This article was originally published in the October 11, 1999 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel © 1999 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Computers Prompt Change in Teaching By ALAN J. BORSUK of the Journal Sentinel staff JOANNE PAULUS WANTS TO TAKE the blah-blah-blah out of classroom teaching. She's optimistic that when the students at Wauwatosa's Roosevelt Elementary School take on subjects such as comparing life in Japan to Milwaukee or learning about plate tectonics and earthquakes, they will use computers extensively and wisely - and will be more involved and simply learn more than if a teacher stood in front of them, talking on and on. Lauren Jensen feels the same way about teaching math at Wisconsin Heights High School, west of Madison. She says she'd be desperate if she had to lecture all day. Paulus and Jensen are on the front edge not only of bringing technology into how teaching is done, but also of changing the basic dynamic of how students do their work. "The sage on the stage has got to go," says Jensen. "The guide on the side is having a lot more fun," adds Roberta Felker, superintendent of the Wisconsin Heights district. The guide is a teacher who coaches, assists, prods and monitors while students find their way through a subject, often working collaboratively with other students. So Jensen's students don't just fill binders with notes from her lectures, although note-taking is still part of what goes on. They don't just follow what is prescribed by her - or by a computer software program. They use the Internet and graphing calculators and other resources to explore the path she sets for learning subjects, such as pre-calculus, and then put their results in the form of Web pages on which they show their work. The students have to find understanding themselves, not be spoon-fed - "hands on, minds on," Jensen says. In classrooms that many experts would view as the best examples of using technology effectively, not only has the equipment changed. So has the role of the teacher, so have the ways lessons are taught and so has the flow of power and control. Visionaries such as Milwaukee Public Schools Superintendent Spence Korte anticipate that technology will bring changes in education that will ultimately reshape not only how a classroom is run, but also the entire notion of what a school is and how it is structured. That seems pretty futuristic, but there is little question in the present tense that a well-run computer-oriented classroom has some strikingly different educational dynamics. One illusion that has pretty much died, though, is the notion that computerization would ease a teacher's burden or lead to classroom programs that were "teacher-proof." There is a growing understanding that using technology well in school is a pretty demanding job. As Robert Schleck, principal of Milwaukee's Burdick School, puts it, "It takes a hell of a lot of hard work to be good at it." Burdick's programs include a "digital classroom" for eighth-graders with 32 iMac computers and an array of other flashy gear, mostly paid for with private grants. But the success of the program clearly lies as much with teachers who approach what goes on in the class with drive and creativity. Jane Healy, an author and educator who has been skeptical of the impact of computers on education in most cases, says the teachers who are putting on the best programs using technology "are probably teachers who would be creative and interesting if all they had was a log and some kids on the other side." "It's a real challenge to be a teacher working with this technology," Healy says. "I believe that this is more labor intensive than not even having computers in your classroom." Many teachers who have embedded technology in their work are enthusiastic. As Diane Koch, a math teacher at Wisconsin Heights Middle School, says,"I think it's just made a huge difference. It speeds things up, and I get more done." She also says technology helps her reach students with different learning styles. A core issue for the future of education technology is how to spread the effectiveness of relatively few teachers in what one expert called lighthouse programs to the large mass of others. That's why thousands of teachers will be gathering this week at the Midwest Express Center in Milwaukee for the year's major state educational technology conference. Cheryl Lemke, executive director of the Milken Exchange on Education Technology, says the teachers who are pioneering effective uses of technology are often like musicians writing their own music. Most teachers benefit from having some sheet music handed to them, even if they're willing to do some improving of their own. "We don't have the sheet music yet," Lemke says. But in the next five years, a lot of it will be written, she expects. Milwaukee Public Schools is hoping to put itself in the position of being one of the sources. It has created a Web site for teachers called the Curriculum Design Assistant. It includes 60 curriculum plans, with 120 more in the works and possibilities for much more, says Robert Nelson, director of technology for MPS. A survey released last month by Education Week, a major industry publication, found that 53% of teachers say they use software to enhance instruction and 61% are using the Internet. Six out of 10 teachers say it is very or somewhat difficult to find software to meet their classroom needs. Louis Gomez, a Northwestern University professor and expert on educational technology, says, "There doesn't exist enough curriculum that helps teachers and students use these sophisticated tools as well as they might." When it comes to educational technology, the best music does not necessarily require the fanciest instruments. Effective use of software easily available over the counter for such things as writing and compiling data is proving increasingly potent - and is certainly gaining more and more use. There is debate over whether students' writing habits change when they use word processors, and if so, whether it's for the better. Do they revise more, show more involvement and take greater pride in work that can be printed or posted on the Web in ways that look professional? Are they more haphazard in planning and outlining what they write? At the same time that nifty things can be seen in classrooms that are using technology in creative ways, there is a growing awareness that the core of measuring educational accomplishment does not lie in computer use and that a lot of things that seemed like the wave of the future a short time ago are all but discarded now. Critics who have urged a much more skeptical look at computer technology have been getting more serious hearings. But Todd Oppenheimer, an author whose 1997 piece, "The Computer Delusion" in the Atlantic Monthly magazine, had a large impact on discussion of educational technology issues, says there remains too much gullibility and even delusion among parents and educators about the urgency of putting technology into classrooms. Oppenheimer says the most important thing a school, especially at the elementary level, should do is to make sure it is providing all the things that have classically been a part of good education. "Don't squeeze anything else out that has proven and enduring value in order to make room for computers," Oppenheimer insists. "That means arts and physical education and shop classes and field trips and books. Any school that is cutting that stuff for computers is making a mistake." Experts such as Gomez say there is a lot of work to be done to get teachers to the point where they are using computers at their highest level. But there is no doubt in his mind about the need for computers in schools. Gomez asks, "If everywhere we can envision our children going to, from the university through every place throughout the commercial sector, has computers and technology deeply embedded, how can we create these islands where that isn't true, called schools?"