CAMDEN, Maine -- Once all the schools are wired, then what?
"What we're facing now is what I call Lumiere Brothers syndrome," said David Liddle, the CEO of Interval Research Corporation, a Silicon Valley think tank. "After France's Lumiere brothers invented the motion picture, what they'd do is point a camera at a proscenium and film some actors doing Shakespeare. Then, they'd take it around the countryside and show it to people for a farthing or a groat or whatever. We're recycling the content and techniques of a prior medium in the new one. Where's our D.W. Griffith?"
High-tech industry and education professionals convened over the weekend for the second annual Camden Technology Conference. Maine was one of the first states to connect all of its schools and libraries to the Internet, so this scenic coastal town was a fitting setting for a discussion of when -- and if -- computers and connectivity will transform learning.
Technology in the classroom clearly warrants new ways of teaching. And conferees agreed that those new ways of teaching should steer clear of traditional lecture-based instruction, and focus on doing. Idit Harel, CEO of MaMaMedia, proposes replacing the three Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic) with the three Xs: exploration, expression, and exchange. Technology is poised to take up the task.
Roger Schank, director of the Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University, demoed a piece of software that teaches users about art history. Students must investigate the authenticity of a set of Rembrandt paintings. One is suspected to be a fake, and the user must learn about the techniques of the Dutch Masters to find out which one it is. Seymour Papert, a professor at MIT, presented a computerized Lego toy that teaches children about programming and probability.
Michael Turzanski, deputy director of advanced Internet initiatives at Cisco Systems, described Cisco Networking Academy, a program in which his company introduces tech-savvy high schoolers to networking technology -- and develops a base of future employees.
In the program, high school seniors manage networks for school districts -- with no security issues, and close to 100 percent up-time, Turzanski said. One group, at San Francisco's Thurgood Marshall High School, has taken freelance jobs setting up temporary networks for trade shows at nearby convention centers. "Can you imagine what it does for their self-esteem?" Turzanski asked.
But how do you test children who learn that way?
Maine's governor, Angus King, said statewide standardized tests are vital because they let citizens gauge how well schools are performing. But Schank said that approach is misguided. "Education is about interaction, not memorizing a lot of info and spitting it back on the test. What matters is doing. That's all that's ever mattered," Schank said. "I've always said, if anyone wanted to create a good piece of educational technology, it would be a neutron bomb for Princeton, New Jersey." [Home to the Educational Testing Service, which administers the SAT.]
But Is it Fun?
Some software makers believe that that children are unlikely to embrace educational software if the visual quality doesn't match the production values of videogames and movies and television.
"You have to make an intervention at the level of popular culture," said Brenda Laurel, who founded Purple Moon Software.
But learning theorist and MIT professor Seymour Papert contends that too much glitz washes out the educational benefits. "It's a poisonous idea, that we want children to learn without even knowing they're doing it. Learning math doesn't have to be sugarcoated fun."
Despite the talk, development dollars and hours are primarily being focused on corporate training and the home software market, rather than on software for schools. Laurel said it was simply too difficult to get innovative products past conservative school board review committees.
"Technological change is fast, but changing the educational system is painfully, painfully slow," said Ann Hird, a conference attendee and a PhD candidate at the University of Rhode Island. "One of the things I've heard here is that innovators like Brenda Laurel find it too difficult to work within the educational system.... What happens if all the technologists decide that changing education isn't worth the trouble, and just work outside the system?"
Papert had a more hopeful view. "You need an army [to spark change]," he said. "We've got an army, and it's called kids. The wave of kids that grew up with computers is starting to hit the schools. We have to see ourselves as part of that force. That's why I feel optimistic."
The Camden Technology Conference was founded by two Maine residents with a special interest in how technology is changing society: Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet and founder of 3Com, and John Sculley, the one-time CEO of Apple Computer. Next year's edition is expected to focus on pop culture and technology.
