The imperatives of technology
and organization, not the images
of ideology, are what determine
the shape of economic society.
John Kenneth Galbraith (1967)
While the objectives and strategies of 4. School Technology Plans are driven by the requirements of the statute, key points correlate closely with the mission, objectives and strategies recommended for establishing the Bloomington-Monroe County Telecommunity.
The Monroe County Community School Corporation is a sophisticated and diverse educational system with a longstanding involvement in the use of technology in the daily operations of the schools. The PIE Strategic Planning process identified the development of a community-wide information infrastructure and the supported and sustained integration of technology into the teaching and learning process as key objectives in the overall vision of lifelong learning.
A CALL-driven collaborative effort to create the Bloomington-Monroe County Telecommunity could deliver a multimedia-capable infrastructure to the door of every school building. The MCCSC must examine the implications of the policy statements and meet or continue to meet with interested and knowledgeable community representatives to assure a wide range of involvement in and support for teaching and learning.
Integrating technology into the curriculum and establishing an operational interface with the community at-large have these resource and functionality attributes: fully networked schools with connections to resources beyond the schools, the characteristics of the learning environment, and supporting productivity.
The following are possibilities and probabilities from a variety of sources which still need to be explored by create the Bloomington-Monroe County MCCSC committees.
The MCCSC should use all of the technologies at its disposal to reach out, bring in more information and knowledge, and communicate with other people for their expertise and collaboration.
Electronic networks allow for information exchange and shared resources through communication between and among classrooms, library and media centers, and counseling and administrative offices.
Local area networks linking these locations should be established within each building. Particular curriculum areas may have multiple computer and video work stations networked to each other for specific group applications and to the building's central server. Within each building, an appropriate functional mix of conventional twisted pair wiring, copper coaxial cable and fiber optics would allow access to a variety of activities and opportunities.
Broadband fiber-optic connections to each building provides the greatest potential for the widest variety of voice, video and data reception and transmission.
Each school should be connected to a multimedia WAN to provide access to resources such as Bloomington-Monroe County Telecommunity's HoosierNet, Internet, BITNET and IDEAnet through World Wide Web software. A WAN server and modems need to be located at the administration center to create a network which allows activities and opportunities (linkages, communication, collaboration, and hardware and software efficiency) between and among learning sites, providing the same instructional and communications activities that are possible on the LANs in each of the separate buildings.
The wrinkles progress among
themselves in a phalanx --
beautiful under networks of foam,
and fade breathlessly while the sea
nestles in and out of the seaweed.
Marianne Moore (1935)
Linkages between the school's information resources and teachers and learners in individual classrooms would allow communication and access to a broader, wider range of knowledge and information.
All library card catalogs and resource listings should be converted to seNerbased data bases in order to promote more frequent use and access to a broader range of users. A central multimedia file server would offer access to in-house CD-ROM data bases as well as on-line resources beyond the schools. Audio and full-motion video could be compressed and stored as digital files and decompressed when opened or used.
Computer data jacks would give access to the file servers, allowing learners to work at individual stations with applications that decompress and download the files they need, manipulate the information according to their needs, and store information on personal computers or disks.
Collaborative teaching and learning could be facilitated by storing lesson plans and teaching strategies on the file server where they can be shared and continually developed. Students in different locations could have access to collaborative project materials and to teacher assignments stored on the server.
Dynamic, interactive textbooks -- transferable to personal disks and accessible to laptop/notebook computers -- could allow learners to carry around autonomous activities based upon feedback suggested by those and other individual assessment and performance demonstrations.
Courseware authoring systems could allow instructional designers, subject-area experts, facilitators and teachers to develop sophisticated, comprehensive learning opportunities -using formats that are appropriate and most likely to engage and motivate learners. Portable personal and professional video equipment would allow the production of video and multimedia instructional presentations and of student demonstrations of individual and group knowledge and learning.
All buildings should have satellite dishes for distance learning and electronic field trips. Cable and broadcast television need to be available through central switching, providing for internal broadcast or VCR tape replay to multiple locations.
Television sets in each room would allow teachers to call up videotapes, laser discs, CD-ROM and CD-lnteractive disks, motion pictures, computer or satellite programming on the video monitor. Large screen video projectors in common areas would provide video to large groups.
Networked printers, modems, and CD-ROM drives could be easily accessible from all stations. Multimedia access and the creation and replay of audio and video could be distributed throughout the building to individual or multiple locations. This would provide more efficient utilization of that equipment and hardware which would not ordinarily be in demand as often as most of the classroom computer work stations.
In a fully networked school, technology equipment (hardware and software resources) would be available to a broader user group and used more frequently. This would be true not only of all information and resources in the library-media center, application software (such as word processing, spreadsheets, data bases, graphics utilities, and textbook-related activities) in classrooms, but also of administrative applications.
Daily attendance records, assignment exceptions, individualized schedules or programs, immediate contact with teachers, students and classrooms would be facilitated in a fully networked school. Real-time communication between home and school, between offices, classrooms and work stations would be facilitated and expedited with digital telephones for direct and voice mail and with computers for electronic mail.
When opportunities arise, community leaders, MCCSC teachers, administrators, students and parents must be together and in place to make appropriate advances and to develop authentic assessments of the educational value of any Telecommunity and technology investment. These collaborative efforts must be at both the building and corporate levels, and need to address the specifics of reconceptualizing curriculum and instruction and restructuring the organization and management of schooling -- simultaneously with the design and implementation of internal infrastructure.
The MCCSC has been working closely with business and industry in the area to define the skills and abilities potentially needed by the workforce of which current and future students will be members. At the same time, extensive study and investigation is being conducted in the more global arena of the role of lifelong learning in the quality of life. Not surprisingly, critical-thinking, problem-solving and collaborative attributes appear to be foremost in both studies.
The MCCSC Curriculum Committee is examining the implications of these factors and reviewing the process of curriculum-building at all levels. The administrators, teachers and students know that they must adjust their thinking and practices to recognize, adapt to and meet changing needs of lifelong learning.
A Technology Vision for Lifelong Learning in Bloomington-Monroe County makes assumptions about education, learning and schools. Some of these represent extensions or expansions of educational or technology trends that are already well underway. Others represent reasoned opinions about changes that probably need to occur if and a s relaxes the need to prescribe the processes.
The new learning and information technologies can change teaching and learning processes and improve the organization and management of schools. However, change will not occur by simply bringing new technologies into existing administrative, curriculum and instructional processes. Reconceptualizing curriculum and instruction and restructuring the organization and management of schooling need to be accomplished first -- or at least simultaneously -- with the design and implementation of the Bloomington - Monroe County Telecommunity.
Change can come only when people see a vision transformed into reality and when they can begin to imagine how it will work for them.
Staff development and inservice activities must continue to focus on assisting schools and teachers to discover the fundamental differences between "industrial age" institutions and schools intentionally designed to meet the needs of learners struggling with the accelerated wave of digital information. The traditional boxes that crisply separate business and school systems, school boards and parents, superintendents and principals, teachers and learners are fast becoming transparent and fury.
The key to technology integration is empowering those charged with hands-on activity to act instantaneously. The sheer speed and power of available data, information and knowledge force an increasing reliance on judgment, initiative and teamwork, supported by leadership from teachers and administrators, which demonstrates and facilitates integrating technology into the curriculum.
The concept of computer and technology literacy is changing rapidly. Once-clear lines between computers and other forms of consumer electronics have blurred in homes, offices and the marketplace. The hand-held video camera has replaced movie and still cameras in many households. The desktop computer has taken the place of the typewriter in homes as well as offices. Students are learning to operate computers at earlier and earlier ages. Homemade video has even provided programming for primetime television. Most people who operate these computers and cameras have and need only a passing acquaintance with the underlying programming and electronics that make the machines operate. While these technologies have become somewhat common, users have found that they must develop new skills in order to extend their productivity.
The fundamental definition of literacy is changing. While it has been sufficient in the adult world for writers to turn their work over to editors, graphic artists and typesetters who would take charge of getting it printed, it is now common for them to use technology systems to produce a finished product, complete with charts and graphics, laid out and ready for duplication.
Technology introduces problems -- such as enormous amounts of data -- but also provides the resources to untangle the information and allow real communication. Staff development in computer and technology literacy should focus on critical-thinking, problem-solving and collaborative activities and could acquaint teams of subject area teachers with strategies for thematic integration which relate to real activities in the real world.
Academic instruction in technology -- once sharply divided between programming and maintenance, between classes in mathematics, science and business and classes in vocational education -- could now attract to the same courses both the college-bound and the technician. Collaborative teams of students, community experts and retirees could play a major role in supporting the infrastructure needs of the community.
Schools are one of the important centers of information technology and must along with the community -- learn how to use this valuable resource to personalize education.
Students using technology demonstrated less anxiety toward academics. Technology stimulates student-centered classrooms, encourages cooperative learning, and stimulates increased teacher-student interaction. The caveat in most of this research predicts positive effects if technology is seen as something to integrate with curriculum and something to be used daily rather than as something extra to be used after the "real" curriculum is covered.
Without regular and systematic technical and maintenance assistance, service disruptions force users to abandon the technology for more traditional and less productive learning systems. Administrative and organizational restructuring and the pace and complexity of curriculum and instructional change are dependent upon the ability to interpret and communicate information effectively.
While schools cannot afford to absorb the cost of technology obsolescence -- continually upgrading and acquiring new technologies as is the practice in the private sector -- educational technology can be designed and purchased to be flexible and open-ended.
Hardware and software evolution stretches the definitions of flexibility -- in less than five years, from units and applications featuring or needing small amounts of work and storage space and slow computing speed to systems and requirements sixteen to twenty times faster, needing ten times the work space and fifty times the storage space. Equipment that was state-of-the-art ten years ago may still be usable in text-only environments if economically sound interfaces are available. Hardware can be creatively reassigned to match the needed resources and functionality. However, despite the best plans and the most creative assignments, emerging technologies such as multimedia using voice, video and data require regular and systematic upgrades and purchases of compatible hardware and software.
It is important that learners perceive the value of the tools provided in the educational environment and experience a real connection to the world outside schools.