Learning Magazine

Volume 1.1 Spring 1997

School as We Know It Could Be Out Forever

by Marvin Gottlieb, PhD

[Current Issue of Learning Magazine] [Back to Archive] [The Learning Room]

This article was originally for a wider audience coping with the limitations of traditional educational models. As such, it uses the school as a means of illustrating the potential for technological innovations. As the article points out, teachers and trainers share many of the same problems, limitations, and general concerns, and at least one successful innovation coming from training can be applied to education in all its forms.

[1] "But Miss Jones, I do understand it right now. But when I get home and try to do the homework, I can't remember what you said. Why can't you just come home with me and be there when I need you?" I looked at the frustrated sixth grader in front of me and then to the four others nodding affirmatively behind him. "Tough question," I thought. My name is Corrie Jones. I am a teacher. I teach in what most would call a pretty good school in a pretty good place. But this is the end of a longer story. I say "story" because I am a fiction. Although I don't really exist I was inspired by a real twelve year old who was profiled in a special article on education some time ago in a major newspaper. I say I don't exist because I am a creation, a vehicle for examining and evaluating some of the current problems and practices in education, and suggesting -- through the eyes of someone who might be subjectively involved in the issue -- solutions to these serious problems. I am fictional and yet I can't help believing that in so many places in the real world, in the inner city as well as elsewhere, there are many who experience on a daily basis what I am going to describe, live what I lived, and share my concerns and hopes for the future.

[2] I am one of the lucky ones. I have grown, succeeded in some sense of the word, and have the interest and intellectual capacity to reflect upon an experience that still exists, and impacts so many others not as fortunate as I. When I think of school, images float by -- sometimes sharp, sometimes disparate. I see myself as a seventh grader, and marvel in retrospect at those long strands of purple hair hanging down either side of my face. Add to that my seventh grader's "cool don't mess with me" look. My teachers look at me and see a teenager with a bad attitude.

[3] I see a twelve-year-old entering into the long slow fall away from school. There are lots of reasons, as we all know, that kids don't do well in school. There are psychological issues, social issues, even political issues, and they all take their toll. However, that wasn't my problem and it isn't the subject of my story. My family was stable. My mother took care of the home. My father worked and was still in the house.

[4] Looking back, my school was probably no worse and certainly no better than many others. It was underfinanced, overcrowded, always clouded with the specter of violence, but it was basically clean and, for the most part, relatively safe. I hear myself yelling in response to a question about why I was having problems in school: "The classes are boring. The teachers are mean. I wish they would all just shut up and leave me alone." Sure, I was tough, but I was a child, and I was trying to navigate the difficult and often lonely road. I was real good at hiding my fear from others. Sometimes I couldn't sleep. I'd stay up all night and I'd be too tired to get up in the morning.

[5] In one of the more frequent arguments with my mother, I told her that I was a leader, that I set the pattern of how things went with my friends in school. No, she said to me. You are a follower. I know she meant well, but what I needed more than anything else was a steady voice of encouragement, someone or something to tell me, "you're doing well," or "you're not doing well here or there, but here are things you can do to make it better."

[6] It wasn't easy to get the attention I needed. There were three other girls in the house. My older sister was already failing the ninth grade and my younger sisters, the youngest of whom was only two at the time, demanded so much attention that, although they tried, the family didn't have enough time for me. I remember thinking how I wanted to be a lawyer, but in truth I had never actually met a lawyer, and since I was flunking most of my classes at the time it seemed a pretty remote possibility.

[7] Of course the pattern of not doing well was followed by a fear of competition, a loss of focus, and although I said earlier I was one of the lucky ones, out on the street the temptations of drugs, alcohol, gangs, and sex -- not to mention disease and other problems -- were all around. The thing is, deep down inside even then, I knew I wasn't stupid. They think I don't remember, but I was picked to go to a kindergarten for gifted students; however, my mother said I would have to take a bus and that would create too many problems.

[8] I believe that there were teachers who still saw a spark somewhere in me and they tried. I remember sitting in one class called a "Resource Room." The idea was to give troubled students individual attention. I see myself slumped on my desk, just sitting there. They tried but they had to teach at the lowest, most basic level and I already knew all that stuff, so I just sat there. Well, by now I think you have a pretty good picture of who I was at that time.

[9] There were about a thousand kids at my school and all of the classes ran at or near their maximum, which meant there were about thirty of us in each class. It seemed to me that the teachers spent more time just trying to keep order than they did teaching anything. Individual attention was pretty much out of the question. While we only had one guidance counselor for all the students, we did have a one-on-one class where the counselor spent time talking with students who where having difficulty, partly as a mentor and partly as a friend. This was really my lucky break because that counselor took an interest in me, and there was a series of other unplanned events. I was able to turn the corner away from the street, away from a lifetime of stunted dreams and "might-have-beens."

[10] You might ask why I concern myself with these things now. The simple answer is that I have become a teacher, that today I am facing in my classrooms what it looks like from the other side. The more complex issue is that because I am a teacher and because I was one of the lucky ones, I am searching for alternatives that make sense, that are realistic, and that can be implemented now before the better part of another generation enters adult life dragging all of those empty buckets through the sand.

[11] How have things gotten to this point? We are all aware of the economic problems and social issues, and I don't profess to be a historian. However, anyone who looks into the history of education is immediately struck by the fact that education as originally conceived was a very interactive event. We conjure up images of Socrates and his students sitting in the shade of a column, questioning, challenging, responding to one another. The student was always an active participant in the learning process. John Arch, writing in his introduction to Technology in the Schools: Equity and Funding, talks wistfully about the computer and its potential for returning some of that student-teacher interaction.

"The most important advantage of the computer is that it allows learning to be interactive for all students." In earlier eras, most learning was interactive with the student playing an active role in the process. . .but with the need for many more people to be educated we have moved to less interactive learning approaches: the lecture and the textbook. 1

A Technology Solution?

[12] Well, there we've said it. Technology rears its head as a possible solution. Haven't we been down this road many times before? The ill-fated teaching machines of the 1960's, dusty Apples and IBM's sitting in media centers or libraries in schools throughout the nation, primarily being used to teach keyboarding or to help families select a college, are clear evidence that attempts at technological solutions don't always work. And isn't their failure, their dusty misuse, at least partially our fault?

[13] Although we are being swept up in the irresistible changes occurring around us, we teachers are by and large technological primitives. In our emotional memory, in our Zeitgeist, we still conjure images of the fire and the story. We see technology as cold and unemotional, unbending, judgmental, and -- perhaps worst of all -- a potential threat.

[14] Aside from the concern that we might be replaced in the classroom, we certainly have enough objective evidence to draw a negative conclusion about the future of technology in the classroom. Here they come again; this time with interactivity and multi-media. Let's see, there was the overhead projector, there was the slide-tape machine known affectionately as the Duquesne. Oh, and let's not forget 16mm film, or the computer-aided instruction of the mid-80's, all of which have provided disappointing results.

[15] Domenic Stansberry, in his article, "Taking the Plunge," writes:

For example, IBM's costly "Writing to Read" program introduced to Elementary Schools with much fanfare was recently critiqued in MacWorld as "less effective than standard instruction". . .Computer equipment has been purchased by school districts with too little thought about how it will be used in the curriculum and much of the equipment goes unused for lack of teacher training. 2

[16] Stansberry goes on to talk about the fact that 10% of U.S. public schools offer some form of computer-aided instruction, but children have difficulty gaining access to the equipment. The software tends to be either game-oriented or geared toward rote memory drills. He also raises the point that software developers are often insensitive to the needs of minority students. 3 Stansberry is making a case for the use of multi-media in the schools. In fact, interactive multi-media, with its potential for holding the users' attention, may be an excellent way for schools to respond to the need for preparing their students to survive in a computerized workplace. My concern as a teacher is that the clamor of the bells and whistles may drown out the essence of the content being presented, thereby making the impression of the machine stronger than the idea.

[17] Maybe multi-media is ultimately the answer, but if it does revolutionize the way we educate, it will be far in the future, long after our current crop of students have ground through the mill to become whatever they will become. As Neil Postman has observed in his provocative Amusing Ourselves to Death, because technology uses a screen it all becomes like the movies, and like the movies, regardless of the underlying idea, the greatest effort is put into making it entertain. 4

We can hardly expect those who want to make good television shows to concern themselves with what the classroom is for. They are concerned with what television is for. This does not mean that "Sesame Street" is not educational. It is, in fact, nothing but educational -- in the sense that every television show is educational. Just as reading a book -- any kind of book -- promotes a particular orientation toward learning, watching a television show does the same. "The Little House on the Prairie," "Cheers," and "The Tonight Show" are as effective as "Sesame Street" in promoting what might be called the television style of learning. And this style of learning is, by its nature, hostile to what has been called book-learning or its handmaiden, school-learning. If we are to blame "Sesame Street" for anything, it is for the pretense that it is an ally of the classroom. . .As a television show, and a good one, "Sesame Street" does not encourage children to love school or anything about school. It encourages them to love television." 5

[18] Concerned as we may be about the future of literature and language, in the war between the screen and the book the screen is the hands-down winner. Postman was writing in 1985, when the science of interactivity was still a fuzzy phenomenon. My reality is that if I am to succeed as a teacher, I must enlist the aid of the screen as an ally; it is too great an adversary.

The Importance of Time

[19] We, as teachers, should be able to step back for a moment from either our phobia or our fascination and ask, "What can the effective use of technology provide for us that is educationally meaningful?" If I begin with the premise that I, as a teacher, am the most important factor in the learning experience, what is my most valuable commodity? The answer to that is fairly simple when we ask, "What don't I have enough of?" -- time. If I could just use my time more effectively -- if I could spend less time being a disciplinarian and trying to get control of the roiling social event that has become my classroom -- I could spend more time focusing on specific problems for specific students. If I could more effectively take the time to measure the progress of each student, to be able to discover and react to problems and learning difficulties more quickly, before they become entrenched as a major blockage to future learning, I could use my precious time to best advantage.

[20] Stansberry quotes Cheryl Weiner, Project Director for Dade County's At Risk multi-media project. "One of the biggest troubles is the 40-minute hour," she says. "You sit down, you get started and the bell rings. Just how realistic a work situation is that? Classrooms with walls and time periods are the main obstacles to using the technology well." 6

[21] It seems to me that the problem is not content. That is not to say that we should not continue to examine and develop innovative approaches to basic materials that make them more relevant and accessible to students. However, the problem with content is how to find what is out there, how to deliver it, and ultimately how to measure its effect on the student. The technology which will succeed in truly revolutionizing how students learn will impact upon those three areas: selecting and presenting content, managing the delivery of content, and measuring and tracking the learning effect.

The Content Paradox

[22] What I would like to know is when the written word presented on paper or between the covers of a book stopped being a medium. When we think of multi-media applications to education, we immediately gravitate to the electronic. The fact is that multi-media can be sound, motion, video, painting, photographs, books and even a live teacher. If we wait for all of the necessary instructional materials to be re-created in an electronic form, we will once again have missed a major opportunity to help people develop competence now.

[23] In fact, what would the electronic version of Moby Dick be presented as? Do we just download the movie to a CD? Do we have a group of actors read the text while images and graphics pass by on the screen? Whether it's reading a novel or an essay or learning some basic mathematical computations, these are activities that the student can be rightly expected to manage largely on his or her own. The harsh realities of most of today's educational settings make the experience school-centered and teacher-centered rather than learner-centered. If we could enlist the aid of technology to manage the process of learning, rather than focusing on having the technology provide the learning, many interesting and exciting possibilities open up for the future.

[24] Let's picture for the moment a student sitting down at a PC with the necessary hardware and software. In the student's hand is a copy of Moby Dick. The screen comes to life. The student selects from the Moby Dick menu a lesson on description which is the assignment for the following day. The text that appears on the screen is not an electronic duplication of what the student has in hand. It is a tutor. It may introduce the student to some basic ideas concerning descriptive writing. It may provide some examples from parts of the text already completed that show how descriptive writing is constructed. It tells the student what to look for in the chapters to be read for homework. It alerts the student to the difficult vocabulary that he or she may encounter along the way and provides contextual definitions. It tells the student to go ahead and read the chapters, after which he or she will be asked some questions to ensure an understanding of the basic concepts of descriptive writing. If it did just that, it would have already accomplished with one individual, in a very short period of time, more than I or any other teacher would be able to accomplish on a regular and continuing basis with the ninety or more students we have to deal with every day.

[25] Sure, let's enhance the content. Let's put CDS in every home. Let's illustrate the construction of a whaling ship. Let's provide endless anecdotal information about the late 1800's in coastal New England. Let's have the machine whistle and sing sea chanteys, but let's not forget that the basic content -- the book and what needs to be learned to develop a sensitivity to and an appreciation for literature -- already exists.

Delivery

[26] "Someday," writes Rebecca Tiirto in a recent issue of American Demographics, "the machines we call the television, the computer, and the telephone will mutate into one beast." 7 V. Michael Vove, Jr. an MIT professor, working in the area of media technology, claims that we have to change the way we think about our TV sets. Digital compression could be used to allow cable companies to send one hour of television program to a home in five seconds.

[27] He claims that computer-enhanced TV sets will soon be able to receive programs all day, then tell you only what you want to know when you get home. He talks about having a television that will be a personal agent, that looks for things that interest you based on what the television knows about your viewing habits.

[28] Quoting Christopher Dickson, the leisure and entertainment analyst for Paine Webber in New York, Tiirto points out that the future of cablevision has very little to do with television; it has everything to do with cable and what you can do with that pipeline. "The companies in the best position are those that can take advantage of the existing television/cable architecture and offer interactivity with minimal additional investment." 8 Cable TV's current foray into providing Internet service is a case in point. The key to effective delivery for our educational tool is the ability to control and subsequently interact in some way with the process. Interactivity and viewer control are big telecommunications industry buzz words. Dickson discusses three types of interactivity. (1) The first is video on demand, like Pay-Per-View, that allows viewers to choose programs at predetermined two-hour intervals. (2) The second type of interactivity stores information at the TV set and allows viewers to choose programs with a box or PC in the home in much the way VCRs and video tapes function today. (3) The third type is the simulcast which transmits digital information in conjunction with an actual broadcast." 9

[29] It is the second type of interactivity that interests me as a teacher. Don't get me wrong, I'm as fascinated with what the future may bring as anyone else. However, the notion of being able to dial up a box located in a student's home or many students' homes and provide lessons, information, and messages on demand that can be easily individualized and updated as necessary is a very appealing vision.

Measurement

[30] Kids hate tests! I certainly did. All through school and college I can remember the cramming, the sweaty palms, the time limits, the anxious waiting for the results. Teachers are funny about tests. Some teachers save it all up for a biggie at the end. Others like hitting you with a quiz almost every class. Of those two options, I liked the biggie at the end better because I only had one big anxiety rather than a lot of smaller ones. But, you know, I always learned more in the classes where there were more tests.

[31] Sure, they took up class time, and those teachers were never my favorites; but you knew what was expected of you, and you knew where you stood. If you failed, you had no one to blame but yourself. If you needed help, you knew when to ask for it.

[32] Now that I am teaching, I understand the dilemma. With thirty students in a class, the time, energy and resources necessary to keep tabs on retention, comprehension and skill are enormous. As much as I believe that students learn at different rates and perform better in different patterns, the system that I am a part of forces them to adhere to my schedule, my timetable. How do I know that a given child would not have performed better with just a little more time? Without the tension in the room? Without little Johnny kicking her chair from behind? And yet, without tests how do I know whether there is any learning going on at all?

[33] If there is one thing that technology can do well, it is testing. The computer's ability to rapidly gather, codify and report responses is unmatched in the human dimension. Too often computers are seen only as devices that read black pencil marks and tabulate responses. However, I envision a world where the test is taken directly on the technology. In addition to right and wrong answers, I can retrieve data on what time the test was taken, how long it took to complete it, how long it took to answer each question, and -- if the questions are developed correctly -- how the student felt about taking the test. And I can have those answers almost immediately.

A Helping Relationship

[34] One of the things that struck me strangely in Graduate School was how little actual help you get to learn how to be a teacher. Oh, I had plenty of "methods" courses. I learned how to create a lesson plan, evaluate material, construct tests. I too was up close and personal with the "bell-shaped curve." However, it became clear to me early on that when we talked about teaching, we were really examining "learning." Not that understanding how children -- and adults too, for that matter -- learn isn't a critical perception for being a teacher. It's just that nobody really teaches you how to teach.

[35] I have already mentioned that what made a difference in my life was that a counselor took an interest in my development -- a counselor, not a teacher. This counselor had two advantages over my classroom teachers when it came to helping troubled teenagers. (1) She had some degree of flexibility in her schedule. (2) Her primary focus was on helping, not teaching. Her allegiance was to me, not content.

[36] Why can't we be more like that as teachers? Why can't we reconceptualize at least part of our role as providing a helping relationship? No, the classes probably won't get smaller any time soon. The funding won't miraculously appear to increase staff, shorten class hours and enable us to spend more time with each learner in our care. But what if we were able to maximize the time we had? What if we knew more specifically where each child was having difficulty almost as soon as the difficulty arose? Or what if we were able to reenforce successes as they occur -- not just the big ones, but the little ones along the way as well? What if we could connect ourselves electronically to the sick and disabled, and manage their learning with more care and scrutiny?

[37] Technology provides us with the opportunity to develop helping relationships with our students. It can focus our attention on specific cognitive, skill and perceptual areas that need intervention. It helps us be good coaches. It enables us to focus on the batter's swing, keeping the eye on the ball, rather than having to go through all the fundamentals of baseball to cover a specific problem.

Business Initiatives

[38] "If you want to make it in business, young man," they used to say, "go to school and get a good education." In today's world, maybe we should be saying, "If you want a good education, go to business." Why speculate on what makes the "bottom line" a more compelling driver than widespread social carnage and societal upheaval? The fact is that business has taken a clear lead in the exploration of innovative ways to educate people. In an issue of his Trend Letter, John Naisbitt focuses his lead article on interactivity. After discussing how "high-touch technology" will revolutionize the way we shop, entertain, learn and do business, he turns his attention to education and training.

As society becomes more service-oriented, interactive video will be used increasingly to train workers. Employers such as McDonald's, New York Telephone and the U.S. military use interactive-training tools. Businesses cite such advantages as a risk-free learning environment, individualized learning, greater knowledge retention and round-the-clock availability. 10

[39] Would I be more effective as a teacher if I could create an environment that was risk-free for learning? Individualized in its approach to students? Resulted in greater knowledge retention? Was available at any time of the day or night? I think so. But, more than that, it's being done now.

[40] Ronald Henkoff, in a recent article for Fortune, points out that too many Americans lack the skills necessary to compete in the fast-paced, high-performance, global world of the Nineties.

Nearly four in ten members of the National Association of Manufacturers say that deficiencies in math, reading, and technical skills are causing 'serious problems' in upgrading factories and increasing productivity. Companies cannot wait for the schools to solve America's education crisis. 11

[41] Henkoff goes on to profile the companies that are doing the job right.

The companies that train best deliver instruction when the employee needs it, sometimes in a classroom, sometimes by satellite TV, sometimes on a personal computer. Effective training is concise and interactive, interspersed with group projects. 12

[42] Perhaps even more important is the relationship established between the learner and those charged with the responsibility of managing the learning. Using Motorola as a positive example of what can be done, Henkoff describes the process.

This school doesn't employ many professional educators. Instead, it relies on a cadre of outside consultants -- including engineers, scientists, and former managers -- to teach most of its courses. Their role is to prod, guide, and orchestrate, not to pontificate. 13

[43] FedEx, another current corporate star, uses interactive PC-based programs to educate its 40,000 couriers and customer service agents. While they are expected to gain information from other sources on such things as safety regulations and company policies, the computers examine their acquisition of the material. These exams pinpoint areas where workers need help and then prescribe remedial action. A record is kept of every employee's job skills, and is regularly reviewed by managers. 14

[44] A few weeks ago, I had dinner with my sister and her husband at their house. After five years of trying to run his own locksmith business, George is considering a career change. He has been attending some training sessions at The Prudential, and became part of a program they call the Prudential Learning Network. He was provided with a large satchel containing written materials, some audio and videotapes and software to install on his computer. The software came with instructions for installation and how to hook it up to the telephone line.

[45] After dinner, we decided to play with the thing to see what it would do. Once installed, which was accomplished in a matter of minutes, we were presented with some "welcome" messages and a brief tutorial on how to use the program.

[46] Clicking ahead, we were provided with a menu containing several subject areas, obviously relating to the wonderful world of life insurance. George selected one, and was presented with another menu listing several lessons along with corresponding "Knowledge Skill Assessments."

[47] We selected one called "Overview of the Financial Services Industry," and clicked it on. Directions appeared that summarized what George was going to do, and referred him to the specific brochure he was to read. We glanced quickly through the brochure, and then clicked on the Knowledge Skill Assessment. We were presented with twenty multiple-choice questions which appeared on the screen one at a time as we clicked forward. Since we hadn't done a very good job of studying, we selected several wrong answers. These were met with a beep and a new screen prompting, admonishing, and suggesting that we read parts of the brochure again. At the end, we were presented with our score -- a 55%. Our careers in financial services were in jeopardy!

[48] My sister and I went in the kitchen to talk, leaving George and his tutor by themselves. One half hour later, he lets out a yell, "95%! Yes!" I was intrigued.

[49] The following evening, I called to find out how George was doing with his lessons. "You won't believe it," he said, "When I turned it on this afternoon, it said I had a message. When I clicked on the message, it said 'Congratulations, George! Nice work on the Overview. . .Stanley.'" "Who's Stanley?" I asked. "My Sales Manager at Prudential." "How. . .?" "The thing dials out automatically during the night and reports on what I did -- neat stuff, yes?"

[50] I thought wistfully of the seven students who were obviously having serious difficulty with the American History unit; the four more who desperately needed vocabulary drill; the countless more who needed work on reading comprehension, basic math, and on and on. I wondered about the child who was physically challenged and homebound; the child recovering from an illness or an accident that precluded regular attendance at school.

[51] Later that night, I interacted with my TV. I called the cable company and ordered Terminator II on Pay-Per-View. I had already seen it once in the movie theater, but there was a moment I wanted to experience again. It happens about half way through. The heroine, her young son and the robot are temporarily enjoying an uneasy calm in the company of friends. The setting is desolate, flat, burning desert. The place looks like a forgotten junkyard with old trucks and other machinery strewn around. The heroine sits musing on the running board of a rusted truck, her rifle, as always, close at hand. She gazes toward her son and the robot playing at some game made up on the spur of the moment. The camera focuses and observes the affection that flows between them. We, the audience, become omniscient. We can read her thoughts. She is saying something like, "Isn't it strange? He is only a machine, without feeling or conscience. But he would gladly lay his life down for my son without a thought. He is always available to him. He is never too tired or too preoccupied to give what's needed. In a strange way, this machine is more of a father to my son than any of the men and supposed fathers who have wandered through my life."

[52] I wondered if the same wasn't true for teachers. . .

Dr. Marvin Gottlieb is the president of The Communication Project, Inc. in Greenwich, Connecticut. This consulting group provides instructional design for workshops, seminars, self-instruction and computer distance learning, human resources development, and basic target market and organizational research. Dr. Gottlieb is also an Associate Professor of Communication at the City University of New York, a frequent speaker on communication issues, and the author of four books: Managing the Workplace Survivors: Organizational Downsizing and the Commitment Gap, with Lori Conkling (1995); Making Deals: The Business of Negotiating, with William J. Healy (1990); Interview (1986); and Oral Interpretation (1980).