As the number of schools on-line increases it is likely that for most the introduction to Internet will be via the World Wide Web especially since it provides the most user-friendly access to the Internet. Thus, while this paper may have a broader context, the issues raised are critical ones facing school administrators and teachers. These can be summarised under the headings of changing roles in the classroom, equity, censorship, training and support, and curriculum integration.
While the various ways in which the WWW can be used for education is important to this paper it is not the primary focus. It is assumed that for many of the attendees of this conference that this angle would be just beating a drum they've already heard numerous times. For a lucid account of both its history and potential please see Andy Carvin The World Wide Web and Education in which he summarises this potential under the four main headings of The Web:
Importantly, where students and teachers use the Web for publishing then there is an immediate stimulus to produce better work because of the potential scrutiny of a wider audience. Sometimes this may also result in an initial low signal-to-noise ratio but if this is so then there is every likelihood that the easy and appropriate editing would soon follow on.
While some Victorian schools have had the resources (both human and financial) and the vision to embrace current information and communications technologies into their programmes (Methodist Ladies College and Kilvington Baptist Girls' Grammar in Victoria, notable examples) the majority of schools have not. Even in the USA, while there are some stunning examples of effective use of the WWW in some schools the current statistics are that only 1 in 15 school children have access to the Internet. Educationists such as Seymour Papert have for a long time been pointing out that in comparison to other important institutions, schools have been very slow to adopt technologies of the day.
This issue is actually beginning to take on the status of a political football with political parties nationwide seeing it as wholly consistent with the current posture adopted by the Federal Government as outlined in a recent report by the Broadband Services Expert Group--eg, it was one of the NSW ALP's election promises in March this year to fund Internet access to all the state's schools. The Directorate of School Education in Victoria is also currently working on a policy which aims at addressing this problem and has signalled the likelihood of directing funds toward the professional development of teachers with regard to IT training. Recently (March 15th), the DSE has also made funds available to the Global Classroom Project, which is co-ordinated by I*EARN (Aust) and administered from Broadford Secondary College, a country school. If actions proceed in the slipstream of all the rhetoric then perhaps some real progress will be made toward the reform of school education in this country--perhaps we might even see the day where a national set of curriculum standards and frameworks is implemented!
The issue of equity, of course, goes deeper than just access to the latest
information technologies. It also exists within schools and might relate to
gender (eg, boys traditionally hogging time with IT equipment) or it may relate
to subject areas (where computer science may have once had the monopoly). There
will also be those generally disadvantaged students with special needs and
conversely those with high intellectual potential. If the Internet, and hence
the Web, really does provide the ultimate in democratic representation as is
often the claim, then teachers will have to monitor activity in order to guide
students into using it as an enabling tool and not just as some kind of
"infotainment".
But there is an inherent problem with policing the distribution of information on the Internet, in whatever form--as well as the content of interaction--because the Internet is by its very nature a decentralised communications system. In fact, as one of the spinoffs of the Cold War it was originally designed in this way so that it could withstand nuclear attack! The only way that full restrictions could be implemented is if the basic efficient and co-operative functionality of the Net were restricted thereby defeating the positive attributes at the same time. The only way to effectively do it is to opt for a total shutdown! A very unlikely scenario.
The danger that our children's morals will get corrupted is very real but perhaps the danger is best viewed from an educational perspective as a new challenge. Restrictive moral codes may have proved adequate in different eras but seem to be hopelessly out-of-step with contemporary realities. The challenge, as I see it, is to provide our children with appropriate guidelines and to equip them with the right tools of discrimination. Performing this function will be an important role for both schools and parents. All the recent hype in the media about pornography on the Internet really only emphasises the children already have access to much of this kind of information from mates in the schoolyard, the telephone, the local video store (and let's not forget the violence that's out there), and television.
There is much useful discussion on this issue to be found on the Net. For example, in a recent article titled Why Censoring Cyberspace is Dangerous and Futile Howard Rheingold, one of the foremost commentators on Virtual Reality, says:
"Teach your children to have no fear of rejecting images or communications that repel or frighten them. Teach them to have a strong sense of their own personal boundaries, and of their right to defend those boundaries. Teach them that people aren't always who they present themselves to be and that predators exist. Teach them to keep personal information private. Teach them to trust you enough to confide in you if something doesn't seem right." (the full text of this article can be found at: www.well.com)
Of course some kind of routine surveillance should occur if not by the teachers then certainly by the systems administrator. Monitoring activity for general security, virus attack or infringement of copyright are just as important as limited filtering to prevent undesirable browsing.
One of the ongoing difficulties in providing professional development for teachers is fitting it into the school timetable. Replacement teachers have to be found and this often has a disruptive effect on an existing teaching program leaving the option of out-of-hours training which also has the downside (that class preparation and assignment marking often have) of eating into a teacher's personal time. Given this situation it seems only reasonable that the question of training not be left up to individual teachers to weigh up the pros and cons of fitting in professional development out-of-hours but ought to be provided as an in-house program wherever possible. Latest developments in IT are, after all, enabling technologies and as such should not be yet another burden to teachers. There is no shortage of professional trainers and some institutions such as the Faculty of Education actually provide training courses which go beyond the usual focused skills-based courses. The Computer Literacy for the 90s program is designed specifically for the needs of teachers. Developed initially for the University of Melbourne's Summer Program this course was designed (and continues to be developed) to provide participants with an overview of current computer technologies and combines some hands-on experience of a broad range of software applications including Web browsers such as Netscape. It addresses an important problem for both the newcomer to computers and the "average" user who may find the rate of change, although often exciting, somewhat overwhelming. By placing this current rapid rate of change into a broader context than the specialised focus of skills-based training (eg, Word for Windows, Excel Spreadsheeting, Desktop Publishing using Pagemaker, Connecting to the Internet, etc) the course aims to equip participants with both an understanding and a set of strategies for how to develop better computer literacy.
While there may be a legitimate academic debate about whether "computer literacy" accurately describes this fundamental understanding, or facility, it is clear that today this description implies much more than the ability to handle a wordprocessor. Not so long ago this term implied the ability to write a computer program. Today it tends to imply generic or transferrable skills. For many people, the desire to become "computer literate" now has much more to do with getting connected to the Internet or the "Information Superhighway". And of course, what makes this all the more appealing and accessible is the arrival of the Web.
Our lives are increasingly saturated with both information and technology. This impacts on education in three significant ways: the increase in availability of information requires new searching strategies, learning about the technology must be integrated into the curriculum, and importantly, learning to use the technology to learn engages new metacognitive skills. Developing successful strategies for navigating this revolution will be important at all levels of society.
A novel approach taken to this latest revolutionary wave in IT is the proposal
that at school we should put the kids in charge of the networks. At a recent
seminar series (21-23 February 1995) held at Methodist Ladies' College in Kew, Melbourne,
Dennis Harper provided some valuable perspective when outlining the success of a
network in Washington State called Wednet. Wednet connects over 1.5 million
school children and is totally managed by them. Moreover, in the 18 months of
service it has had a total of half an hour's downtime! In terms of training,
Dennis says the most effective way he knows is to train a few kids first, train
them how to train, and then let them loose with the other kids. He adds that
training costs are considerably lower with less need for expensive hotels and
overpriced conferences. According to Dennis, the search engine commonly found on
the Web, called WebCrawler, was in fact written by a ten-year girl from
Washington State! But we don't have to look just to the USA for a lead here--at
Broadford Secondary College, a country school in Victoria and the Australian
headquarters of I*EARN (International Education and Resource Network),
collaborative international classroom projects have also been happening for some
time. I*EARN
The International Education and Resource Network
AusWeb95 The First Australian WorldWideWeb Conference