We believe that technology that does not advance a student's learning has little value in the classroom. Technology used in conjunction with the most recent research and development findings on learning, however, can help all students achieve in school (NCREL. 1995).
Vice President, Al Gore, said "that in a challenge to the nation's communities the use of the new technologies to improve educational opportunities motivates students and help tap into their natural curiosity (WHPR, 1995a)." The new generation of students has grown up in a world of computers. Wherever you look, there are children playing video games in an arcade, or a handheld game between classes. But we do not see kids with books, or asking their friends for tips to do better in school.
This study explores how the global Internet is being used in some elementary schools. Much of my research was done via the World Wide Web: on-line library searches, mining of Internet-accessible resources, and exchanges of electronic mail with teachers and educators across the world.
In my years of teaching I have learned that I need to encourage students to become familiar with the different tools and resources that would enable them to compete in the 21st century. The students of the future need to know how to use the Internet in an efficient manner as a communication, research, and business medium. As the president of the United States, Bill Clinton, mentioned during an Endorsement of Technology, "technology is reshaping our world at an astounding speed (WHPR, 1995c)." We as teachers need to restructure our philosophy of teaching.
Based on my experiences, I was inspired to learn how other faculty use the WWW and its different tools, still a novel and rapidly evolving medium, and to speculate on implications for faculty or students. In summary, I draw the reader's attention to unanswered issues and the implications, for policy, if the Internet is to be as transformational to education as the printing press proved to be.
In this paper the researcher believes that the motivation generated by the use of the Internet resources will appeal to students of all ages and abilities, therefore, motivating them to get involved and increase the time and quality they need to study. Vicki Hanson (1995) in Mindshare during an IBM Corporation interview, states that the Internet has the potential to drastically change the way students learn. They can take control of their own learning.
Some of the obvious limitations of this study is the number of responses to the survey, and the time constraint of a few weeks. Although there are schools that are connected to the WWW, there are few educators that are familiar with engaged learners. The resources provided by the use of the Internet is limited to the ability of the individual schools to access the information. The barriers for education improvement at this point of the century are endless .
This paper provides an overview of the resources available on the Internet that are important to this study.
The Internet has evolved from a computer science research experiment in the early 1970's to a primary means for academic, commercial, and civic discourse. Through a computer with a network connection, one can access thousands of resources around the world -- library catalogs, campus information systems, directories, databases, and archives. Teachers and students can share information with one another electronically via e-mail, list servers, discussion groups, and bulletin boards.
The Internet began in the late 1960's as a network of computers that the United States Department of Defense developed, using communication technology that could continue to function even when it was partially damaged. The Internet started in 1969 with four hosts: the University of California at Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of Utah. In 1972, e-mail was invented to send mail across a distributed network. In 1973 transatlantic connections were established to England and Norway. In the 1980's, the National Science Foundation (NSF) used this same technology to create its own network (NSFNET), which allowed researchers to share data and access resources located on remote computers. Eventually many educational, governmental, commercial, and other organizations connected their own local computer networks to the NSFNET to form what is now known as the Internet.
In 1986 the National Science Foundation founded five super-computing centers: Princeton, Pittsburgh, the University of California in San Diego, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and Cornell University. By 1987 there were 10,000 hosts. By 1989 there were 100,000 hosts. In 1991 the University of Minnesota developed the Gopher. In 1992 CERN released the World Wide Web and the number of hosts reached 1,000,000 (Zakon, 1994). Much of this growth did not come from more technologists and researchers joining the network, but from non-traditional entrants to the network community. A major impact on the Internet was due in 1993. Mosaic was released by the University of Illinois and in late 1994 the creator had moved to create a private business, Netscape, and continued to refine and improve the variations of Mosaic, thus released it as Netscape (Flake, 1995).
There is evidence of the rapid growth in the number of servers in the WWW, since the 1992 release of the WWW and the 1993 release of Mosaic. This chart will undoubtedly change several times before the end of the 20th century, but our challenge for teachers is to use and teach technology literacy.
The World Wide Web is still in its infancy. Yet, it shows much potential forbecoming a major force in all aspects of our society. The growth of the World Wide Web has been very rapid with the appearance of Mosaic, and later Netscape, graphic browsers, which allow for point and click network-accessible information.
This is what makes the web easy for anyone to browse, roam, and make contributions, as well as transferring (placing copies on their computers) of multimedia--including sound and video. Most of the educational institutions, government agencies, commercial companies, and other organizations around the world are moving into the World Wide Web (Flake, 1995). What dynamics will play out is unclear as this system continues to grow. Perhaps the biggest question we need to think about is: How do we want it to grow and help become a major contributor to our educational system?
Technological chances are fundamental for the development of a modern society. As President Bill Clinton stated in the President's Letter Announcing Public Access Email (1993 ), "part of our commitment to change is to keep the White House in step with today's changing technology. As we move ahead into the twenty-first century, we must have a government that can show the way and lead by example. Today, we are pleased to announce that for the first time in history, the White House will be connected to you via electronic mail. Electronic mail will bring the Presidency and its Administration closer and make it more accessible to the people." Electronic mail breaks the barriers of time and space, factors that are important for teachers. Students do not have to wait weeks or even months to receive an answer. Anyone connected to the Internet has a powerful access.
Schools need to do more than provide passive learning. Students need to acquire the ability to communicate complex ideas, solve complex problems, identify order, find direction in an ambiguous and uncertain environment, and to think and reason abstractly (Cohen, 1987). "Small groups and student-selected activities, Cohen suggests, could provide opportunities for all students to become meaningfully engaged in reasonably complex and demanding learning tasks... and gain practice working cooperatively with others."
Teachers using the Internet provide opportunities for frequent success, as well as an environment in which students receive personal attention, enhance students sense of self-esteem, competence, and foster a positive attachment for the school. Teachers using resources from the Internet are better informed, and are more accessible to students and parents.
Electronic mail gives access to rich learning experiences-- such as communicating with a tutor or mentor--- and collaborative work. To some extent, e-mail lets students interact and explore, but some of these interactions and explorations are more powerful than others. While responding to pen pals in another state or country may provide some interesting learning experiences, there are other implications that can be use to explore deeply complex cultural and linguistic issues, or solve problems with distant peers over a period of time. Teachers could communicate with practicing professionals and community members, and both students and teachers could conduct collaborative projects (Jones, Valdez, 1995).
Traditionally, teachers are the "keepers of knowledge" and they transmit this knowledge to students. For teachers, the traditional methods of teaching have meant tedious preparation of lesson plans, copying from manuals in grant magnitude, the pressures from the administrators to increase the level of students achievement, and the pressures associated with needing to teach a roomful of students with varying degrees of knowledge and experience. Creativity gets more and more remote as the access of resources declines.
With the introduction of the Internet to elementary schools, teaching methodology has to change. Having computers in a corner of the room does not guarantee their use, particularly their effective use. A computer laying in a corner of the classroom is not productive for anybody. There are stories about computers sitting unused in school because teachers do not know how to integrate this technology into their classroom. School administrators need to invest not only in hardware, but in adequate professional development plans for teachers.
According to Vice President, Al Gore (WHPR 1995c) by the year 2000, 60% of the new jobs in America will required advanced technological skills. Unfortunately, only 20% of our workforce today possesses the skills that enable them to compete in a technological world. While our work places are moving swiftly into the Information Age, our classrooms are not keeping pace. Today's work place is more demanding than ever before. It requires that workers think critically and strategically to solve problems. The worker must be able to work collaborative and well with his/hers coworkers (Jones, Valdez, 1995). The SCANS report published by the National Committee on Labor gives direction for educational reform by designating the skills which are required in the work place. The necessary skills are;
Tody students must be prepared for that environment, so many teachers are preparing students by having them work cooperatively, through brainstorming, peer critiquing and conferencing (Jay, 1994).
Traditional teachers do not generally allow children to make authentic presentations of their thoughts and opinions to their peers. Evard, M. (1994) mentioned that in a traditional environment students are required to be passive. They are required to hand in their work to be read over, but most of the time, this is done to get it "corrected," not to communicate something the students care about the teachers. Evard believes that students can learn through asking and answering authentic questions, which have meaning and are personally important to them. For this the Internet has part of the solution.
Diane Ravitch, the former U.S. Secretary of Education said, in June 1992, that the quality of American education must improve dramatically in order to improve the dismal dropout rate in our school, and that we know what works, we just don't do it. William Gates, the CEO of Microsoft Corporation, states that teachers know what works, and that is, to present ideas to students in a way to draw them into the excitement of learning, to take advantage of their natural curiosity, allowing them to interact with new information, and offer them relevant information so it has meaning in their lives. Goals 2000, Educate American Act, is the driving force behind the effort to raise standards for students, teachers and parents (Riley, 1995). The vehicle for accomplishing this huge task is believed to rely in the use of technology, especially the Internet resources.
Generally, the adquisition of technology in elementary schools depends on an one time investment. However, schools can not simply invest in technology at one point in time and expect that their computer coverage will be adequate. The researcher wonders if any business corporation will share the same criteria. We all know that technology advances nearly every day. School must budget for continued upgrades in their technology.
Computers in some schools help teachers to keep themselves trained on the latest equipment and software. Teachers must constantly adapt their curriculum to the changing needs of their students that computer technology can bring about (IFT Insight, 1996).With the Internet , teachers are no longer necessarily the center of instruction. With the proper use of the WWW tools, students can take control of their own learning at different levels. Cognitive research has confirmed that students learn best when they are engaged with their studies, and when they are making decisions and thinking critically (Elmore, 1993). The role of the teacher begins to change to that of the person who guides students towards finding and sorting through information. In recent years the amount of information people must deal with is increasing exponentially. It is unrealistic to expect that teachers can teach all the necessary information that students will need to succeed in a community that expects tougher requirements than ever before.
As President Clinton signed the Goals 2000: Educate America Act, "Teacher Education & Professional Development--The goal is to provide teachers with the professional development they need to help prepare students for the next century (WHPR, 1994a)." The basic intent of the Goals 2000: Educate America Act is to improve learning and teaching by creating a national framework for education reform (Apple Inc. 1994). This can be done if teachers get the necessary inservice and work together in order to provide uniform standards.
The Internet can play a major role in education reform. Reform efforts center on authentic tasks, with students taking more responsibility for their own learning. Teachers need to adapt themselves to a changing technological society to prepare productive citizens. Traditional methods of teaching are no longer valid for the next century. New times demand new ways of learning (Jones, Valdez, 1995).
In classrooms where technology is used to engage students in learning, teachers are no longer the informational givers, they are facilitators, guides, and co-learners. As facilitators, teachers provide rich learning environments, experiences, and activities, create opportunities for students to work collaborative, to solve problems, do authentic tasks, and share knowledge and responsibility.
Students switch from passive to active learning. One important student role is that an explorer. Students discover concepts, connections, apply skills by interacting with the physical world, materials, technology, and other people. Such discovery-oriented exploration provides students with opportunities to make decisions while figuring out the components/attributes of events, objects, people, or concepts (ISBE, 1995).
Steve Floyd (1991), author of the IBM Multimedia Handbook, said that multimedia allows students to learn in the way that they learn best, whether that be by reading the material, by visualizing the material, by hearing it, or by being actively engaged. Engaged learners are ones who are responsible for their learning, and because they are responsible they are energized by learning. Teachers responding the survey agreed that there is a strong consensus that the use of technology in the curriculum can promote engaged learning.
William Gates has this to say about the Internet: " Multimedia computing, then, is a powerful tool for educators to use to develop lessons and materials. It is especially useful for the subjects that are hardest to teach and most difficult for students to learn, because it uses the media that teach those concepts most effetively." (p.1705).
Teachers and students are learning to use the Internet in a variety of ways to enhance their teaching and learning experiences. The WWW represents the latest in communication technology, and much like the printing press's beginning days, it can be threatening to both students and teachers in the manner that it makes new demands and changes to expectations associated with traditional models. The Internet provides an immediacy and global awareness that has been unavailable to students. Students and teachers are able to have interactions not only in other parts of the country, but also around the world. From this they can learn about the life and issues that impact on other people. Many teachers can get access to relevant discussions hosted by the Internet. Educators can use these discussions and the ability to share experiences with other educators for professional development and to combat the sense of professional isolation.