Computers don't help

WHY one revolution failed to occur can be as hard to understand as why another took place. But not in the case of the failed revolution described in Larry Cuban's book Underused and Oversold: Computers in the Classroom, (+) a revolution that aimed to transform American education through the computer. Representatives from the highest reaches of business, politics, and the academy all promised fundamental change. Leaders who promoted the use of computers in the classroom included President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore, House Speaker Newt Gingrich, IBM CEO Lewis Gerstner, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, and many others. But what exactly they hoped to achieve was often hard to discern, as the differences among competing agendas vanished behind a public consensus that these machines should be purchased, installed in classrooms, and connected to the Internet as soon as possible. So many perceived the revolution as inevitable that little effort was spent trying to explain or justify it.

But hopes that computers would make classroom education more cooperative and more creative have gone largely unfulfilled, as have expectations that computers would increase achievement scores, and that classrooms would become model institutions of the Information Age. Computers have not caused a fundamental reordering of the education system. Rather, they have provided an insignificant and infrequently used alternative to older but still more popular tools of the trade--pens, pencils, paper, chalk, and chalkboards.

That so many people assumed computers would revolutionize education (and that this revolution would be wholly for the better) had a lot to do with much-celebrated advances in the high-tech industry over the past decade and the larger economic benefits that resulted. Such was American society's enthusiasm for technology that few people took note of the fact that education is quite unlike the business world. Learning is seldom a question only of tools. Computers may have helped businesses become more efficient and profitable, but they have not yielded greater efficiency or profit in education. Which isn't surprising: Sitting in front of a computer doesn't give the child more memory or processing power.

CUBAN, a noted professor of education at Stanford University, has performed an important public service. Underused and Oversold provides a detailed account of how and how often computers are used in the classroom. The short answer is that they are generally not being used, and when they are used, it is not to any great effect.

No longer can it be argued that there aren't enough computers in American classrooms. Cuban reports that between 1997 and 1999 the number of multimedia computers increased from 1 for every 21 students to 1 for every 10 students and that there was a similar drop in machine-to-student ratios for Internet-connected computers. The data for 2000 locates this ratio at one computer for every five students. Data is also plentiful on the increasing costs of innovation. Consultants at McKinsey and Company estimated in 1995 that approximately $3.3 billion was spent on hardware, software, networks and other computer-related equipment, representing about $75 per pupil. By 1998-99, those annual figures had grown to $5.5 billion, or $119 per pupil.

America's embrace of computers in the classroom is especially apparent in California, where, Cuban reports, "few reforms have ever forged such a powerful if loosely connected coalition of public officials, corporate executives, parents, and educators." And, unsurprisingly, the idea faced little if any opposition in Silicon Valley itself, where Cuban conducted his research. To say the least, the local schools did not suffer any shortage of computers. The teachers and students were favorably disposed to using them, and the local industry demonstrated beyond a doubt their economic significance.

Cuban's research method was simple. He and his research team observed classroom usage to avoid undue reliance on self-reporting, and interviewed teachers and students to glean detailed information on the range of attitudes and perceptions guiding usage. To achieve a representative sample, he and his researchers studied several preschool and kindergarten classrooms, two high schools, and one university campus. In each case, Cuban identifies teachers who stand out for their dedication to integrating computers into as many activities as possible. Such examples he balances against the less exciting news of what is happening in neighboring classrooms and across the country.

WHEN Cuban visited Esperanza Rodriguez's bilingual kindergarten class, he found two Mac 5400s. These were left on all day long so children could play games like "Millie's Math House" and "Stickybear's Early Learning Activities." Rodriguez used a computer during story time and, later, to play a game introducing the children to various shapes. Even so, the Macs comprised but one station among many at which the children played and learned, sometimes individually, but mostly in groups. Such was the case with the other preschools and kindergartens Cuban visited. "No revolution had occurred.... If anything ... teachers have adapted [the computer] to existing ways of teaching and learning that have dominated early childhood education for decades." Rather than upend traditional methods of education, computers have been absorbed into the standard preschool and kindergarten curriculum.