The Lost Generation
Technology in the classroom has been growing exponentially over the past few years. Internet collaboration and alternative approaches to coursework are becoming a part of professional development. The neglected concept of a student portfilio has become a reality with the growth of blog, ning, and wiki. Even President Obama has embraced technology in learning, although his head of Education has not given up his position on standardized tests. It is not what you can do, but how well you can score that is still of primary importance. I trust that will change.
This is not a new phenomeon, but a rebirth of a spirit of innovation that is 25 years old. As I have written elsewhere, K-12 Education was a pioneer on telecomputing before there was a viable Internet Kidsnet was an email list where K-12 educators could share projects online. In 1987 in the UK, the Chatback Trust was created by Tom Holloway for children with processing disabilities and ran collaborative projects on My Christmas Dinner, Far Star (an alien speaks to students), Steel (a daily chronicle of a race around the world among 10 steel hulled Tall Ships.) I collaborated with teachers who worked with LD students in Middle and High School. Educational MOOs were developed which were the text only virtual worlds that led the way to Second Life. The MOO was an extensible text environment where students wrote to create their appearance, home, pets, and projects. They became so popular they were banned in Texas. That really is mind boggling: students were forbidden to read and write because they were enjoying it.
This attitude was arising in the school establishment as it was forced to deal with the new technology. In 1990, a rural Virginia teacher of LD HS students brought her Apple II and 1200 baud modem and had her students emailing around the world. They started caring about spelling and grammar. At a time when her students were emailing around the world, the gifted students were learning to play bridge. The teacher was marginalized and tolerated. A similar thing happened to a Teacher of LD students in suburban New York City. When came the epiphany, these pioneers were supplanted by the right kind of teacher. Suddenly, the computers were relegated to the students who could most use them. The success of the computer with the LD students were ignored and they had to "learn the basics" before they were "ready" for a computer. As a result the innovative teaching that marked the Golden Age of K-12 tele-education came to an end and computers were relegated to "eduational games" and electronic drilling. And this period can be considered the Dark Ages and the students belong to the Lost Generation of the computer in education.
The emergence of technology in education is really a Renaisance of the Golden Age with richer tools. Why the Dark Ages, followed by the Renaissance? In the 1990's most administrators and teachers were afraid of computer. Today, administrators and teachers grew up with the computer.
Post Script
To underline the Pioneer status of k-12 education, you need only look at the Universities. In 1995, 10 years after K-12 made its appearance on the computer networks, I worked at a large metropolitan univeristy. I was able to provide two of the 12 computer dial-in lines available to students. Since there was so little use, they could afford to let outsiders use them.
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The Lost Generation: How can leaders Impact these Educators?
Many educators who developed their craft outside of the modern internet seem to be limited in their ability to effectively engage the resource: both the students and the faculty suffer the consequences of faculty who avoid the resource. Bill Moyers of PBS inquires, "Do Americans Suffer From an "Allergy to Thought?' " (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2010/03/do_americans_suffer_from_...)
Fear and the lack of automatic computer skills actually continues to plague the residual population of faculty who developed their craft after the "full employment" of the internet. Training of a technology crew is one way that education has worked to develop staff from within to meet the needs of the "Lost Generation". The graduate level students lead by Aries Cobb from Ohio, within our midst, have provided an example of fine future faculty members who can effectively engage technology and content simultaneously. Now, it is up to leaders to make use of these trained staff members who can coach and support the Lost Generation amongst us.
Moreover, the addition of hand held technology equipment should add an ever wider range of tools to the environment of faculty and staff. It is predicted by at least one member of the University of Rotterdam that our grandchildren will look at our physical university sites as a relic of times gone by; he predicts that we will look at the university sites as relics. Full libraries now appear on hand held devices. It seems, therefore, that we will regard our institutions much in the same way as Stonehenge or the relics of Mayan mythology.
However, we should take note that there are current commercial threats to the very organization of the internet and we, therefore, need to remain ever vigilant: there are few neutral parties in the battle over so-called "network neutrality." The central question: whether all content on the Internet is created equal. The issue has led to a raging debate on Capitol Hill over proposed new regulation that would prevent a two-tiered Internet in which companies might pay more for faster delivery of their content. Take note that the proposal has, in fact, created divisions within the two political parties and pit some of the largest global communication giants and Internet companies against one another. Let's sit up and take note, as well as use our magnifying lens to be sure that we, of academia, are not being compromised. On one side are the companies that provide businesses and consumers with Internet access: telecommunications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth, and cable companies like Comcast. This group argues that the costs of an expanding Internet should be borne in part by the Internet companies using ever more of the space, for example, to send video. Such efforts have also garnered popular support. An online petition amassed more than a million signatures favoring new regulation that its proponents say prevents any division of the Internet that could convert the information superhighway into a toll road.
REP. EDWARD MARKEY (D), Massachusetts: Right now, we are facing the greatest threat to the Internet in its history. ( http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june06/netneutrality_06-22.html)
Sherose School Psychologist
Developmental Learning Specialist
The Lost Generation: How can leaders Impact these Educators?
Many educators who developed their craft outside of the modern internet seem to be limited in their ability to effectively engage the resource: both the students and the faculty suffer the consequences of faculty who avoid the resource. Bill Moyers of PBS inquires, "Do Americans Suffer From an "Allergy to Thought?' " (http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/2010/03/do_americans_suffer_from_...)
Fear and the lack of automatic computer skills actually continues to plague the residual population of faculty who developed their craft after the "full employment" of the internet. Training of a technology crew is one way that education has worked to develop staff from within to meet the needs of the "Lost Generation". The graduate level students lead by Aries Cobb from Ohio, within our midst, have provided an example of fine future faculty members who can effectively engage technology and content simultaneously. Now, it is up to leaders to make use of these trained staff members who can coach and support the Lost Generation amongst us.
Moreover, the addition of hand held technology equipment should add an ever wider range of tools to the environment of faculty and staff. It is predicted by at least one member of the University of Rotterdam that our grandchildren will look at our physical university sites as a relic of times gone by; he predicts that we will look at the university sites as relics. Full libraries now appear on hand held devices. It seems, therefore, that we will regard our institutions much in the same way as Stonehenge or the relics of Mayan mythology.
However, we should take note that there are current commercial threats to the very organization of the internet and we, therefore, need to remain ever vigilant: there are few neutral parties in the battle over so-called "network neutrality." The central question: whether all content on the Internet is created equal. The issue has led to a raging debate on Capitol Hill over proposed new regulation that would prevent a two-tiered Internet in which companies might pay more for faster delivery of their content. Take note that the proposal has, in fact, created divisions within the two political parties and pit some of the largest global communication giants and Internet companies against one another. Let's sit up and take note, as well as use our magnifying lens to be sure that we, of academia, are not being compromised. On one side are the companies that provide businesses and consumers with Internet access: telecommunications giants such as AT&T, Verizon and Bellsouth, and cable companies like Comcast. This group argues that the costs of an expanding Internet should be borne in part by the Internet companies using ever more of the space, for example, to send video. (http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/media/jan-june06/netneutrality_06-22.html)
Sherose School Psychologist
Developmental Learning Specialist