As
teachers explore how they might use technology to engage
students, it is important to keep in mind that there are
two general approaches to using computers. Business and
industry have long recognized that they can use
technology either to automate an existing process or to
create a new innovative process. Education, too, can use
technology either to automate or to innovate.
The
"automation" approach to educational computing (sometimes
called "Type I") is using computers to mimic the same
behaviors and procedures that teachers do without the
technology. That would include using technology to create
worksheets and keep track of grades, to create PowerPoint
presentations instead of using the blackboard or
overheads, to post coursework and content online, to
practice skills or learn new information through
educational software, or to have online discussions.
Much of our early educational software, for
example, was really direct textbook automation - we
called it computer-assisted instruction. Later on came
computer literacy, the computer-as-a-tool movement,
and distance learning - which also repeated the basic
practice of schools. Teachers still instruct in the
same manner as before the technological innovation,
delivering a content-based curriculum. (November,
1990)
There
may be advantages to these kinds of uses. Students have
access to more information through the Internet than
through some school libraries. Computer learning systems
and educational software can provide direct feedback and
can adjust difficulty level based on the student's
successes and failures (this is credited with learning
gains over simply using worksheets). Handouts and forms
created on a word processor are more easily stored or
modified than those that are typed. PowerPoint
presentations may appeal to students more than notes on
the black board.
Automation,
ease of access, ease of modification, and looking good:
these are advantages of Type I computing. The problem,
however, is that educational technologists do not
generally feel that Type I applications are a
cost-effective use of technology. For example, according
to Maddux, Johnson, and Willis (2001, p. 96)
Type I applications by themselves, no matter
how well applied, cannot justify educational computing
to media critics, other educators, school board
members, legislators, or the public at large. Type I
uses are insufficient because educational computing is
too expensive to devote entirely to relatively trivial
problems.
In
some places, Type I computing is equated with the
educational use of technology and it is not surprising
that it has met with a great deal of criticism. Read
"The
Computer Delusion" (Oppenheimer, 1997) to see this
kind of computing heavily criticized.
Business
and industry have found the same to be true of their use
of technology: automation does not provide sufficient
return on their investment. The real gains which come
from new technologies (in education, or in other fields)
are not from Type I applications, but from Type II
applications: innovation.
If you always do
What you've always done,
You'll always get
What you've always gotten,
And that's not good enough for today's education!
- Anonymous
Within
education, Type II applications make available new and
better ways of educating students; innovation in teaching
and learning. The challenge to us is to find those
approaches.
Most professionals and blue-collar workers
alike need higher order-thinking skills because of
technology implementation. Technology usually creates
work environments that challenge professionals to use
higher, not lower, levels of thinking. This is true
for banking, insurance, automotive, paper,
electronics, and a host of other major industries.
It can also be true for education if we, as
teachers, ask ourselves what can be done with this
technology to help children make powerful gains in
learning. (November,
1990)
Sometimes
innovative uses of technology emerge as unforeseen
benefits of automating other processes. E-mail not only
simplifies communication with others, but it can put
students in direct contact with experts, authors, and
others who can share their experience and knowledge. Word
processing does more than allow students to use fonts,
type styles, and other layout tools to make their writing
more attractive. Word processors allow easy revision and
editing without having to completely redo a paper. In
fact, students who do most of their writing with word
processors are more likely to revise their work, even
when they are hand writing a paper.
More
often, however, Type II uses of educational technology
involve empowering students to do work they could not do
before (or do as easily). Innovation often involves
looking beyond how teachers can use technology for their
teaching, to how students can use technology for their
learning. There is often a focus on the process of
learning content, not just how to make content available
to students. At least four instructional designs have
emerged within Type II computing:
It
is these instructional designs (and other innovative
designs) that teachers need to focus on when thinking
about using technology in their teaching.
