How technology has changed our educational system is a topic
that’s sometimes hot, sometimes not. It was a very hot topic about fifteen
years ago and seems to be making a comeback recently despite tough economic
times and despite the truth in the old
joke that it took 25 years for the overhead projector to migrate from the
bowling alley to the classroom. It may, however, surprise you that money spent
on education in the US
exceeds our defense budget if you take into account state and local as well as
federal expenditure. (http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/year_spending_2012USbc_13bc1n#usgs302)
My interest in this topic was rekindled by a recent “On
Point” NPR radio podcast, “The Digital Future of Textbooks” hosted by Tom
Ashbrook (http://podcastdownload.npr.org/anon.npr-podcasts/podcast/330/510053/145842681/WBUR_145842681.mp3)
The show has an interesting structure: Ashbrook invites
several experts in the field who ,by answering his questions, lay out the
issues which are supplemented by questions and ccomments from phone callers and
internet comments. An enlightening and entertaining discussion usually ensues. This
podcast discussed the pros and cons of using digital textbooks running on portable computers within an educational
setting.
Even when you factor in the costs of providing small
computers to the students this still remains a viable economic option. Printed
textbooks at the college level can cost students 500 to over 1000 dollars per year;
a tablet computer can be acquired in the 200 to 400 dollar range. In the grades K-12, textbooks degrade fast ---
pages go missing as all students are not as fastidious as the teachers might
wish. Yes, students will also drop tablet computers but insurance plans are
available that amortize costs and lead to the student owning the computer by
the time they graduate. Another possible negative effect is that the money
spent on digital texts will be diverted from traditional subjects like art,
music, sports and even woodshop. Who is to say that the loss of these subjects
outweighs any of the benefits gained with more technology? And how can we be sure these digital textbooks
don’t devolve into digital comic books? And what about the Digital Divide ---will
this advance in technology further exacerbate the divide between the haves and
have-nots?
However, the pros do seem to be outweighing the cons. While
big states like Florida and Texas
can control some of the content in print texts, E-texts could be more localized
allowing more educators to become author/ publishers. Teachers can insert,
delete and resequence chapters which are very likely to contain interactive
media. Students could not only watch a video as they read, they can interact
with graphical models that allow them to ask their own “what-if “
questions. Picture an Environmental
Science student running a climate change
model and essentially asking, “What happens if cars are required to get 50
miles per gallon?” And, in addition to
lighter backpacks, a digital text allows the student to highlight, underline
and otherwise take notes that are stored right with the lesson for easy review.
Of course all of this means that teachers must take on new roles
and responsibilities. They should be allowed to move away from fixed mandated
lesson plans and have more flexibility to design their own. With the students interacting, perhaps in
small groups, with their lessons, teachers would have more time to adopt the
MBWA (Management By Walking Around) method of classroom administration.
Teachers become more like coaches, spending more one-on-one time with their
students and answering their questions instead of lecturing which can be, in a
worst-case scenario, answering questions the student did not ask. Instead of
being “the sage on the stage”, the teacher has the opportunity to become “the
guide on the side”.
David Eagleman, in his essay, “Six
Ways the Internet May Save Civilization” says,
“The Internet opens the gates of education to anyone who can get her hands on a
computer…A motivated teen anywhere on the planet can walk through the world’s
knowledge, from Wikipedia to the curricula of MIT’s OpenCourseWare.” (Not to
mention the wonderful free lessons on Kahn’s Academy; see http://www.khanacademy.org/about/getting-started)
