Chapter 9 Forward Thinking, Composing Cyberspace

Forward Thinking about Chapter 9

    The image of the boy Nicky transfixed by the TV screen, in the Off 101 cartoon by Chris Suddick (Composing Cyberspace, p. 388), captures the seemingly hypnotic hold that this medium has on our society -- a society where half the children have TV sets in their bedrooms, where about 80 percent of households have VCRs, and where daily family TV use averages nearly 8 hours. The announcement in the surrounding cartoon panels of "National TV Turn-Off Week" and the parental admonition to "find something else to do!" also capture our ambivalence and concern about the medium, including the fear that many parents have about the negative effects of TV on learning and growing. The irony of the final panel, of course, is that the "something else" Nicky finds to do, a computer activity, looks very much like his previous activity: once again he's sitting and staring into an electronic appliance. The cartoon implicitly asks us whether there is any substantial difference in benefit for children between these two media, a question at the heart of this chapter.
    As more Americans buy home computers and more schools integrate computer technology, the dilemma illustrated by Nicky is becoming increasingly common. Already some evidence indicates that networked computers are competing with TV for the time of both children and adults. As of mid-1997, surveys found that almost 28 million Americans over the age of 18 were regular Internet users. Sixty-four percent of U.S. public schools had some connection to the Internet by 1997, although only 14 percent of actual classrooms, labs, and school libraries had their own Internet connection.¹ But even in college, where computer and network access is more widespread, the crucial questions for students and educators alike are: What uses should be made of these new media? What are the advantages and disadvantages of computers for teaching and learning? How does technology promise to change our educational system, and to what extent should we embrace those changes?
    Like TV before it, computer technology has been both lauded for its educational potential and criticized for its shortcomings. The Suddick cartoon doesn't indicate what Nicky is using his computer for, although he appears to be as passive as he was when watching TV: his hands are not on the keyboard or mouse, and his eyes are even more mesmerized than before. In sharp contrast, Claudia Wallis describes in this chapter the highly active and interactive uses of computers at a well-equipped New York prep school. She characterizes the ways that students use advanced technology to make discoveries, conduct discussions, and collaborate on projects as a "learning revolution." On the contrary, former computer hacker Clifford Stoll argues, computers are not essential to the most important kinds of learning, and only live teachers can provide the inspiration students need most. Stoll questions the social priority of heavy spending to wire schools, when student-to-teacher ratios remain high and other needs go unmet.
    While Kelly A. Zito acknowledges problems such as uneven access, student resistance, and ideological issues in the delivery of instructional technologies, she describes successful experiments with electronic collaboration and multimedia course materials from Cornell UniversityÕs Engineering School. Monty Neill criticizes the seemingly irreversible trend to computerize education, arguing that these technologies are being used to perpetuate and extend the most egregious aspects of our economic system. Like Stoll, he claims that computers are used less to promote critical thinking than to produce "thinking machines." Finally, the fear that computers may be programming us more than we program them is dramatized in an excerpt from Orson Scott Card's bestselling science fiction novel, Ender's Game. In this selection, the schooling of 6-year-old Ender Wiggin is being conducted by a vivid and violent video game (one perhaps not so different from what Nicky is playing in the Suddick cartoon?).
    Before reading these selections, it might be helpful to consider your own experiences and attitudes about using computers in school. For example,
    1. How much access did you have to computers in primary school, middle school, high school, or college? What activities did you use computers for and for which classes? How were these activities integrated with your other schoolwork? What uses, if any, did you make of a local network, such as a class or school electronic bulletin board or discussion area? What uses, if any, did you make of the Internet or World Wide Web?
    2. Many students report in surveys that technology helps them learn. Think of a few specific classroom uses that you, or someone you know, made of computer technology. In each case, what do you think was the educational purpose of this activity or exercise? What did you learn, and how useful did you find it? How would you compare this activity or exercise with a similar one that doesn't require computer technology?
    3. You likely have heard some of the discussion about efforts to make more computer technology, including Internet connections, available for schools. What plans are you aware of for your school or a local school you're familiar with? What's your impression of the rationale for these efforts -- why do you think many educators and administrators want to equip schools with more technology? What resistance or alternative arguments have you heard that question this rationale?
    4. How do you picture school classrooms 25 years into the future? What uses do you imagine will be made of emerging technologies? Try sketching out two visions of "the classroom of the future" -- one ideal or utopian vision, which represents your best hope, and one dystopian vision, which represents your worst fears about technology and education.
5. If you currently have access to a computer lab, classroom, or networked computers equipped with electronic discussion software, discuss with fellow readers any of the issues raised here.

     ¹Richard J. Coley, John Cradler, and Penelope K. Engel, Computers and Classrooms: The Status of Technology in U.S. Schools (Educational Testing Service, May, 1997). Other statistics cited here are from a special section of the San Jose Mercury News, "Behind the Wave: Consequences of the Digital Age" (Section S, March 2, 1997), compiled by the paper's telecommunications reporting team. Sources cited by the Mercury News include Veronis, Suhler & Associates Inc.; Georgia Institute of Technology; National Telecommunications and Information Administration; and Nielsen Media Research.

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