Two years later, parents are actively involved with their children’s use of the home PCs and employ them themselves to keep in touch with teachers and administrators; the dropout rate and absenteeism are both almost zero, and the students are scoring nearly three times higher than the average for all New Jersey inner-city schools on standardized tests. And the program has been expanded to include the entire middle school.
Raymond W. Smith, chairman of the board and CEO of Bell Atlantic, comments, “I believe a combination of a school system ready for fundamental change in teaching methods, a parent body that was supportive and wanted to be involved, and the careful but intensive integration of technology into both the homes and classrooms . . . created a true learning community in which the home and school reinforce and support each other.”
At Lester B. Pearson School, a Canadian high school serving an ethnically diverse neighborhood, computers are an integral part of every course in the daily curriculum. For the 1,200 students there are more than 300 personal computers, and more than 100 different software titles are in use. The school says its dropout rate, 4 percent, when compared with a national average of 30 percent, is Canada’s lowest. Thirty-five hundred people a year visit to see how a high school can “incorporate technology in every aspect of school life.”
When the information highway is in operation, the texts of millions of books will be available. A reader will be able to ask questions, print the text, read it on-screen, or even have it read in his choice of voices. He’ll be able to ask questions. It will be his tutor.
Computers with social interfaces will figure out how to present information so that it is customized for the particular user. Many educational software programs will have distinct personalities, and the student and the computer will get to know each other. A student will ask, perhaps orally, “What caused the American Civil War?” His or her computer will reply, describing the conflicting contentions: that it was primarily a battle over economics or human rights. The length and approach of the answer will vary depending on the student and the circumstances. A student will be able to interrupt at any time to ask the computer for more or less detail or to request a different approach altogether. The computer will know what information the student has read or watched and will point out connections or correlations and offer appropriate links. If the computer knows the student likes historical fiction, war stories, folk music, or sports, it may try to use that knowledge to present the information. But this will be only an attention-getting device. The machine, like a good human teacher, won’t give in to a child who has lopsided interests. Instead it will use the child’s predilections to teach a broader curriculum.
Different learning rates will be accommodated, because computers will be able to pay individual attention to independent learners. Children with learning disabilities will be particularly well served. Regardless of his or her ability or disability, every student will be able to work at an individual pace.
Another benefit of computer-aided learning will be the way many students come to view tests. Today, tests are pretty depressing for many kids. They are associated with falling short: “I got a bad grade,” or “I ran out of time” or “I wasn’t ready.” After a while, many kids who haven’t done well on tests may think to themselves, I’d better pretend tests aren’t important to me, because I can never succeed at them. Tests can cause a student to develop a negative attitude toward all education.
The interactive network will allow students to quiz themselves anytime, in a risk-free environment. A self-administered quiz is a form of self-exploration, like the tests Paul Allen and I used to give each other. Testing will become a positive part of the learning process. A mistake won’t call forth a reprimand; it will trigger the system to help the student overcome his misunderstanding. If someone really gets stuck, the system will offer to explain the circumstances to a teacher. There should be less apprehension about formal tests and fewer surprises, because on-going self-quizzing will give each student a better sense of where he or she stands.
Many educational software and textbook companies are already delivering interactive computer products in mathematics, languages, economics, and biology that build basic skills this way. For example, Academic Systems of Palo Alto, California, is working on an interactive multi-media instructional system for colleges, to help teach basic math and English courses. The concept is called “mediated learning,” and it blends traditional instruction with computer-based learning. Each student begins by taking a placement test to determine which topics he or she understands and where instruction is required. The system then creates a personalized lesson plan for the student. Periodic tests monitor the student’s progress, and the lesson plan can be modified as the student masters concepts. The program can also report problems to the instructor, who can then give the student individual help. So far, the company has found that students in pilot programs like the new learning materials, but the most successful classes are those in which an instructor is more available. These results underscore the point that new technology, by itself, is not sufficient to improve education.
Some parents resist the use of computers because they believe they can’t monitor what their child is doing and can’t exert any control. Most parents are delighted when a child curls up with an engrossing book, but less enthusiastic when he spends hours at the computer. They’re probably thinking of video games. A kid can spend a great deal of time using a video game without learning much. So far, a great deal more has been invested in computer software meant to entertain than in software to educate. It’s easier to create an addictive game than it is to expose a child to a world of information in an appealing way.
However, as textbook budgets and parental spending shift to interactive material, there will be thousands of new software companies working with teachers to create entertainment-quality interactive learning materials. The Lightspan Partnership, for example, is using Hollywood talent to create live action and animated programs. Lightspan hopes its sophisticated production techniques will capture and retain the interest of the young viewers—ages five through eleven—and encourage them to spend more hours learning. Animated characters lead students through lessons that explain basic concepts, then into games that put them to use. The Lightspan lessons are grouped by two-year age spans and organized into series intended to complement elementary school curricula in mathematics, reading, and language arts. These programs will be available on televisions in homes and community centers as well as in classrooms. Until interactive television is widely available, this kind of programming will be offered on CD-ROMs or across the Internet to PC users.
All this information, however, is not going to solve the serious problems facing many public schools today: budget cuts, violence, drugs, high dropout rates, dangerous neighborhoods, teachers more concerned about survival than education. Offering new technology won’t suffice. Society will also have to fix the fundamental problems.
But while some public schools face major challenges, they are also our greatest hope. Imagine a situation in which most of the kids in inner-city public schools are on the dole, are barely able to speak the national language, have few skills and an uncertain future. This was America in the early 1900s, when tens of millions of immigrants had overwhelmed the schools and social services of our big cities.
Yet that generation and the next achieved a standard of living unequaled in the world. The problems of America’s schools are not insurmountable, just extremely complicated. Even today, for every disastrous public school there are dozens of successful ones you don’t read about. I’ve mentioned several examples here. It is outside the scope of this book to go deeply into this subject, but communities can, and have, won back their streets and schools. It’s always taken an intense local effort. One street at a time, one school at a time. Then parents must insist that their kids come to school ready to learn. If the attitude is “Let the school (or government) do it” kids will fail.