Technology has the power, as Seymour Papert stated in Mindstorms, to move primitive people from an agricultural base to an information society, completely skipping the ugliness of an industrial revolution. This power exists both on the macro and micro level. Because technology can place the locus of control with the child, through "play," a young child can construct a "microworld" that represents her knowledge about a particular subject and her ability to act on that knowledge.
Just think of all the things kids today know how to do, what information they process quickly, and how little these special abilities are given an opportunity to blossom in the traditional curriculum. It is unlikely there will be scribes and assembly line workers in the 21st century!
Cooperative learning has revealed how teaching our children to be rugged, competitive individuals can cost them jobs. Here technology plays a vital part - where once we feared the use of computers would isolate our students, the reality is that people readily communicate while solving tasks using a computer.
Major Goals
I support these goals in restructuring a school or a system:
1. The approach to the child as a whole being, full of music, movement, creativity, vision, and most of all, the potential to learn anything;
2. The celebration of the roots of each of our heritages, and the appreciation of how these histories have melded into a great nation;
3. The acknowledgement and support of parents as first teachers;
4. The empowerment of teachers to trust the deep feelings that brought them to the profession initially; and
5. The creation of a "habitat" which fosters empowerment for all.
Within this set of goals, many changes could be promoted. Technology is a tool which not only serves to assist the change process through the gathering and organization of data, but can also set a direction for change. It is difficult to imagine any school or organization which would ignore the tremendous potential of technology to enhance the learning and living process. To put these goals into practical terms, I've created an imaginary school, a lot like the one down the street.
A Scenario: Rainbow Country School Restructures
Let's call our "about to be restructured" school Rainbow Country School and let's give it 600 clients ages 4 to 11. Let's give it 15 hilly acres in a small, poor county in the state of North Euphoria. The students speak any of five languages at home - Spanish, Portuguese, English, Lao and/or Hmong. Parents are working class poor; most are uneducated beyond high school; all desire a better life for their children.
Rainbow Country School employs 35 professionals and 10 classified staff. For several years the school has wanted change that would make a difference in the lives of children. The following scenario takes Rainbow through what may be less than orderly, but would likely be closer to how things actually change.
At the district level, Rainbow is seen as a "problem" school. Test scores are poor; discipline is lax; vandalism and gang activity threaten. The categorical director for the district wants to purchase a $500,000 integrated instructional system, which will provide approximately one hour per week per student of drill and practice computer-managed skills. However, a number of teachers and the principal at Rainbow want a chance to "restructure" the educational program. The Board of Education decides to give them this chance.
First, the professionals decide to meet weekly to begin the process. They invite and are rewarded with the presence of four of the classified staff and five parents. In their first three weekly meetings, this group does the following:
1. Develops a database of staff and community strengths and resources;
2. Decides to take a moratorium on all computer instruction for children for six months; instead, the group asks for and receives $20,000 from the Board of Education for computers to supplement the ten already owned; each teacher commits to taking one home and learning to use it as a tool in the classroom;
3. Develops a list of possible community partners;
4. Decides on a staffing pattern that will free one day per week of one teacher particularly good at grantwriting;
5. Decides to create a video library using county and local resources;
6. Decides to form peer coaching groups which will evaluate the performance of each member; this is done through videotaping lessons. This frees the principal to engage in extensive public relations and focus on the needs of the students;
7. Sets up training sessions for integrating technology into the curriculum; these are provided by two teachers on staff who have home computers and are already successfully changing their curriculum through technology.
The next three meetings are a great deal more difficult because the staff and parents realize that they have not decided on a major goal for the students and although the needs are great, are coming at the problem from too many directions.
The major accomplishment of these three meetings is a decision on the following mission statement:
"Every child graduating from Rainbow Country School will:
1. know how to learn and know how she learns;
2. enjoy the process of learning;
3. be able to use appropriate tools to assist her in the learning process;
4. have the social skills to participate fully in a democracy and appreciate the similarities and differences of people all over the world."
In addition, the staff decides what are necessary changes in working conditions. Class size is a problem for most; constant pull-out programs interfere with the flow of the day; and many feel the day is too short, especially for the younger children. Constant interruptions, lack of time to meet together, and too many district level meetings are common complaints. The staff creates the following manifesto for itself:
"Every professional and support person at Rainbow Country School is vitally important to the success of the instructional program; every member of the staff can and should teach; classroom interruptions, needless paperwork, and meetings that can be as easily handled by memo will not be tolerated."
After coming to consensus about the mission of the school, the staff and teachers begin the difficult work of deciding how to implement it. As it turns out, their original directions blend perfectly, with their mission. But so much more must be done. . .
During the next two years, Rainbow develops strong partnerships with several local corporations and many small businesses. The corporations provide the school with many of the tools necessary for communication. Through further support from the school district, Rainbow is refurbished, including a fiber optic cabling system which connects all the classrooms to a bank of videodisc players and VCR's. The school's outmoded bell and telephone systems are rewired, allowing every teacher access to outside lines. This simple act not only makes it possible for teachers to call parents within the privacy of their own classrooms, it allows, through modems, connection of each class to a variety of networks that support communication between children and teachers world-wide.
A major project of the school focuses on conservation. The children learn to use less paper and are given time to complete drafts and turn them in on computer disk. At the upper grades, class projects are often done in video format, using a variety of multi-media software and hardware. More time is spent outside; the children plan and create an "ecology" center on campus grounds. They study plant types and growth patterns; the data they gather is entered into computers and analyzed.
All resource teachers and the principal become team teachers during the majority of their day. This effectively lowers class size. The teachers cut down on unnecessary meetings and the paperwork burden by daily tapping into their individual telecommunications links to the school and district office. All attendance is handled electronically. In the first ten minutes of school, children from the upper grades enter all data on absences and lunch counts and automatically send this information to the school office. The secretary, freed from many of the tasks traditionally assigned, takes time to assist many children who come to school needing a little bit of extra special attention. She also provides "troubleshooting" assistance for all technological problems and, with the assistance of student helpers, sends out video programs requested by individual teachers during the instructional day.
Print media is still a feature of Rainbow School - but no textbooks are purchased. Instead, the school and classroom libraries grow to support a wide variety of source material in every subject area. Since the school believes so firmly in the child's ability to learn from solving problems, the instruction shifts from daily increments of a standard, inflexible curriculum to a series of projects, productions, and performances. Little by little, the children empowered by their own success, participate in major school decisions.
Since day care is a common problem and teachers felt that children needed to be in school longer, Rainbow offers before- and after-school care, in which children are given time and tools to work on many of their projects.
Obstacles to Restructuring
In this scenario, many of the obstacles to restructuring were encountered. The greatest obstacles to change, however, are lack of imagination and unwillingness to change. Rainbow was lucky - and unusual - because neither of these barriers kept it from growing. Through community and business partnerships, and through bold planning, many obstacles can be overcome. Professionals also must feel that change can happen and that they are empowered to create it. One of the most empowering accomplishments for any human being is to learn to use a new tool effectively. In this regard, the use of technology in restructuring has a talismatic effect.
How to Measure Success
Rainbow Country School has a mission statement against which to measure its success. Every student should complete six years there and know how to use modern tools to solve problems, should feel competent, and should know how she learns. The use of technology in the school is only one of many necessary elements to implement the mission. The best measure of whether it has played its part is how quickly it becomes too cumbersome for the minds employing it. Children brought up on videotape have no patience for the noise of a 35 mm projector. Teachers know that the technology has been successful when children want more and better tools; this is not so different from any learning. Teachers have always measured success not by grades or test scores, but by the questions children ask and the projects they beg to take on.
Additional Comments
Appropriate uses [of technology]: as a catalyst, tool, metaphor, something to take control over, rather than vice versa
Inappropriate uses [of technology]: as governor, barrier, stupifier, minute measurer, mesmerizer, isolator
Methods of implementing my recommendations: Let me begin by clearly stating my recommendation: A school or system should decide which tools, how many, when and how used and by whom, depending on the goals it sets for itself in serving people. The existing technological tools can help people accomplish many tasks. Goodness knows what future tools will do.
Obstacles to implementation and methods of overcoming them: We've put men on the moon, split the atom, built the Sistine Chapel, created the hot fudge sundae. What obstacles?
Rationale for my recommendations: Pure and simple humanism as preached by Dewey, Paolo Freire, Seymour Papert, Albert Einstein, and simple kid-watching as practiced by Piaget, the Goodmans, Papert, and great teachers everywhere
Recommended methods for measuring effectiveness of technology:
¥ Does it make you want more technology?
¥ Does it make you think of doing things in a different way?
¥ Does it give you time to enjoy other things?
¥ Are you in control of it, rather than it saying "Good . . . now go on to the next one?" Or "Sorry, try again?"
¥ Does it put you closer to people?
¥ Does it make you think?
¥ Does it help you create?
¥ Does it help people who have special needs?
¥ Does it sing? Does it help you dance?
¥ Does it free you from tedious, inhuman tasks?
¥ Does it do windows?
Last words
I decided to create a school and take it through a process of beginning to completely restructure its way of serving children. There are an infinite number of ways this can happen. I encourage you, the [Computer Learning Month] judges to remember how powerful the human imagination is. Meanwhile, I'll just go find a Rainbow.
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