NOTES FROM A REVOLUTION, in 3 parts
New Media Education v1.0: Is this what the doctor ordered?
Part 1: Problem Statement
OUTLINE: Computers & distance & education PROMISES are well-hyped, thanks to Al Gore. What are the BIG-5 claims in the popular press? Education theory and practice considers most of these bogus. Yet 1 or 2 first-movers will blossom to shape & transform education in 2000-2010 (will we push the envelope just in time for our kids!?). Possible BIG-5 opportunities: -corporate skills (re)training (see success story CBT from Ireland) OR inter-career lifelong-learning/continuing-ed? -strengthening the parent-teacher-child relationship using email now that 1m of 3m Bostonian have email --how simple, how opportune-- but can teachers learn to love their jobs enough to become email-rats? (many have suggested giving free computers to teachers at home-- doable??) -revival of Papert/Resnick (who is giving a talk on Feb 24th right before another talk on vouchers) Resnick tells me: distance-ed is doomed! "exploratory/constructionist learning" dream? compare to home-schooling "PC's offer little in the classroom: they belong in libraries (& at home)" "or perhaps they ARE the library". either way, a powerful proposition (limited supervised/collaborative learning ARE possible at lib & home) but libraries are bleeding clientele fast, and learning*styles*differ [aside: MARCH 11 BIG-TIME TALK "...Learning Technologies R&D" from the director or CILT] -or perhaps there is some "backwards PCs" hope INSIDE the classroom??? is there pedagogic/moral value in the controversial ADUCATION TV-ads-in-schools business model? -could it /really/ just be a matter of waiting for: *hyper-intelligent browser filters ("agents") that guide your surfing like a personal tutor? IE. learning becomes supervised learning, learner-centered software = push/personalization (PICS/XML-based knowledge filters, both blacklists & whitelists for focused concentration, both didactic=centralised & collaborative/group-study/social-information-filtering) *GUIs to become 3D UIs? -UNC (now U Florida, even bigger) one of many now requiring students to buy laptops: are we really just talking about undergrad ed or perhaps even just grad ed revolution? all (my) classes have web pages and mailing-lists-- used infrequently tho? is there hope for TA's doing alternate "office hours" over instant-messaging conference systems? -*possibilities for "forgetful-surf-reading vs no-pain-no-gain repetition"? reign in the wild "o it's a browser/TV, let me check the scores" mentality? -collaborative learning: buddy-lists are about to explode onto the net and begin displacing email with "zephyr/ICQ/chatroom" gabbiness: where does coop learning actually make sense? (also: too slow/asynch) will refined CSCW/groupware finally explode? Gerald/LOTUS?? -explore hybrid models: extending the MIT/Harvard brand to low-budget trade-schools around the world, that can afford once-a-week tutorial/ recitation facetime but the rest is online "correspondance course" EXPLORE: interactive film (like "choose-your-own-adventure" novels) is truly a pipe dream --Hollywood wants nothing of it-- does it follow that interactive education will fail too? how are*they diff? Crass commercial $b www.content-factories have much to offer. Rather than shooting for the moon trying to design the perfect courseware or distance-learning, let's leverage the best of the slow incremental improvements in edutainment. Need to expand thoughts here, for now: -yes, i believe this strongly despite the utter failure of educ-TV! -bonusmail.com advertising creates motivational involvement by asking you to email back a "magic word" to prove you read the ad. so are there hopes for improving "read & regurgitate" software? self-grading hmwk? leverage online gaming?? -claim: you can re-create (or at least tap into) news-addiction self-education revolution that's resulted from the priceware in (free) online news: eg. news.comPart 2: Evidence supports Optimism
$billion proven niche successes expanding every day: see chart in InfoWeek article The Learning Revolution .CBT (computer-based training) and similarly, .EPSS (electronic performance support systems = (context-driven) learning embedded in work processes = electronic apprenticing (US News & World Report glorifies EPSS) new research: 70% of learning needs in corporations is "informal learning" (ctr for workforce development, newton MA) nascent i-net market mkt for (wealthiest) schools emerging: 5-year-old scholasticnetwork.com/scholastic.com serves over 3000 K-8 schools and is already profitable! (though textbook publishers are asleep, with only half-hearted lesson- supplement initiatives: Simon & Schuster [edscape.com] Houghton Mifflin [hmco.com] McMillan McGraw Hill [mmhshool.com]) yet spritely competitors emerge (amazon.com's of math textbook mkt?) to bite the heels of (or be acquired by) the publishing giants: Larson Texts sells a leading-edge Calculus "Textbook" Online Key Curriculum Press designs Interactive Geometry in conjunction with Swarthmore's Math Forum CBT rapidly moving from disk/learning-center/classroom to desktop/WWW hitech companies (broadly defined) spend $911/employee/year on training, more than any other sector [Amer Soc. for Training & Development] they also predict training will change from: 1996 80% instructor-delivered, 10% technology-delivered 2000 55% instructor-delivered, 35% technology-delivered (-)compared with pace of tech change, training is slow today, one in five companies makes training avail. thru computers "expense of travel" & coordination cost officially beyond efficiency: fundamental changes occuring very serious VU's (virtual universities) emerging: (the big 3 are: open.ac.uk, california.edu and westgov.org who asks "If we build it, will they come?") new media/tech creating untraditional, strong alliances: private-public, local/international, formal/informal ventures, NSF KDI/LIS plan massive expansion of school tech funding from 1+% to 5% (of $280b, 4X expansion) school technologies .1% to .5% (of $280b, 5X expansion) LT (learning techs) R&D and eval/assess is the field ready for such an injection? .tech transfers stranded in prototype, .seemingly unbridgeable canyons and chasms between R&D / theory & passive pedagogic assessors & practit/teacher & edutainment .innovators MUST get it together, act concertedly to end this disarray initiative cilt.org @ SRI may drive that effort into an LT knowledge net .$125 billion US secondary school [HS] market is where it will start? .$10b for S&L's (schools&libraries, slcfund.org) "e-rate" from telco act 96 (tied up in courts?): 90% reimbursement for poor schools, 20% for wealthy schools .internet2.edu AND ngi.gov (complementary and interdependent) N * $100m backbones (bandwidth) .DOD "Advanced Distributed Learning" initiative attempts to webify 20,000 courses to 1m employees, with help of Apple, IBM, MS & Sun .PBS seeks DL entree .forthcoming $100m MIT investment in distance education initiative, spearheaded by the Ctr for Educ Comp Initiatives (funding not yet approved by MIT Prez Vest!) .also "Center for Future Children" will be part of new media lab wing soon to be built on Amherst/Ames Streets (contact Mitch Resnick) DE succeeds where it augments/complements -not replaces- available/proven .evolution not revol. (with a loud no to petty incrementalism) -> iterative engineering model eg. CD/internet hybrid packages [more eg.s below] nec. b/c bandwidth & latency will continue to be slow for a decade [decadeS outside US] .distinction between Distance Learning and on-campus students should disappear, recognizing the importance of remote technology for regular courses and the integration of distance students into regular courses. ."three equal semesters a year" environment WORKS for distance learning .we are entering an era of a national and worldwide marketplace in higher education programs and courses. Students will become intelligent consumers and will seek information by which to evaluate their perspective purchases of courses and programs. "open learning", "constructionist/constructivist/project-based learning" (Piaget/Papert educational psychology) has minimal penetration, will begin move beyond "constraints" of "rigid schedule" (time) and "4 walls" (place) energy/hours expended will eventually move from didactic to exploratory (to inventive) 2000 100hrs class : 10hrs book : 1hr library 2025 100hrs class : 100hrs text/libr/net (while the physical library may be endangered [fresh evidence, esp for smaller libraries, now roling in], its reincarnation online is a role growing more important than ever before "lifelong learning" trend misrepresented but real: job insecurity "downsizing" is essentially a myth (according to recent study UK? showing "8yrs/job" is not being reduced to "4yrs/job" despite convent. wisdom) BUT the trend to knowledge/service economy frequent retraining incr'ly real top psychologists assert that "videoconf education" can eventually convey 90% of the emotional cues of face-to-face learning (though achieving this is years away) technologies usage patterns blossom in powerful yet subtle*unintended ways: .professor's (my father's) unconscious but highly supportive email coaching (as primitive as email and mailing-lists are, it can profoundly educate savvy participants with good listening skills) .orgs starting to see new informational infrastructures ("infostructures") emerge (intranet hype) .most exciting innovations will come when software products offer more than virtual metaphors for real-world classroom settings .writing/printing-press proven to have changed humanity's thinking & memory social media spaces likewise, will create distributed intelligence(s) .truly everything changes, drecky controled longitudinal pedagogic studies irrelevant many innovations will come out of non educ webs: (again, often unpredictably) "do things in a diff way" "do new things" intrAnet/entertainment/advertising (eg. bonusmail rewards) references (hyperlinks) change everything "death of distance" univ/corp -> HS -> middle school (innovations in DE will spread in ~5-year intervals after the other) teacher-prep-timesink will eventually be "solved" when textbook biz wakes up (like newspaper biz, realizing it has to cannibalize its product or else., evil empire textbook industry M&A now suddenly has capital to assault schools with its own electronic-instruction framework, when it stops sleeping, probably in ~5 years) (-)textbook industry thwarts innovation, protecting its dead-tree revenues, fearing massive R&D costs and IP (intellectual property) theft (much like the newspaper industry, but worse) .one of the three acad trinity of schools/libraries/publishers crack in the next 10 yrs, and invest billions online (guess who!) .textbook industry already provides MEGABOOKS that often drive curriculum with accompanying overheads and rich support services, for (lazier) professors of large intro classes (-)lucky to get students to read 100 of 800pp, what reason to believe more will be "read" online? .internationlly-branded innovative hmwks & tests, delivered simultaneously worldwide to reduce cheating (economies of scale, SAT-style) .best of all, re-useable componentized authorware/courseware (eventually!) will provide crucial for support district or teacher's own modules & structs .eventual >marketplace< for interoperable such lessons/mini-courses .teacher becomes facilitator/library-scientist rather than lecturer teachers must embrace new models: professional-development/accreditation?! .management/unions must forge new compensation structures: reward overworked teachers who need incentives to do more than daycare .gore (now clinton) finally realize that dumping "internet in every classroom by 2001" is not enough: influential '96 WH speech admits obvious: massive need for 4 missing pillars 1) computers 2) connectivity 3) teacher-prep 4) educ software/structures more immediately, can we overcome (esp public school) teachers' hostility to computers by offering them free home computers? (UK) 60% college students own PC, 2% of colleges/univs require PC purchase yr "schools /w comput" "classrooms /w comput" "HHs /w comput" "HHs /w internet" 94 35% 5% 36% 5% 95 50% 10% 38% 10% 96 65% 15% 40% 15% 97 80% 20% 42% 20% unfortunately i don't have columns "schools /w internet" and "classrooms /w internet" but i do have these very recent stats: -78% of US schools now have at least some minimal internet access -50-60% of US households with children now have computers yr "US schools with 5 or more rooms/libraries/labs connected to the internet" 96 25% 97 43% Natl Ctr for Educ Stats' Feb 98 Study received much news coverage 1m of 3m Bostonian use email (accord to Globe this month), this represents a tremendous*opportunity to bring parent and teachers much closer together (than they've ever been at PTA meetings) "Tell them their jobs will likely depend on it soon". In the integrated Australian university system, this is fast becoming the case. In the Australian economy, the fifth largest export product is education. 14 ways tech transforms the workplace: [from Marquardt & Kearsley's "Tech & Learning in the Workplace"] 1) Technology changes the way work is done, whether it be production, coordination, or management work. 2) Technology enables a fuller integration of business functions 3) Technology creates the possibility of truly global companies 4) Technology forces basic changes in organizational structure 5) Technology enables organizations to transform from bureaucratic to network ways of operating and thinking 6) Technology requires new skills and competencies on the part of all workers 7) Technology impacts where workers work 8) Technology provides more opportunities and power to customers 9) Technology allows for the emergence of virtual organizations 10) Technology affects reward systems of workers 11) Technology transfers knowledge faster and better between workers and throughout the organization 12) Technology affects how training is designed and delivered 13) Technology affects how knowledge is managed 14) Technology affects how organizations learn The New Workplace
Part 3: Failures of Distance Education
cannot deny DE's tortuous history: .even the promoters admit that ONE THIRD OF TRADIT. DISTANCE LEARNERS (correspondence course) DROP OUT even with addition of videotapes and other multimedia in 80's, usually lacking motivation (but i-net /may/ help) .90's edutainment software "offers neither entertainment nor education" .educational promise of computers in 80's "CAI" (computer-aided instruct.) undelivered/tarnished (assess why next ten years may be different?) (or will networked education also need 10+year gestation?) .language lab promise of 70's largely undelivered .TV education promise of 60's STILL undelivered .videoconferencing mkt flops time and again .scandalous mismanagement of PC budgets in schools .active opposition to technopolization of schools by Stephen Talbott, Clifford Stoll getting more organized: ????.org CA protest site .many innovative techniques are "one-trick-toys" --fail when you hand them off in large-scale rollout: "epistemological dilution" .contradictory "empirical evidence" studies prove little about pedagogic contribution one way or another (much as business contribution metrics of PC's are near-impossible to interpret) .eg. much-flaunted study by the Center for Applied Special Technology found that 500 fourth- and sixth-grade students who used the Internet for class projects had (marginally) improved performance, comprehension, and scores. "downside is that many teachers are as unfamiliar with the Internet as the children they are supposed to teach" .parents demand perceived "tech literacy"! .in any case, web distractions and UI futzing clearly continue to detract from any net productivity/learning gains: IE. no evidence kids learn history/science better at this point (+) i-net clearly brings excitement and menial computer literacy .open question: how to set limits while fostering exploration (see reading vs repetition below) quality of DE as a systems issue: how to get all various components (design, delivery, support, curriculum devlpt, QC etc) working together. ."knowledge management" "knowledge dissemination" .finding useful ontologies: (diff learning styles for diff fields) eg. the ideal three flavors of interaction (interaction between the student and the teacher, the student and other students, and the student and the material) .everyone admits theory and practise are miles apart and don't talk to each other (Issues, again: I. Learner Readiness/Competence II. System Readiness III. Institutional Support/Readiness IV. Faculty Support/Readiness) or NY Times February 27, 1998 "If educators who favor the use of technology in the classroom could draw up a collective wish list, it's likely that three items would appear at the top: buildings that can support computers and cabling; better educational software, and research proving that the gadgetry really helps students learn." TechnoRealism.org says: "Wiring the schools will not save them. The problems with America's public schools -- disparate funding, social promotion, bloated class size, crumbling infrastructure, lack of standards -- have almost nothing to do with technology." Consequently, no amount of technology will lead to the educational revolution prophesied by President Clinton and others. The art of teaching cannot be replicated by computers, the Net, or by "distance learning." These tools can, of course, augment an already high-quality educational experience. But to rely on them as any sort of panacea would be a costly mistake." teacher-prep-time overwhelming: 300+ hrs to "port" existing .highly-functional legacy coursenotes to WWW, etc .weaker teachers need facilities to get up and running more quickly .faculty not compensated or even rewarded fostering of community exceedingly hard (often true with tradit educ too!) chatrooms/mailing-lists/virtualcampus threaded "newsgroups" fail due to unflagging commitment etc email onslaught: not efficient for social/remedial tutoring, scheduling etc, sometimes synchronous communic vital (and besides, cogent email skills themselves take years of learning --for all parties) TECH OBSTACLES: raw technology support costs massive/overwhelming (companies have enuf trouble with TCO [total cost of PC ownership], schools=low budgets have it FAR worse) 2-second page turning (consistent immediacy) not yet possible on WWW security (authentication & encryption) debacle .same as with most e-commerce but worse: complex/dynamic sharing protocols must evolve (access-control limited to parents reading assignments from home etc) .cheater.com "research" papers --too much collaboration ;0 so successful they are outlawed in liberty-loving Texas! bandwidth & latency will continue to be slow for a decade: .last-mile especially expensive .large-scale internet infrastructure investment in USA only for years to come-- (the american myth that it is a WORLD-wide-web) .can't fool physics: evol not revol .use inexpensive workarounds, internet is great, not panacea primary/secondary school teachers' hostility to computers "half" of learning will always be about push/streaming, not interactivity 80/20 model says you need a live, currently F2F person 20% of the time finding the right balance (pedagogical innovation needed more than tech, or even UI) textbook industry thwarts innovation, protecting its dead-tree revenues, fearing massive R&D costs and IP (intellectual property) theft (much like the newspaper industry, but worse) collaborative/social learning over-hyped (-)net hype has leads many to believe that networked/social apps always produce more effective learning than learner-centered personalized app .has its role (esp. critical motivation) but should not be confused with socialization for socializ. sake (ie. democratic not pedagogic purpose) .employee (like children) must learn to share (it's hard) employees selfishly guard their own knowledge-base competencies refuse to mentor/share over groupware/intranet unless concrete return/brownie points different people have private vs public personalities, need for fragile team cultures (-)best students often thrive w/o collaborative (web/apps) (+)innovative discussion/groupware (both realtime and asynchronous, eg PlaceWare.com) are emerging, slowly, beyond whiteboarding, collab-browsing, app-sharing, corp use of thepalace.com etc but turn-taking/back-channels/audience-identity-awareness cultural expectations etc unresolved (-)cheater.com etc "research" papers --too much collaboration ;0 so successful they are outlawed in liberty-loving Texas! (+)CSCW may present opportunity to generate and caputre new knowledge, rather than simply disseminate the high priests' wisdom/gospel "every augmentation is an amputation" (Marshall McLuhan) IE. certain historically valuable educ techniques will of course be lost even if if the general promise of DE delivers