Next month’s TES Online will review a book by US educationist Larry Cuban. He asks some tough questions of those advocating wholesale adoption information and communications technology (ICT) in schools. His conclusions are as challenging as the book’s title, Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom.
Cuban’s study of computer use in schools and colleges in Silicon Valley, California, found that students and teachers use computers less in the classroom than at home. He feels that one of the reasons for unimaginative use of computers and the failure of technology to effect much change on classroom practice, is because teachers have not had enough say in how technology is used.
He might be reassured by some of the UK software emerging from current attempts by the Government to stimulate a new generation of classroom materials (pp 10-15). Initial responses to these have been very positive, and the main factor in this appears to be the involvement of teachers and schools in the development work.
Much excitement surrounds RM’s MathsAlive! where students are said to be “gobsmacked”. Us journalists with little classroom experience (other than being at what felt like the receiving end) have to be careful expressing views about learning materials. Yet initial experiences with MathsAlive!, working with a teacher at an interactive whiteboard elicited an immediate, “I wish we’d had tools like that when I was doing maths.” And the teachers involved in the pilot feel the software represents a sea change in maths teaching.
RM’s good fortune is that it was involved in maths materials. There is a big market here so this pilot has created a product that can go to market. The schools have continued with the work even though the pilot has officially ended and they are now the first customers. RM will show MathsAlive! for Year 7 at the BETT educational technology show in January and will then extend the product to Years 7-9 by September 2002.
It’s a pity that this sort of market and need isn’t there for the Latin and Japanese materials as these software developments require substantial investment. This is just one of the difficulties faced by the Government in its attempts to generate first-class materials for teachers and students. However, the first materials show enormous promise.
The attack on the World Trade Centre brings home the importance of the Internet, whether for the anxious relatives and friends of those feared missing and dead, or those of us looking for meaning and understanding after witnessing such events.
The US has made a huge contribution of innovation, investment and intellectual rigour to the world of educational ICT, and TES Online would have been much the poorer without the support and hospitality of our friends and collaborators in the US. Our thoughts are with them.
Merlin John, TES Online editor
