Topic: Hardin & Ziebarth:Digital Tech. and Its Impact on Ed.

Conf: 387 2b Comments on D.Ed White Paper

From: Megan Forness (mforness@springfield.k12.il.us)

Date: Monday, July 13, 1998 08:16 PM

In this all encompassing article, Hardin and Ziebarth discuss the current state of technology integration into educational settings and several methods being developed to facilitate communication among learners. Although future educators are not yet required to possess proficient computer skills when exiting education degree programs, the Internet and technological advances are rapidly becoming unavoidable resources in modern day education. The National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) released the first World Wide Web browser for UNIX, PC, and Mac in 1993 called Mosaic. With its introduction, students in the K-14 environment could more easily access information. In turn, teachers could not ignore this advancement since the major goal of an educator is to provide clear and current information. A short scenario was given in which a teacher from the "traditional" school of instruction encounters a modern student with fresh ideas about how to access information via the WWW. The roles are reversed as the teacher realizes that his student presents a valid argument against his proposed assignment, which is very old-fashioned. It portrays an eager, intelligent, reassuring student who is more than willing to help her teacher explore the capabilities of the Internet to enhance the assignment. Although the story is fictitious, I can relate to it since I know a few teachers who are intimidated by modern technology. The technology needed to instruct future students must be very powerful. Traditional values will start to shift, and more merit will be placed on group collaboration and heightened communication between students, teachers, and parents. Learning will begin to reflect the skills needed to be successful in graduate school, business, and every day life. Synchronous and asynchronous communication will play a major role in the implementation of future education. Several schools have already invested in email and video teleconferencing as ways to facilitate communication lines. MUD's, MOO's, and MUSH's are becoming more familiar tools for communication. The potential for distance learning environments is advancing at an alarming rate due to the advent of these types of "electronic classrooms." Several types of interactive languages exist to heighten communication on the Internet. Habanero Java is one such environment designed to enhance communication over the WWW. Any session conducted with this engine has the capability to be recorded, reviewed, and distributed to any interested party. VRML and CAVE are two other types of real-time collaborations which allow users to communicate in 3-D environments. After reading this article a few times, I became more aware of its overall message. Technology is fast becoming an unavoidable tool in education, connecting people around the world and allowing for communication in an ever increasing humanistic manner. Since this communication is available literally "at our fingertips," we as educators and human beings would be amiss not to use it to become more aware of each other and to share ideas. I have also realized that there is more being developed within the context of virtual classrooms than I could have possibly imagined. With colleagues, I have playfully discussed the concept of teaching students from my computer at home and never having to see any undesirable behavior. I must say that I am still quite shocked by the sincere reality of that very capability. A final thought I have is one of caution. Although I am excited to be living in an era of such exponential technological advancement, I fear the virtual world to a certain extent. I can easily understand how people can be connected to their machines for hours on end, engaged in conversations with cyber friends or filtering through endless links to scads of information. I can't help but wonder if all this technology is facilitating our lives or simply consuming most of our time. I like to think that we as teachers will use these advancements in the most constructive, efficient manner possible.