L&L welcomes your feedback. Send letters to Kate Conley,
editor, kconley@iste.org.
Dear Dr. Moursund:
We are teachers, parents, school administrators, and district
office staff at four U.S. Department of Defense Dependent Schools in central
Germany. As part of the GIFTED committee (Giessen Infusing Technology Every
Day) meeting, we discussed your editorial “A Typical Student in 2016”
in the December/January issue of Learning & Leading with Technology.
It generated a lively discussion around how this new technology would affect
education, student learning, and the art of teaching. We would like your response
to some of our comments, concerns, and questions.
Many of our comments related to the effect on students. Concern
was expressed for the limited face-to-face social interactivity. We wondered
if this would create a wider gap between the haves and have-nots where the most
motivated students would no longer attend a traditional school. How do we ensure
that poorer communities receive the same advantages as the more affluent? We
felt that many students would benefit from a more teacher-centered environment
and face-to-face contact with their peers, while many students, living in isolated
locations or in small schools, would benefit from this new technology. The advantage
of having access to teachers and courses worldwide opens up amazing possibilities.
For many years, educational technologists have predicted that
the role of the teacher would change from presenter of information to a facilitator.
Some questions arose out of our discussion about that shift. Were the Personal
Tutor and the Statistical Consultant people or technology? What is the relationship
with the Personal Tutor and the Statistical Consultant with the teachers around
the world? Finally, and very important to this committee, how do we prepare
teachers for this role?
Another area of discussion was around curriculum. We had many
questions about who determined the curriculum? Did this student attend a “school”?
We noticed she received a scholarship but who pays the teachers? We felt that
15 years is too short a time for a world curriculum to evolve given that the
European nations cannot agree on the implementation of the EURO much less a
common curriculum for their students.
We felt that other roles would also have to change. We see parents
as having a much larger role in monitoring their student’s education. The
community would have to provide much of the social interaction for the students.
We wondered if this is realistic especially in light of the present inequality
of advantages offered between the rich and poor.
It was interesting that very little of the discussion focused
on the technology. We did feel that wireless communication was very important
if this scenario was to happen. Most of us accepted the technology you described
to be within the bounds of reality. What we questioned was the possibility of
educators making these drastic changes in how we operate.
Tara Beau (tara_beau@eu.odedodea.edu)
and colleagues
Educational Technologist, Hessen District
Giessen, Germany
by e-mail
Moursund’s Reply
I want to thank all of you for your use of and insights into
my brief article. One of the main purposes of the article was to promote the
type of discussions and responses that occurred within your group. The real
issue is not whether the ideas in the scenario might occur in approximately
15 years. Rather, the real issue is the effects of such an addition to the world’s
educational system.
In the past few years, many people have suggested that the rapid
pace of doubling of hardware capabilities and of telecommunications capabilities
would be ending shortly. However, the pace of change has actually quickened
in recent years, and it now seems likely that projections based on Moore’s
Law may prove to be too conservative.
As you know, distance learning is expanding very rapidly. Some
companies that are getting into this business are serving as brokers or “middle
people” for the various developers and teachers of these courses. Such
a “virtual school” has the potential to serve students throughout
the world. A broker can assemble a huge set of courses and arrange them into
many different curriculum configurations. Thus, a single company could offer
programs of study in many different countries, each curriculum being designed
to meet the standards of a particular country.
One of the issues you raised is how a change in the amount of
face-to-face instruction might affect the social development of students. In
the scenario that I presented, I placed special emphasis on this aspect of Saundri’s
life. Thus, I am not concerned for her. More generally, however, any major change
(such as a change that is due to technology) tends to have both positive and
negative effects. Typically, some people benefit more than others. With information
technology, for example, we have the “digital divide.” In addition,
we have some schools stressing higher-order, problem-solving aspects of information
technology, while others focus on use of an integrated learning system or edutainment
software.
One purpose of the scenario is to encourage people to think about
who might benefit—and who might not—from various types of changes
brought about by the use of information technology in education. What would
it be like to be a student and never have face-to-face meetings with your fellow
students? What would it be like to be a teacher and never have face-to-face
meetings with your students? What would it be like to have a computer-based
intelligent tutor and advisor? As you think about such questions, think about
how you are preparing your current students for adult life in a world in which
these types of changes are occurring.
Dave Moursund (dmoursund@iste.org)
Note: letters may be edited for length or style.
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in Education).
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