If there's one place computer games have made inroads, it's in education. That's not to say you can expect to see grandmotherly fourth-grade teachers using DOOM or Myst to teach geography. (If the truth were known, young minds probably wouldn't object.) Instead, you're more likely to find games such as the venerable The Oregon Trail playing an integral part of an elementary history curriculum. The Oregon Trail, originally developed by the Minnesota Department of Education and now under the auspices of the for-profit MECC, has been adopted by more than one-third of all U.S. school districts. Most recently, the game was updated to include the Mormon and California trails, all delivered on CD-ROM.
Games such as The Oregon Trail aren't being used solely in schools. The home software market is booming, with games and home-education software leading the pack. According to the SPA, home-education software sales are up more than 50 percent over last year. Fueling this growth are PCs, which have found their way into 33 percent of U.S. homes. With sales growth four times the industry average, home-education software is currently the fastest-growing category of software sales.
This surge in home-education software is both good and bad news. On one hand, the trend indicates that many parents are interested enough in their children's well-being to invest in PCs and supplemental educational materials. On the other hand, you could say the trend reflects widespread skepticism of schools' performance.
The biggest game in town for the upper grades is the Internet. In melding technology and education, students and teachers are finding that using the Internet as an educational resource is fast, fun, and relatively easy. Students can access the most up-to-date information, which traditional textbooks won't provide for years to come--if ever.
Interestingly, schools are also leading the way in some Internet-related scenarios. The Independence, MO, School District, for instance, is the first public district in the nation using wireless communication to provide Internet services to remote sites. Instead of spending $150,000 per year to link 25 buildings to the Internet, the school system leases a dedicated line from the phone company for $5000 per year. That line is connected to the district host, which in turn broadcasts Internet services via an antenna to other district buildings. Students use the system for everything from asking teachers questions via e-mail to researching and submitting homework assignments.
The Independence experiment has been funded in part by a state grant of $80,000. For the past few years, state and federal agencies have been pumping a lot of money into K--12 programs that have an eye towards technology. In fiscal 1995 alone, Congress has committed $40 million to link technology with improvement in education. The Federal government provides about $750 million for purchasing educationally related computer hardware and software. Add to this another $450 million from Title I funds for hardware/software, and all of a sudden we're talking real money.
Granted, some of this money has been spent unwisely (I recently read about one school-district warehouse stuffed to the gunnels with brand new, never-unboxed 80286-based PCs). Still, if we're going to waste money, I'd just as soon see it frittered away on education than, say, exorbitant Congressional pension plans or franking privileges (or, for that matter, "educational" television shows starring Congressional leaders). Nevertheless, education/technology programs may be in for some hard times in the coming months as Congress goes about reevaluating how it will divvy up our education-allocated dollars. Every education-related committee in the House and Senate will be reviewing programs, and cuts will likely result. Similarly, upcoming changes in telecommunications rules and regulations will impact education programs like those in Independence. One of the main telecom issues is whether or not schools will be in the running for universal access to the Internet.
No one said education was supposed to be fun, but then, no one said it was supposed to be a shuttlecock, batted back and forth in high-stake political games either. What technology brings to the learning process is not only an efficient means of putting students in contact with basic information, but also a familiarity with the tools that will be commonplace in the 21st century. In short, when it comes to downsizing what has grown to be an intrusive government, there are better places to start than educational programs.
Jonathan Erickson
editor-in-chief
Copyright © 1995, Dr. Dobb's Journal