Monday 22 February 2010

What are we doing with computers in schools?


The last two decades have been a period of proliferation of information and communication technology in almost every aspect of life—from the mobile phone to banking and the remote tracking of motor vehicles. This technology revolution mostly driven by computer applications has also affected the education sector. There is ever growing concern about equipping classrooms with computers and to wire each of these computers to the internet. Private school TV adverts these days necessarily include a view of computers, perhaps as a up-to-date institution qualifier.
Technology-enhanced classrooms are inspired by constructionist theories that propose that learning is an active process wherein learners are actively constructing mental models and theories of the world around them. Social justice-inspired programmes like ‘One laptop per child’ also continue to roll out supplies of computers to developing world schools in view of what has been referred to as ‘bridging the digital divide’. 

The drive to provide computers is based on the thinking that if these machines are made available, they will be used; and if they are used, they will contribute to improvement of learning. Will computers deliver on the expectations of policy-makers and educational philanthropists? My argument is that the most needed energy for reviving and improving schools and higher institutions of learning should be sought in student agency manifested in reliable work habits and critical thinking skills.

Why bring computers to classrooms?
The social rationale is that digital technologies have become part and parcel of everyday life, and that schools should prepare students to be active participants in a digital age.  Similarly, the thinking behind a vocational, or market-oriented, rationale is that children should learn how to work with computers and later be able to compete for jobs at front ends of interview queues. Proponents of this position promote ‘computer literacy’ courses, concentrating on computer programming and the use of popular application programmes.  

The pedagogical rationale emphasizes a contribution to improving teaching and learning, sometimes through the use of new computer-assisted learning software in the classroom, or by using the computer as a tool that can expand and enrich knowledge acquisition and construction.

Another impulse for bringing computers to the classroom is from academics and educators in favour of self-directed learning for children. This coalition, inspired by John Dewey, Jerome Bruner, Maria Montessori and Lev Vygotsky, seek to transform schools in which learning comprises tediously absorbing large bodies of non-functional knowledge unconnected to life. They want schools in which teachers help students construct their own understanding.  Classroom learning has also been greatly influenced by growth of the internet and its World Wide Web resource stockpiles. Computer workstations that give students internet access increase the size of the available learning resources to consult and also the efficiency with which they can search huge chunks of literature for relevant references.
Although computers may be useful educational tools for quicker processing and analysis of information, they often present an opportunity for students to grow their leisure time and get away from learning tasks.

Educational tools or toys?
The potential for computers to facilitate learning is often met by a challenge of choosing what one may use from several applications on a computer. The standard desktop computer will come with word-processers, drawing applications and entertainment accessories like music and games. When the computer is connected to the internet, there are myriad opportunities for a student to access online games but also to link up with other people for a chat. When presented with a play arena and an opportunity to work out mathematics problems, the former is likely to become of secondary interest. A computer can be a collection of some of the most enticing distractions that easily overwhelms a teenage student who is still struggling to develop self-mastery.

Without appropriate guidance, many secondary (even university) students working away at a computer remain incapable of assessing the quality of the resources they have access to. Students using workstations with internet access are also susceptible to ‘pathological internet-use’ that could draw them into pornography or with the feeling that the internet is my only friend.
When computers are delivered to classrooms, they usually meet archrivals, the teachers.  Teachers are not always enthusiastic about altering their ways of working to accommodate new technology. Even though some teachers are willing to undergo training in the use of new learning support facilities, they rarely acquire pedagogic expertise to help them make the most effective use of ICT in their lessons.

Instead of new and bigger investments in computer infrastructure, schools should also invest in giving students skills that increasingly get neglected: writing and reasoning, reliable work habits, capacity for concentration and face-to-face communication. Computers are useless without primary material—ideas and concepts generated through dedicated study and thought; and this can only be done by human beings.

I’m of the view that learning mostly depends on what human beings, rather than computers, do best. The teacher may be the one to meet a most important need for the student—lighting a fire in the student’s heart, role modeling and nurturing as these can contribute more to learning now and in the future than the neatest hyper-linked courseware.