Kids, education and technology, part 1

RELease 1.0, April 24, 1995 by Jerry Michalski

A tour of the software and communication tools available for grade-school education today is enough to make you wish you were five years old again. There are some wonderful products and services available now, and activity on the Internet is exploding. If you talk with entrepreneurs and activists about where those tools might be in just five years, you can feel their excitement: and see the major transformation that's underway. But those conversations can often be frustrating.

When it comes to educating children, everyone seems to have an initiative, project, product, theory, association or foundation -- or at least a strong opinion. Indictments of the current system abound, such as Lew Perelman's book School's Out. Many theorists rely on blind faith in multimedia or intelligent software agents and pay little attention to the social dynamics of learning. Others attack the political dynamics and propose broader, more extreme proposals, including voucher systems and profit-oriented schools, such as Minneapolis-based Education Alternatives and Chris Whittle's revived Edison Project.

The frustration lies in how few of these instigators look to how their projects fit with others'. It's quite remarkable. It's as if everyone had seen the same movie, agrees on who was in the cast, but reports a completely different plot.

There's no single solution to the education system's woes. In fact, the perennial problem is whom to help and how to help them, or even whether to help them at all. Should one focus on teachers or students? On infrastructure, process or tools? On skill-building or theories about learning? What about kids' home lives and diets? Neighborhood safety?

Platform envy

Educational software accounts for roughly a tenth of the $6 billion spent on educational resources in the US, including textbooks, videos and laserdisks. The home-PC market is hot, in large part because parents see PCs as a latter-day home encyclopedia, possibly the most important investment they can make for their children. CD-ROM drives are now relatively inexpensive and almost standard equipment, as are modems. CD-ROM titles and software to get online are bundled with most home PC systems, shrink-wrapped with magazines and handed out on airlines.

Schools are more open to technology purchases than before, but they are seriously hampered by terrible infrastructure, glacial curriculum-review procedures, occasional religious or political frays and budgets that not only can't keep up with their appetites but are under constant pressure. Also, those in power often don't really want to change.

These purchase and funding trends are driving wedges between the various constituencies. Fortunate, privileged schools get access to equipment and network bandwidth, while others fall behind. Parents buy their kids multimedia PCs; their kids go to schools equipped with Apple II GSs and learn from teachers who don't have access to better technology themselves. Have-nots are not happy.

This time and next

This issue of Release 1.0 and the next one focus on the use of technology to benefit children from kindergarten through the end of high school (K-12), at home and at school. This issue is a broad survey of technology in K-12 education, salted with illustrative vignettes. Its second section examines how the Internet is changing the business. The next issue will explore various educational philosophies and the kinds of software they have led to, as well as some innovative vendors and projects. In both issues we focus principally, but not exclusively, on computer software and networking technology.

There's plenty going on with other media. Laserdisks and videotapes are everywhere. Voicemail systems now boost attendance, list homework assignments and help parents keep in touch with teachers. Several initiatives use the cable TV infrastructure. A TCI-Reuters joint venture named Ingenius uses cable to deliver information and software to PCs (see box, opposite). The Lightspan Partnership, a venture formed by TCI, Comcast and Microsoft, with funding from Accel, Kleiner Perkins and Institutional Venture Partners, is creating entertainment-grade programming for schools and homes, for delivery over future interactive TV networks.

Roles a-morphing

Technology is a small piece of the transformation of the educational system. Every role is changing. Teachers were once imparters of canonical knowledge; now they're coaches, mentors and guides. Students once were passive memorizers of information and essay-writers; now they're urged to be inquisitors and creators with putatively worthy ideas. Librarians were keepers of knowledge and teachers of the Dewey Decimal System; now they're networked information finders and linkers.

Today, students, activities are more social, experiential and collaborative. Students create things in groups; they're part of communities that sponsor activities; they brainstorm, revise and publish. For a short while, computer technology has turned around some traditional age relationships: Kids often grasp computer arcana more quickly than adults, and can teach people normally considered their superiors. This natural mastery is a great boost for kids. It gives them ways to participate as equals.