by Sally Bowman Alden & Alex Curyea
Computer Learning Foundation
When six year old Kelly Johnson from Anywhere, USA, arrives at school for her first day in the first grade, she barely has time to give her father a kiss good-bye. She leaps from the car and excitedly dashes to her classroom where she rushes by her new teacher, selects a desk in the front and promptly activates her computer. It is here that she can have any question known to mankind answered and can communicate with children all over the world, and she is very excited to get started. Since it's the first day of school, the computer speaks to her and asks her to type in her name. Kelly types in her name and is registered instantly as a class member on the Global Information Superhighway. Kelly's teacher has been communicating by electronic mail (e-mail) over the summer with several teachers in other countries and has made arrangements for their classrooms to work together across the year on projects. By the end of the week, Kelly is staying late after school to e-mail her computer drawings of animals in her community to children in the other countries (and to her grandparents in another state). By the end of the year, Kelly and her classmates are locating photographs, video clips and information from around the world; sharing stories, drawings and science experiments with other students; and engaging in live, interactive video discussions of similarities and differences in their cultures, attitudes and activities with students in other countries.
While this scenario may appear very futuristic, many of the technologies exist today for these activities and many communities are already embracing the power and educational opportunities of the Information Highway in their homes and in their classrooms. The challenge is bringing these opportunities to all children and all schools as quickly as we can.
So, what is this thing called the Information Highway and how do we, as parents and educators, take advantage of what it has to offer and make it available to our children? To be simplistic, the Information Highway is the interconnection of thousands of computers through phone and cable lines that enables us to send and receive vast volumes of information at phenomenal speeds throughout the world. Many people refer to the Internet when talking about the Information Highway, as it currently serves as a type of backbone to the Information Highway. The Internet is also a network or interconnection of thousands of computers; however, it was originally established for defense purposes and later expanded to allow research and educational institutions the ability to share information through their computers and phone lines. Participants share their data, research findings and other information by making it accessible on their computers to others. In more recent years, thousands of individuals and organizations have connected to the Internet via various commercial online service companies, direct connections and dial-up services. Individuals and organizations today can access literally millions of pages of information from all over the world, if they have access to the Internet and know where and how to retrieve information.
Also part of the Information Highway are the various commercial online services, such as America Online, CompuServe and the Prodigy Service, that allow people to access information these services maintain and to communicate with other subscribers. These commercial online services have been available for several years and connect thousands of subscribers. In more recent years, they have connected to the Internet to allow users to send e-mail to online users all over the world, regardless of the online service they use. In addition, many of these services now allow subscribers to access other capabilities of the Internet, such as researching other computer sites. These added capabilities are referred to as having a gateway to the Internet. Many commercial online services are also available to schools with special features added for teachers and students and accompanying lesson plans and teaching materials.
A growing number of public telecommunications networks are also developing, particularly for schools. Many state departments of education are establishing their own telecommunications networks to link their schools. Some of these networks are restricted to particular groups, such as teachers in one state; however, increasingly, these networks are interconnecting to allow users of other networks to communicate with their users.
Another component of the Information Highway is a huge number of independent bulletin board systems (BBS) run by individuals and groups, which frequently have a specific focus, such as legal issues, computer games, communicating with parents of children in their school, etc. A BBS is a computer system run by an individual or organization that maintains files of information, news bulletins and/or software programs for users to access and also allows users to communicate with other users and to post questions, responses and other information to an electronic board for others to read and use. While these BBS's are not all interconnected, many of them are connecting with the Internet to retrieve interesting information for users and to allow users to send and receive e-mail through the BBS to others outside the BBS.
While the Information Highway exists today, it is more akin to a system of back roads--or at best, state roads--than the Interstate freeway system or Information Superhighway of tomorrow. Accessing the wealth of information available on the Internet, for example, requires a significant amount of learning and uses more complex "programming-like" language. With its growing popularity, however, more and more tools and services are developing to make it easier for the average individual to find and do what they want to do online. Plus, more and more of the independent services, networks and BBS's are connecting to the Internet, increasing all users' access to information and people.
The Information Superhighway of tomorrow will connect individuals, homes, businesses, and other organizations and bring together the various communications mediums of television, cable, telephone and computers. The types of information, resources, activities and opportunities that will be accessible for learning and other purposes are limited only by our imaginations. On-demand movies, documentaries, videotapes of historical and current events, virtual shopping malls, stores and shopping from your home, instant access to news, research and expert advice from all over the world--all these activities and more will be available to us all.
While the foundation for the Information Superhighway is just beginning, you and your children can benefit greatly today from the many opportunities already available. Imagine the thrill children experience when they conduct science experiments that contribute to society, rather than just to their learning. In the Water Watch project on a state-wide BBS in Kentucky, children share their analyses of water samples from rivers, lakes and creeks in their communities. With National Geographic's Kids Network, children become real contributors to an online national database of acid rain levels around the country. When children learn by doing something real, many become very excited about science.
Children's research for school papers and their own personal interests no longer needs to be limited by the resources of your local library. Children can access the ideas of other children and adults through e-mail and forums (discussion groups on specific topics), research reports from around the world and experts on the topic. In addition, learning takes on a different meaning when children learn about an event from the perspective of those close to it, for example, communicating with children where an earthquake, flood or hurricane occurred.
There are also many benefits for the whole family. For example, an increasing number of people are reviewing airline schedules online to plan family vacations, requesting technical support for new products, reading breaking news before it appears in the newspapers or on television, downloading public domain software programs to use, and participating in forums on parenting issues and numerous other topics. In addition, a growing number of schools are setting up BBS's that parents and children can dial into from home. This allows parents to find out homework assignments, access schedules and information on school activities and communicate directly with teachers from home. Some school BBS's also allow children to access help with homework from online tutors.
An exciting highlight of the Information Highway is the fact that electronic communication today is a great equalizer. With the exception of video conferences, no one knows what the person on the other end looks like, whether they are rich or poor, handicapped or not, of the same race or different. Children befriend children from all walks of life and all parts of the world and evaluate them based on what they have to say and not other discriminatory factors. Furthermore, children learn they live in a global society and experience and learn to appreciate similarities and differences of various cultures and attitudes through electronic pen pals around the world. Another positive benefit of connecting children to the Information Highway today is that they practice reading and writing without even realizing it, as most communication is done in writing. All of these benefits are waiting for you and your children.
With all the benefits the Information Highway offers our children's learning, we need to make sure the Information Highway connects with all of our schools, libraries and community centers. Access cannot be restricted to only the affluent. All children, regardless of economic wealth, must have access to the powerful benefits of the Information Highway to their learning. We can only accomplish this, if we connect all of our schools and provide training to our teachers on how to incorporate this powerful resource tool into classroom instruction.
What is most disconcerting is the fact that most of our classrooms are not only not connected to the Information Highway, they do not yet even have the basic equipment needed to access any part of it--a computer, a modem, communications software and a phone line. According to Quality Education Data, a major educational research company, only 29% of our public schools have this basic setup. Since most schools do not provide teachers with a phone in their classroom for communicating with parents and professional colleagues, most classrooms do not have phone lines installed. Thus, most schools that have access to the Information Highway only have access through one computer, frequently in a computer lab or a library. As a result, most students neither have good access nor the opportunity to access the benefits when it is appropriate in their regular classroom instruction.
So, how do we increase children's access to the Information Highway? The first step is recognizing that the Information Highway is a tool that must be available to all educators and all children--we must make it a priority to connect our schools. The second step is getting the computers out of a lab and into the classrooms, where real learning takes place. The next step is networking the school's computers and purchasing site licenses for software and services, so teachers have access to the software and services in their classrooms where they can incorporate it into their learning activities. The next step is connecting the network to an online service or directly to the Internet to allow all classrooms access to the Information Highway. All along the way, we must provide on-going support for our teachers, so they experience the benefits of telecommunications and understand how to incorporate its use into their teaching methods. Only with computers and access to online services in the individual classrooms and on-going learning opportunities for our teachers will our students ever receive the benefits of technology and the Information Highway as tools for their learning.
The Information Highway and the opportunities it provides teachers and children will radically change schools and education from what we experienced as children. While this may be very uncomfortable for many educators and parents, as change frequently makes us uncomfortable, the way we communicate and the skills that are important to our children's future have radically changed and we must prepare our children for the information society in which they live. When most of us grew up, the accumulation of factual knowledge was important, or at least emphasized. In the information society we live in today, however, the volume of information is staggering and no one can master it all. The skills our children need include the ability to ask the right questions, a facility in locating information and most importantly, the ability to evaluate and apply information they find. With the Information Highway, our children will have access to all the information they could ever want, so determining the quality and relevance of the information and how it applies to a problem or topic are the far more critical skills. Many of us, as parents and educators, will need to sharpen and expand our own abilities in these areas, as we help our children learn and develop. As one educational leader reminds us, "Parents must understand that what was good for them isn't necessarily good now. Things like spelling lists and Latin are no longer needed. In some cases, parents are holding back the teachers." As parents and community members, we must make sure that we work with our schools to provide the opportunities our children need for the society they live in, even if the unfamiliar is a bit uncomfortable.
Technology, in general, and the Information Highway, more specifically, dramatically change the role of teachers. Rather than the deliverers of information and assessors of students' reservoirs of stored factual information, teachers become the facilitators of learning--the coach that guides students to discover new areas, to ask probing questions, to question information found, to develop new theories and to search for information that supports and refutes these theories. Teachers cannot be merely tour guides showing students all there is to see along the Information Highway. They must help students learn to narrow their search for information and evaluate the information they find, while still providing students with the opportunity to explore and discover new areas of learning along the way. This is perhaps the hardest kind of teaching.
To achieve this level of teaching, we must provide a tremendous amount of support for our teachers, as they learn to use the tools and incorporate them into their teaching strategies. Our teachers are not different from us--they did not grow up with technology or access to the Information Highway-- and we need to remember they need to learn these tools, too. Educators must possess the ability themselves to navigate carefully through the almost infinite amount of information and must have time to develop new teaching strategies that incorporate technology and Information Highway tools. We need leadership from administrators, parents and the community who make access to technology and the Information Highway priorities, secure and allocate the funds needed for equipment, and provide the needed time for teachers to learn and share their methods. While this clearly requires a significant amount of funding, the cost of failing to educate our children with the tools of their day is far greater.
So, where do you begin your journey of exploring the Information Highway and introducing it to your children? The Computer Learning Foundation recommends starting your adventures into the world of telecommunications and onto the Information Highway with the assistance of one of the popular commercial online services, as their interface is much easier to learn to use than navigating the Internet. Once you feel comfortable with the medium, you might venture out onto the Internet through the service you are using or select one of the many dial-up services to access the Internet.
To help you with your learning, the Computer Learning Foundation has reviewed numerous books on telecommunications and the Internet and has selected what we believe to be the best and most comprehensible books to get people started and expand their use of telecommunications (see page 16). The Foundation has also released a new reference guide just for educators, Telecommunications in the Classroom, to help teachers get started and expand their use of telecommunications in their classrooms. On page 18, you'll also find special offers on several online services and modems to help you on your journey.
The Computer Learning Foundation interviewed dozens of educators, parents and other online users and posted many queries to forums on online services and the Internet to identify key goals to strive for and activities in which to engage children to provide them with experience on the Information Highway. We encourage you to start right away and try to achieve all of these goals and to introduce your children to all of these activities across the year. While your children are mastering these areas, learn right along with them, and you'll teach them one of the most important things you can teach them--we never stop learning--we learn throughout our lives. Good luck and enjoy your journey!
Goals to strive for with children
Goals to strive for with our schools