The Perl Journal April 2003
I had an almost entirely technology-free education. Not only did the Web not exist when I was in school, but the idea of computers in the classroom was still mostly science fiction. Today, despite a great push to incorporate computers into both K-12 and college curricula, many students entering our school systems find that they are the ones teaching their instructors in the use of computers. The effort to integrate computers with education has met with only partial success.
True, some school systems can't afford the technology. But this is about more than the digital divide between the wealthy and the poor. Even affluent schools that can provide the tools for their students can't seem to make consistent, effective use of them. Are we looking at a failure to train our teachers properly in the use of computers? Perhaps. But I suspect that even if every teacher in America was a technical wizard, we would still have great difficulty in using technology to teach, simply because all our plans have focused on harnessing the benefits of digital systems, and have ignored the important goal of managing the complexity and negative consequences of those systems.
Take the simple issue of maintenance. At a time when budget cuts are forcing teacher layoffs, school districts can't afford the IT personnel to adequately maintain functioning desktop systems and LANs. So even when schools have technology, it's often broken. Students using their own computers at home for assignments are similarly adrift. If they're lucky, they or a family member have the skills to keep system and application software all running smoothly. But more often than not, kids spend their increasingly limited evening hours waiting for Mom or Dad to make tech-support calls to get the printer to print out their term paper. Pencil and paper never threw those sorts of roadblocks in a student's path.
Other negative impacts of technology that can affect students are all too familiar even to those of us not in school. For example, the loss of free time. Unless we make a Herculean effort to the contrary, most of us are enslaved by our e-mail. In a time when worker productivity is on the rise only because those of us who haven't been laid off must pick up the work of those who have departed, it becomes increasingly difficult to leave work at the office. Real vacations are not an option for many of us, as we are forced to be in contact even when we're supposed to be relaxing. Students, too, face mounting pressure to be permanently, electronically jacked-in to the demands of teachers. Students who get assignments on Friday may get Saturday e-mails from teachers demanding that new work be done in time for Monday's class. This is something a teacher would never do if it meant picking up the phone and calling each student. And, of course, this goes in the other direction: Teachers can open themselves up to unrealistic demands on their attention when they give out e-mail addresses to students.
Computers have clear benefits in the classroom, and current curriculum guidelines for their use are a good starting point for reaping those benefits. But unless we develop similar guidelines for reducing the effects of these ancillary complications, the adoption of computers in the classroom may become permanently stalled.
Kevin Carlson
Executive Editor
The Perl Journal