TECHNOS

February 9, 2012

TECHNOS QUARTERLY Spring 1996 Vol. 5 No. 1

Achieving School Reform through Technology

By Howard D. Mehlinger

After decades of efforts to reform schools, it has become obvious to many that piecemeal reforms make little impact. The main problem is that our schools, which were once the envy of other nations, no longer serve us as well as in the past. The changes required are deep and fundamental.

Technology can be the catalyst for considering wholesale change in schooling. Nearly everyone understands that to use technology effectively requires planning, teacher training, and technical support. As part of the process of planning for technology implementation, educators can ask each other such questions as: How can we teach more effectively using technology? What changes shall we make in our courses to take advantage of technology? Can we assess student work better if we use technology? Making technology the focus of the dialogue can remove the threat to established interests while providing an occasion to reconsider all of the ways that schools do their work.

Our purpose should not be to see how much technology we can pack into classrooms. Our primary goal should be to help schools become places where students learn more effectively, and our secondary goal—related to and probably necessary for the first—is to make schools more interesting and rewarding places to work so that talented adults will become and remain teachers.

The principal advantage for adopting technology in schools is that it can provide the spark for reenergizing teachers, for prompting educators to envision new ways to teach, and for creating the kinds of schools needed now.

These are the reform ideas that schools should embrace:

A recognition that all children can and do learn; that most children can perform at higher levels of achievement than they do today; that children vary greatly in their readiness to learn, in what they need and want to learn, and in the ways they learn best; and that schools must increasingly customize instruction, thereby enabling each child to learn to the best of his or her ability.
A commitment to make schools more interesting and challenging institutions for learning, where students take greater responsibility for their own education, and where instruction is more interactive, more collaborative, and more closely tied to authentic life experience than is currently the rule.
A belief that schools must become more accountable to the public for their work and that with accountability comes the necessity to allow individual schools and school districts greater flexibility in how instruction will be provided.
Acceptance that student and teacher assessments should become performance based and not rest solely upon degree attainment, experience, or time spent in courses.

While additional ideas could be added, these elements are widely accepted as the core of the current reform movement. Technology can—and already does in some schools—contribute to the success of each of these core elements.

Four Possible Scenarios for the Future of Schools

What is likely to happen with regard to school reform? Will technology actually transform schools? No one knows for certain, but the following four brief scenarios provide credible predictions. Which future we get depends mainly upon us.

Scenario No. 1: School's Out

I have named this scenario after the title of a book written by Lewis Perelman. According to Perelman, “Computer-based instruction produces at least 30 percent more learning in 40 percent less time at 30 percent less cost, compared with traditional classroom teaching.” In his view, schools have been slow to take advantage of technology because they are interested primarily in saving the jobs of educators.

Perelman believes schools are obsolete. While the public has not yet awakened to this fact, he professes, when they do, they will abandon the public schools.

Perelman uses the term hyperlearning to stand for all of the existing technology that enables students to learn on their own. In Perelman's view, such technology will soon prove so attractive to students and parents that they will withdraw students from public schools and allow them to work at home or enroll in alternative institutions.
Scenario No. 2: The Tortoise Wins the Race

We know the fable about the rabbit and the tortoise. The rabbit is faster and looks better running, but is easily distracted. The tortoise stays the course, trudges along, and eventually wins. Reformers are like rabbits: they dazzle us with their ideas, but they are easily bored, and they soon move on to new projects when their ideas are not rapidly adopted. Schools are like tortoises. They may change slowly, but they make progress. Outsiders may criticize them, or even force them to change in a particular direction, but left again on their own, the turtles proceed on their own path at a comfortable pace.

In this scenario, schools will add technology as they can afford it, but the funds provided will be too small to make a major difference in how schools do their work. The technology will be used variously, conforming largely to individual teacher's interests and ability—as is the case today. In short, five to ten years from now, schools will be very similar to the schools we have today, except that there will be a greater use of technology.
Scenario No. 3: The Revolution Has Arrived!

It is possible that the American public will decide that American schools are their most precious public asset and that they have been neglected far too long. By public demand, both state and national legislators will appropriate funds that will modernize school buildings across the nation, equipping nearly all to the level only enjoyed by magnet or model technology schools today. Teachers and staff will be given all of the training required to take advantage of the technology, and the schools will have sufficient funds to employ the technical staff to maintain the technology.

The results will be spectacular. American schools will become the strongest institutions in American society. The brightest college students will become teachers; the schools will become learning centers for each community and be open from early in the morning to late at night, 12 months of the year, serving the learning needs of young and old alike. Students will work hard, enjoy school, and beat all comers in international academic competition. Ninety-eight percent of our youth will graduate from high school; 60 percent will begin and 40 percent will complete four years of college. And those who do not attend college will find high-salaried, high-skill jobs.

Does this sound like a dream? Some parts may seem farfetched, but much of this scenario could be accomplished if there were sufficient will and persistence. For example, technology can make schools more interesting, challenging, and rewarding places for both students and teachers. What is required is a vision of what public schools might become, coupled with a commitment and a plan to make it happen.
Scenario No. 4: The Market Prevails

It is 2005, and a majority of Americans have become so impatient with the tortoise-like pace of change in public schools that they have turned to their state legislatures for relief. The legislatures and courts have agreed that public money can be used for educational vouchers, allowing parents and students to spend public funds on whatever schooling they want; the courts have decided there can no longer be a public monopoly for public education.

Private schools have opened in modern new buildings or fully renovated former public school buildings. They fill their buildings with modern technology, employ some of the best former public school teachers of each city at twice their former salaries, and round out the teaching force with unlicensed college graduates, teachers-in-training, and volunteers. The schools open early and close late to accommodate parents. The state pays three-fourths of the tuition; the parents pay the remaining fourth.

Although some public schools continue to exist, they serve mainly those who remain out of loyalty or because of extracurricular programs not provided in private schools, or because they have no other choice. Most legislators send their children to the new, private academies that have proven profitable. Legislators expect public schools to live within the same allocation of funds provided on a per-student basis to the private schools.

And the Winner Is…

While I think any of the four scenarios is possible—and while I want the revolution to succeed—if forced to bet, I would put my money on Scenario No. 2, the tortoise. It is not that No. 3, the revolution, is beyond reach; I simply do not believe that the public is ready to invest the money required for reform to succeed. We have seen what can be done when schools undertake reform assisted by technology, but nearly all of the successful schools have been awarded special funds to support their unusual activity. There is little likelihood that similar investments will be made in all schools.

Scenario No. 1, School's Out, seems unrealistic to me, not because technology is incapable of satisfying Perelman's vision, but because most students want to go to school (they want to be with other children their age), and most parents do not want their children at home. They want them at school, especially if they believe the schools are safe and are truly interested in their children.

Scenario No. 4, private schools with public funds, is likely if the current school reform proves unsuccessful and if sentiment grows for a radical alternative. Perhaps one-half or more American families could afford a private education for their children, if public funds were used to pay three-fourths of the cost, and most of the students who attended the private schools would likely prefer them to any of the public schools still available. It is difficult to imagine that the public schools could recover from a policy of public support to private education.

Some Advice to Those Who Can Influence School Reform

To those who are able to influence the success of the current school reform movement and who agree with me that strengthening the appropriate use of technology in schools is the key to successful reform, I offer the following few simple words of advice.

To School Boards: Before appropriating any money for technology, the school board should insist that the staff present the board with a strategic plan for how they propose to implement the technology. A plan that merely lists equipment and how it will be used is not adequate. A good plan will begin with a vision about what the schools should become over time; it should set forth the staff's goals for curriculum, instruction, and staffing. The plan should contain implementation procedures with benchmarks for each stage of development. While the board may wish to amend or alter the plan somewhat before it is finally approved, the plan ought to provide evidence that there is sufficient commitment and understanding by the staff to justify the expenditures.

In return for a well-developed plan, the board should be as generous as it can be in allowing time for the changes to occur and in providing funds for staff training, technical support, external consultants, software, and hardware. One rule of thumb is to set aside three percent of the total school budget, or 15 percent of the technology budget, for staff training. If possible, the board should provide enough computers so that each teacher can have one at home as well as at school. Because teachers do much of their work at home outside of school hours, if they are to utilize technology fully, they need the equipment when and where they are going to work.
To School Administrators: Both superintendents and principals need to plan carefully how they will introduce technology into their schools and/or build upon prior acquisitions. The pace of research and development is very rapid, making last year's purchases seem quickly out-of-date. It is therefore sometimes tempting to resist implementing technology until R&D stops or at least slows its pace. Unfortunately, this is not likely to happen in our lifetime; schools must begin to implement technology now, while recognizing that they will have to continue to add to and build upon their choices during the years ahead. Only in the most unusual circumstances is it possible to supply the technology requirements of all schools and all teachers at the same time.

Administrators should move as quickly as possible toward using technology for administrative tasks, such as using e-mail to communicate, televising school board meetings over local access cable channels, connecting the schools to community service agencies electronically, and making certain that libraries are equipped for conducting research and accessing electronic databases.
To Teachers: Teachers must have the primary voice in what technology should be purchased. Teachers must be clear about what they wish to accomplish with their students and not be put off by vendor statements that what they want cannot be done.

The hardware decision is not the most important question confronting teachers. Instructional questions are more important; hardware and software decisions should follow decisions about what to teach and how to teach.
To Federal and State Governments: Both the national and state governments can contribute in important ways—not only by the usual methods of subsidizing school renovations, providing funds for equipment, and supporting professional training for teachers, but also by using regulatory authority to make certain that schools are served well. Many of the telecommunications companies are urging changes in laws and regulations that will enable them to broaden services to customers and enhance their profits. Both federal and state governments must make certain that the rules are written in ways that ensure schools are treated fairly and can obtain services at prices they can afford. Changes in laws concerning copyright protection should also be undertaken with the interests of schools in mind. States can rewrite rules so that capital funds can be used for equipment purchases and textbook funds for computer software.

Governments must also attend to equity issues resulting from technology use in school. While some schools have bought new equipment using special funds targeted to serve poor children, they lack funds to repair that equipment. The equity problem cannot be solved by a single school district; it must be addressed at the level of state and national governments.

The federal government can be a source for research and development support. The states can provide funds that give schools access to the Internet and/or commercial online services. They can also provide incentives for linking the use of technology with school reform measures through subsidizing professional development opportunities for teachers.
To Universities: Universities should attend to their teacher education programs to make certain that they are providing the technology-capable teacher graduates that schools want to hire. Universities can also begin to make available professional development training by means of distance-learning technology.

Universities ought to be sites for research and development relating to the use of technology in school reform. Universities can also form partnerships with schools to study the process of change that takes place with the introduction and use of technology.
To Foundations: While large, private foundations have been very active in school reform efforts generally, they have contributed little to the efforts to employ technology for school reform. While it is understandable why foundations want to avoid being drawn into funding the purchase of equipment, they could support other activities, such as technology planning, professional development, and research on the effects of technology use in schools. Foundations might also sponsor technology fairs, bringing teachers and students together across a state or region to celebrate student accomplishments.

Conclusion

It is difficult to imagine conditions more favorable to school reform than those that exist at the present time. Business and government leaders seem intent on maintaining pressure on schools to reform. Teachers, students, parents, and administrators also want change, although not necessarily the same changes desired by business and government.

Perhaps the most important factor favoring school reform is the impact Information Age technology is having on all aspects of our culture. To use technology to promote school reform is like flying with a tailwind. Technology can ensure success in school reform. We have only to take advantage of it.

Howard Mehlinger is director of the Center for Excellence in Education and a professor of education and history at Indiana University, Bloomington. This article is adapted from his book, School Reform in the Information Age (Center for Excellence in Education, Indiana University, 1995), which can be ordered from Media Management Services, Inc., in Newtown, PA 18940-3425; 800/523-5948.