topic or project they have selected or been assigned.

While everyone agrees that one computer in a classroom is not enough, one can be sufficient -- if that one is connected to resources outside the classroom. It requires some imagination in scheduling, no doubt; but it also requires that students learn to share time and resources so everyone gets their jobs done.

The computer in this scenario is simply the tool for access. If there are enough computers to provide adequate access, it can also become a tool to assist in analyzing the information after it is found. It can be also the primary tool for publication of the interpretation of the findings.

(Publication can be one of those tasks that take an inordinate amount of the class’ time. The substance of publication should be given a high priority over the cosmetic packaging in which the content is presented, especially if that packaging is taking anywhere near the same amount of time given to the actual research. Kids quickly learn the first rule of marketing -- package it right and it won't matter what's really in the package. Somebody will buy it.)

The above scenario is but one way in which we can use technology to change the way we educate our students. Whatever the approach, we have to understand that the way we work with information must change -- simply because of the nature of the information with which we must work. We must begin to do it differently.

SO! WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?

So! What are we gonna do? Are we gonna do what we gotta do? Are we gonna do it now -- or are we gonna wait until we're too far behind to make a difference? Again?

And don't define the "we" in the questions above in any narrow sense. We include teachers, parents, businesses, Boards of Education, local governments, and the rest of each community in which our children live and learn. All of us must understand that technology has changed and continues to change the world in which our children have to succeed. If we do not build the foundations for their success, we will have failed them completely.

Schools must have the technology necessary to help our children succeed. The technology is not a luxury or frivolous part of the learning process. It is absolutely essential. We have to start with the idea that the technology must be there and we must provide whatever it takes to put it there (that's access, again). That's a total community effort based on a clearly understood common goal to help our children succeed -- based on their futures rather than our pasts.

After it's in-place, we must be willing to put it to work immediately. We have to find all the appropriate ways (in other words, we must analyze how best) to build it into (apply it to) each learning activity so children benefit from using it. Those efforts have to be reinforced throughout the community.

If we are to succeed, we have to know more in less time. We have to understand more with less effort. We have to do more with what we have. We have to have the technology to succeed.

The same applies to our children. That's why we want to have it in our schools. That's why we must have it in our schools.

This article was published in The Palmetto Administrator, the journal of the South Carolina Association of School Administrators; Fall 1998.