Using the
Net to resuscitate education
By Robin Raskin
From: The
FamilyPC Web site
September 21 2000
In 1994 I gave a talk to a bunch of
journalists from magazines like Time, Newsweek,
Parenting, and Child about what the future would hold
for education and technology.
That's not to say that other
educational CD-ROM classics haven't indelibly changed
the landscape of kids' education. But, they address only
a small portion of the problems that beset education.
CD-ROMs have limited potential in the classroom, mainly
because the likelihood that the content on any given
CD-ROM will match a child's educational needs based on
her school curricula is a crapshoot.
The technological sea change that's
about to take place in education won't be in the
development of more exciting computer applications for
students. The focus will be spectacularly less dramatic.
Using the power of the Internet, schools will revitalize
education by doing such mundane things as keeping in
better touch with parents, providing a much finer degree
of individualized diagnostic and assessment testing, and
eliminating nasty headaches about how to staff up for
and support complex computer systems. It's not sexy
stuff. It's just necessary stuff.
Here's a look at some of the ways
you'll see the Internet infuse a breath of fresh air
into our educational system.
How's Johnny doing?
The pressure's on to measure how well
our education system is doing. Increasingly, we're
seeing standardized testing become de rigueur, not only
for measuring how well kids are doing, but also for how
well teachers are doing. Everything from college
acceptance to school funding to teacher bonuses has
begun to depend on the results of standardized testing.
Yet, both educators and parents worry that these tests
are causing students more harm than good by creating a
pressure-cooker situation.
Computers won't resolve that dispute,
but it turns out they are fairly good at providing
students with better test-preparation skills and
measuring test results, making the process more
palatable for everyone. For starters, computers can
stick to the topic at hand, isolate a kid's area of
weakness, and offer remedial instruction. And, computers
don't have to take on the whole class at once, just one
student at a time. Teachers are beginning to use tools
delivered via the Internet to measure student
performance and to offer individual instruction. And
better still, teachers are beginning to work with
parents to identify areas where students need specific
skill building.
How does this work? Let's say Johnny
learned about fractions from his teacher during math
class today. And, let's say his homework, a fraction
review, was generated by the teacher using special
technology tools that created homework sheets based on
the textbook lesson. Tools like these allow the teacher
to create a quick-skills assessment for kids without
doing much more than pressing a few keys. The teacher
then posts Johnny's assignment on the Web for the
students and parents to see.
When he gets home from school, Johnny
logs on to the school Web site, completes his homework
assignment, and turns it in via the Net. The teacher can
score Johnny's work, as well as the rest of the class's,
and quickly determine whether the class "got"
the essence of fractions or needs more help. If Johnny
is the only one who needs extra help, his teacher can
assign more exercises. Parents can see how their
children are doing day-by-day, so there shouldn't be big
surprises during teacher conference meetings.
Web sites like ehomeroom.com,
homeroom.com, and
escore.com are in
the early stages of offering these sorts of diagnostic
and assessment testing. As these systems mature, parents
and teachers will become true partners in children's
education via the Web.
Just-in-time learning
When factories started to decline 30
years ago, managers came up with the notion of
just-in-time manufacturing: Instead of keeping an
inventory of expensive parts lying around in warehouses
waiting for an order to come in, factory managers
assembled parts quickly once an order was placed. This
allowed them to create products more efficiently and
cheaply.
What can parents and educators learn
from that experience? The same principle that kept
factories afloat also applies to schools. Kids often
need just-in-time learning and teachers can't always be
there to provide it. Soon, many teachers and parents
will come to depend on Web sites to parcel out
just-in-time learning to get kids over some education
hurdles.
For example, a teacher might hone in
on the fact that Johnny needs help understanding the
"ch" consonant blend. She can then send an
e-note home to mom or dad, along with a few discrete,
finely tuned exercises to improve Johnny's ch blend
skills, and only his ch blend. The Internet is a good
medium for that level of specificity.
Drudgery killers
How much time does a teacher devote to
such mundane tasks as taking attendance, grading tests,
and keeping records? Far too much, if you ask most
teachers. While it's unlikely that technology will ever
free teachers from paperwork altogether, new Web-based
tools (www.thinkwave.com,
for example) make it possible to enter Johnny's absence
from school on a particular day, e-mail a note with his
homework to his home, and eyeball potential problems.
Plus, using the computer to keep track
of attendance, grades, and other information will enable
teachers to maintain records for a long time. Today,
kids proceed from grade to grade and teacher to teacher,
but little of their history moves along with them.
Johnny's 3rd-grade teacher might learn a lot about how
best to teach him by understanding how his 2nd-grade
teacher fared. Student portfolios (like those available
from LearningPays.com)
housed on the Web and moved through the grades with each
student will become the norm.
Templates and tools
One of the most precious belongings a
teacher has is her lesson plan. As teachers become more
accountable for their teaching ability, they will have
to create lasting objective and goal-oriented lesson
plans. Some Web sites, such as lightspan.com,
are now geared to helping teachers create rock-solid
lesson plans by giving them a set of creation tools.
These include templates to produce, share, and archive
lesson plans, enabling them to develop a repository of
their best ideas.
Ordering made easy
Making school-supply purchases is
often time consuming, labor intensive, and cumbersome.
But it doesn't have to be. Web sites such as simplexis.com
and epylon.com are
automating that process. Now a teacher or administrator
can place a requisition order for anything from pencils
to playground insurance, locate the best price, and keep
track of the dollars spent, all in a matter of minutes.
Automating the purchasing process should mean quicker
delivery and better pricing, and most important, free up
teachers to concentrate on more important tasks.
Let the geeks do the work
One of the toughest problems schools
have had to deal with is managing the information
technology (IT) process. Schools have had to hire
experts and install all sorts of networked computer
systems to make technology work. One of the benefits of
the Internet is there are Web sites that will let
schools store their information on "remotely hosted
locations" — servers that are not physically
located at the school.
What's the benefit to the school?
Because data isn't stored on the school's server, the
cost of maintaining information databases is less. It's
sort of like renting a safe-deposit box at the bank: You
don't have to worry about paying to install an elaborate
burglar-proof safe in your own home. So, the money
schools save on salaries paid to technologists to
maintain elaborate databases can be spent on higher
salaries for teachers.
It may not be as sexy as creating a
curriculum, but this is the year the computer and the
Internet will roll up their proverbial sleeves and start
doing some of the unglamorous work that will resuscitate
their role in education.
An education surfing guide
There are a host of new Web sites that
promise to help parents and teachers put technology's
best foot forward. Here are some of the ones to check
out.
Educational communities for parents
and teachers:
ehomeroom.com
bigchalk.com
lightspan.com
familyeducationnetwork.com
childu.com
Assessment, curriculum, and teaching
tools for parents and
teachers:
homeroom.com
www.riverdeep.net
AOL@school
escore.com
Homework help:
toptutors.com
tutor.com
homeworkhelp.com
Subscription-based communities:
learningpays.com
www.netschools.com
Tools for teachers:
www.thinkwave.com
goosewing.com
Supply procurement:
simplexis.com
epylon.com
gotschool.com
Robin Raskin is editor in chief and
managing director of FamilyPC
Enterprises. Robin is also the author of numerous books
on computers and kids, including Parents, Kids and
Computers and Your Child’s Education. She is also the
series editor for the FamilyPC series of books published
by Hyperion Press.
Copyright © 2000,
FamilyPC. All rights reserved
