Technology and school change: New lamps for old?

Childhood Education, 1995 by Clements, Douglas H, Swaminathan, Sudha

Changes in the Teacher's Role

How has the new lamp of technology illuminated the teacher's path? Besides helping the teacher provide the instructional opportunities mentioned earlier, the computer also offers a unique medium for assessing children. Observing the child at the computer provides teachers with a "window into a child's thinking process" (Weir, Russell & Valente, 1982). Research warns teachers not to curtail such observations after a few months. Sometimes, improvements appear only after a year. Ongoing observations also make it easier to chart children's growth (Cochran-Smith, Kahn & Paris, 1988).

Differences in learning styles are more apparent at the computer because children have the freedom to follow diverse paths toward a goal (Wright, 1994). This characteristic of computers is particularly valuable as it seems to reveal special children's hidden strengths. African American and Caucasian children exhibit different Logo programming techniques. The visual nature of Logo purportedly suited the African American children's thinking style best (Emihovich & Miller, 1988).

Gender differences also emerge during programming. One study seemed to indicate that boys performed better on a posttest-only assessment. Assessment of the children's interactions, however, revealed that the boys took greater risks to reach their goal, whereas the girls were more keen on accuracy and hence meticulously planned and reflected on every step (Yelland, 1994). Again, teachers should conduct consistent, long-term observation.

Yet another opportunity that technology offers us is to become pioneers ourselves. Teachers, with their specific knowledge of each child, can best create the program that will help their students. Frustrated by the lack of good software, for example, Tom Snyder started using the computer to support his classroom simulations of history. Mike Gralish, a 1st-grade teacher, used several computer devices and programs to link the base 10 blocks and the number system for his children. Today, these men are leading education innovators (Riel, 1994).

To keep up with the growing changes in technology, teachers need inservice training. Research shows that fewer than ten hours of training can have a negative effect (Ryan, 1993). Others emphasize the importance of hands-on experience and warn against brief exposure to a variety of programs, preferring in-depth knowledge of one (Wright, 1994).

Perhaps the best advice--and the most difficult to heed--is the following:

Good teachers will not necessarily be those who know the most conceptual or factual information in a field, but rather those who can continually incorporate new information in creative ways. (Riel, 1994, p. 465)

New Lamps for Old?

Technology can be used merely to teach the same old material in the same way. Integrated computer activities can increase achievement. Children who use practice software about 10 minutes a day increase their scores on achievement tests. However,

if the gadgets are computers, the same old teaching becomes incredibly more expensive and biased toward its dullest parts; namely, the kind of rote learning in which measurable results can be obtained by treating the children like pigeons in a Skinner box. I believe with Dewey, Montessori and Piaget that children learn by doing and by thinking about what they do. And so the fundamental ingredients of educational innovation must be better things to do and better ways to think about oneself doing these things. (Papert, 1980, p. 161)