Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century
ISSN: 1064-4326
July 1998 - Volume6, Number 3-4,
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Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century ISSN: 1064-4326 July 1998 - Volume6, Number 3-4, |
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This article explores the question of whether or not schools are making a good investment in the establishment of web sites from an educational management point-of-view. It approaches the question from the perspective of welfare economics and argues in favor of using scarce educational resources to build school web sites because of connections between constructivist theory and computer technology.
The basic research question posed by this article is: Are schools dedicating resources to the establishment of a site on the World Wide Web (WWW) making a good investment? This question is raised by the author's eighteen years of experience in public education. During this time, many "flavors of the month" have come and gone. Promising innovations sometimes generated widespread enthusiasm that without proper support and resources, would burn brightly on the educational scene for a short period of time and soon extinguish themselves. The trumpeted panaceas of education ranging from the New Math to Mastery Learning have come and gone, leaving wrecked expectations and some useful remnants. Are Web sites, heralded by some as a tool for reality-based, problem solving learning environments just another fad? The theme of this article is that the earmarking of scarce educational resources to build school web sites is justified and in fact, should be encouraged to give students the tools they will need to function in the world of the next century.
This article approaches this question from the perspective of welfare economics and one of its analytical tools, cost-benefit analysis (CBA). On the surface, examining the question from this perspective seems logical and rational. Spending on the tools to establish a presence on the WWW is the responsibility of educational policy makers. Yet, this perspective is wrought with difficulty. Since the "product" of the educational world is the forming of people's thought processes and the dissemination of information the outputs of the production process are not readily adapted to quantification.
Following are the important assumptions that frame much of the work of this article. These are necessary due to the youth of the WWW resulting in little completed research on specific facets of its impact on education.
The organization of the rest of this article follows:
Moreover it should be noted that the focus of this article is to give the educational manager a framework for considering the question and will not perform an actual CBA on this subject. Because of the subjectivity of the value judgements outlined in the benefit side of the equation and the unique nature of each school's situation, that is left for the reader to consider and exercise. It is hoped that it will give educators tools for systematically considering the question of spending on web resources.
PART I: WHY EDUCATORS MUST PAY ATTENTION TO THE WWW
There is a revolution occurring in the world of information. It is reaching into all facets of human existence and penetrating into the far corners of the globe. The growth of the information available to those who can tap into the Internet can be compared to the effect of Gutenberg's printing press on human culture. No one will argue about the important role of books in the history of schools and pedagogy yet, it is conceivable that their importance as a medium of information may be argued, reduced, or displaced by electronic, digital means such as the WWW. Computers are becoming a greater and greater presence in the classroom. Becker (1986) reported that even as early as 1985, 90% of all U.S. Schools had at least one computer in them. Current data puts the student to computer ratio in American school's at 7:1 (Trotter, 1997a, p. 8). Moreover, computer use is growing in the classroom. A recent survey of 1,000 K-6 educators found that 91 percent of them are using computers with their students (Tenth Planet Information, 1997).
This explosion of the number of computers in schools and the resources dedicated to them are a significant factor in school budgets. To underscore that fact, consider Trotter (1997a) estimates that spending on educational technology could top $5 billion this year (p. 6). Until recently their promise and potential as an instructional tool generally remained untapped. Some cynics compared them to the unfulfilled promise of other instructional technology initiatives as Instruction Television and Computer Managed Instruction whose implementation fizzled despite tremendous fanfare at their inception.
This cynicism discounts a new phenomenon has entered the arena of computer technology in the last several years, the burgeoning use of the Internet and its offspring, the WWW. Beginning with the linear searching capabilities of GOPHER developed at the University of Minnesota, relatively unsophisticated users could search databases on the Internet. The Internet was developed during the height of the cold war period. The original network (ARPANET) connected research sites supported by military funding. As other non-military funded networks connected to the ARPANET and each other, the Internet developed as a decentralized global network that is not controlled by a single group. In reality, the Internet is thousands of smaller networks connected together to share a world-wide web of information resources. Early in its development, the Internet was used by only a few people with specialized knowledge to formulate and exchange scientific and defense information. GOPHER's ability to search the Internet databases for information when coupled with its relative ease of use gave a glimpse into the power of this now global computer network.
With the development of Mosaic software technology in the early 1990s that facilitated nonlinear, graphic-based browsers to search the Internet, a new era in network computer access was born (Maddux, Johnson & Willis, 1996). To be able to instantaneously jump (at least in theory) from computer database to computer database through the world of hyperlinks was the basis of this new tool called the World Wide Web (WWW) or Web, for short.
To understand the working of the WWW, visualize the path of a user as he or she moves through the graphical user interface (GUI) or by hyperlinks connecting database to database. Repeatedly clicking their computer's mouse while searching for information creates a convoluted nonlinear path as one jumps form web site to web site. Through the hyperlinked connections of databases to many other databases, an architecture resembling a web is formed, thus its name. The rate of growth of this resource is practically incomprehensible as outline in Table 1 that shows the growth in the number of sites on the WWW:
TABLE 1 GROWTH OF WWW SITES, 1993-1997
(Adapted from Collins & Collins, 1997)
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Date |
Sites |
Date |
Sites |
Date |
Sites |
Date |
Sites |
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06/93 |
130 |
06/96 |
253,000 |
12/96 |
603,367 |
06/97 |
1,117,255 |
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12/93 |
623 |
07/96 |
299,403 |
01/97 |
646,162 |
07/97 |
1,203,096 |
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06/94 |
2,738 |
08/96 |
342,081 |
02/97 |
739,688 |
08/97 |
1,269,800 |
|
12/94 |
10,022 |
09/96 |
397,281 |
03/97 |
883,149 |
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|
06/95 |
23,500 |
10/96 |
462,047 |
04/97 |
1,002,612 |
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01/96 |
100,000 |
11/96 |
525,906 |
05/97 |
1,044,163 |
Furthermore, consider the following table of statistics and facts of special interest and relevance to educators concerning the Internet and WWW:
TABLE 2 SUMMARY OF FACTS ON THE INTERNET AND WWW
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Source |
Year |
Findings |
| Maddux, et.al. | 1996 | The number of host computers on the Internet has grown by 2000% since 1991 |
| Kantor &Neubarth | 1997 | The number of web host computers has doubled from 6.6 million in mid-1995 to 12.8 million in mid-1996 |
| Maddux, et.al. | 1996 | If the present growth rate continues there will be 101 million users of the Internet by the year 2000 |
| Hoffman & Novak in Kantor & Neubarth | 1997 | Current guestimates of Internet users number between 9 and 35 million Americans |
| Hoffman & Novak | 1996 | Over 200 countries have access to the Internet |
| Maddux, et.al. | 1996 | In the U. S. and Canada, 17% of adults have access to the Internet and in the first 3 months of 1996 11% used it |
| Maddux, et.al. | 1996 | In February, 1996 it was estimated that there were 4.5 million pages on the WWW and the number was doubling every 53 days |
| Maddux, et.al. | 1996 | By May 1996 their was between 30 and 50 million pages on the WWW with no slow down in the growth rate |
| Collins & Collins | 1997 | Over 2,000 schools display student work on the WWW |
| Kantor & Neubarth (1997) | 1997 | Almost 30% of Internet users are employed in educational occupations, the largest single category |
*Web servers are the computers on which the Web site is located
The implications of this exponential growth of information for students and teachers seems limitless. The potential for students being able to roam electronically to all ends of the earth and beyond through the WWW poses a new paradigm for educators. Herein, lies the difference between the current state of computer use and previous manifestations of instructional technology. Maddux, et.al. (1996) comments that of schools' use of this resource is presently crude, in its infancy, and without research base. There is tremendous potential for using this technological tool in education. Its interactive nature, and possibilities for individualized instruction and curriculum is coupled with constructivist learning activities presenting new avenues for leaning that will be discussed in detail in other parts of this article.
PART II: THE ECONOMIC FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYSIS
The Foundation-Welfare Economics
This article examines the research question from the broad perspective of welfare economics. Welfare economics, according to Baumol (1977) is, "the branch of economic theory which has investigated the nature of the policy recommendations that the economist is entitled to make" (p. 496). This examination concerns itself with policy issues that arise out of the allocation of resources. Through an analysis of potential input allotments among commodities and their subsequent distribution among various and often competing consumers, the policy maker will have a foundation for decision making. Moreover, welfare economics lends itself to analysis of problems needing value judgements (Pearce, 1983), a basic issue permeating this research question.
As elsewhere in microeconomics, one of the fundamental assumptions of welfare economics is rationality. That means the motivation of consumers and producers is to obtain the maximization of the value of some function, good, or service through its acquisition or exchange. In conventional theory, the maximand for the consumer and the firm are respectively, the utility function and the profit function. Welfare economics differs from conventional microeconomic analysis because its focus is on the concepts of the maximization of surpluses by consumer and producers, or an approach based on Pareto optimality.
The notion of consumer and producer surpluses is based on the premise that within every transaction between the producer and consumer each obtains a surplus of value. No judgements on the generosity or rapacity of the seller is made or upon the fairness of the transaction's price. This concept is a very important because a basic premise for CBA is rooted in this notion. That is, the net benefits of the marginal utility of the consumer's acquisition of a commodity or service is measured by its demand curve (Pearce, 1983). This fact establishes monetary units as CBA's measurement methodology because demand curves are delineated in this manner and as a result, gives the manager an important tool for analysis.
Another basic analytical component of welfare economics, Pareto optimality, is an important contributor to CBA. It is based upon the, "objective of society to be in some sense the maximization of the welfare of *all* of its members" (Baumol, p. 501). In a transition, the maximization process must make its offers to individuals without harming anyone else. It is upon these two theoretically based concepts that decision making based on a CBA is made.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
On the surface, approaching the research question from the perspective of a CBA seems logical and rational. Yet, it is wrought with difficulty. Since the "product" of the educational world is the forming of people's thought processes and the dissemination of information, the outputs of education's production process are not readily adapted to quantification. Furthermore, economic literature on the topic of Information Technology (IT) revolves around the world of business applications and rarely deals with eduction. As a result, the author of this article has taken the research findings dealing with the valuation of IT and substituted it into the educational paradigm. Then by examining cost and tangible benefit values, a framework is provided for analyzing expenditures on school web sites.
It is important to articulate these issues from the beginning of this analysis because they are the confounding vagaries that permeate it. As is the case with much economic analysis, its value is derived in the intellectual exercise of the thinking on the topic rather than theVscientific exactness of the model or the hard figures derived by plugging data into it. Through the arguments and analysis provided by this article the educational manager has a framework to think and even justify expenditures for web sites *ex ante*.
Methodological Fundamentals
"Benefit cost analysis is the principal analytical framework used to evaluate public expenditure decisions" (Stokey & Zeckhauser, 1978, p. 134). Moreover, CBA is a familiar tool to economists who use it to judge the worth of projects and select resource allocations between alternatives based on the ratio of the cost of a project to the benefits derived from it. This analysis, as mentioned previously, is bounded by the assumption of rationality. In this application, rationality is defined as the choice made in the allocation of resources where gains from the action in question exceed the losses.
The subjective grounding of the judgements leading to the quantification of the gains and losses leads to several issues. One is the difficulty of applying the market place philosophy and perspective to non-market situations. This issue is especially cogent to eduction with its oligopolistic characteristics that interfere with market mechanisms. Furthermore, since the valuing of the benefits of a project are based on market values this presents problems in the educational arena. For example, the assignment of monetary units to gains in student knowledge or an improvement in a school's culture are hard to reconcile in market terms through the assignment of value in monetary units. This valuing issue is areoccurring concept throughout CBA and consequently, this article.
Another issue inherent to CBA that an educational manager must consider is the shortcomings of the market mechanisms when viewed in terms of its connection to morality (Ray, 1984). The market has no conscience and as a result, has no concern for the transmission of values or the plight of the disadvantaged. Furthermore, it is, "especially vulnerable to misapplication through carelessness, naivete, or outright deception. Although there are formal rules for conducting and making decisions based on CBA, the techniques are potentially dangerous to the extent that they convey an aura of precision and objectivity" (Stokey & Zeckhauser, 1978, p. 135). It is important for the educational manager to keep these caveats in mind as he or she applies CBA to a project.
The Procedure
Stokey and Zeckhauser (1978) succinctly outline the process for doing a CBA. The steps are:
Pierce (1983) suggests that the difficulties in valuing educational benefits can be dealt with through two avenues. First, these benefits might be valued through surrogate markets. Rather than valuing an item through a willingness to pay process, he suggests looking at the item through a willingness to accept something that has a valued characteristic. In other words, just because an item does not have a direct market does not mean preferences and valuations are absent. Therefore, within the paradigm of this analysis the educational manager could try to value items based upon the preferences and value placed on them by his or her staff and students. For instance, there is no direct market on the perception of a school district, yet time an time again people are willing to pay a premium for real estate in a "good" school district. In the case we are examining of web sites in schools, this would translate into valuations based on a related item such as the monetary increase in property values attributed to the district's reputation because it is progressive and a "good" school system because it invests in a web site.
A second approach to this problem is that the educational manager could value the item through hypothetical or experimental markets. In this process the question is posed to people within the premise that they put a monetary value on alternatives by creating a market for them. In the case of our research question this translates to the idea that the manager invents a market for the skills and learning produced by the web activities and values them accordingly.
Interestingly, some economists have posed that trying to value the economy of cyberspace (the electronic world created by the Internet) in terms of the material world is antiquated. That by definition, economics is the study of scarce resources and information on the Internet is not scarce. The scarce commodity in cyberspace is attention. Goldhaber (1997) suggests that attention flows in cyberspace approximates, and will eventually replace monetary flows altogether. This idea has implications for our analysis. It is conceivable that the attention generated by a school's web site at some point could be assigned a per unit monetary value based on the number of visitors or "hits" it receives. Also, it is plausible following this line of thought that surrogate or experimental markets in Web based entities might evolve. Although the idea of an "Attention" economy seems abstract and implausible, Goldhaber (1997) compares it to a previous development in history, the introduction of a money based economy in feudal Europe.
In any case, whether the manager chooses surrogate or experimental (hypothetical market methods to grapple with the valuation issue, "we shall have to rely on some from of judgement as to the extent to which any technique used captures all the preferences that should be included" (Pearce, 1983, p. 12). It may aid one's analysis to approach the question of a item's value by trying to determine its opportunity cost. An opportunity cost is simply the monetary value of what one is giving up by dedicating resources to one alternative rather than another.
PART III: THE COST SIDE OF THE EQUATION
General Principles
When applying the principles of CBA determining the costs of projects appears on the surface to be a straightforward process. The following sections of this article on this process will give the decisional manager guidance for costing out the components of a web site.
Framing the entire analysis is this guideline; to accurately determine the monetary value of the costs of project, it must be thoroughly analyzed and include the calculation of the value of alternative resource allocations to other projects. As mentioned before, this concept of opportunity costs is very important to the analysis and can sometimes be difficult to envision and calculate.
Within the framework of the educational web site issue of this article, this is an especially cogent point. Often the school that is interested in establishing a web site will have a certain level of technology and expertise on hand. Then the question for consideration becomes the value of the alternative use of these resources. A case in point, is the resource allocation of personnel to become the web master. The web master is the person responsible for the creation, growth, and maintenance of the web site. Often in school settings this person is already a member of the staff who shows an interest and aptitude toward this technology. Therefore, depending on this person's primary job responsibility, albeit it teacher, librarian, or some other position, the opportunity costs of salary, stipend, and time need valuation. The manager analyzing the project needs to recognize the value of these resources and others involved in the site, i.e., hardware and infrastructure that are already in place and value them accurately. The opportunity costs of a project tend to be undervalued when the organization already has resources on hand it is going to commit to a project.
As is the case with the benefit side of IT valuation the research on methods for determining the costs of entire IT systems is sparse (West, 1994). West outlines the components of an IT system as:
TABLE 3 : FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Microsoft, in partnership with Interpose has done significant work developing a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) model to analyze IT costs. It divides the IT costs into major categories of direct (or budgeted) costs and indirect (or unbudgeted) costs. Although not directly specific to web sites it is valuable for determining general costs of the IT system. They breakdown IT expenditures into the following categories by percent of expenditure and these figures are useful for application to a CBA:
| TABLE 4 TCO BY CATEGORY* | |
|---|---|
| Direct Costs by Category | Percent of Cost |
| Hardware and Software | 25 |
| Management | 21 |
| Support | 16 |
| Development | 5 |
| Communications | 4 |
| Indirect Costs | |
| End-user | 21 |
| Down time | 7 |
*A detailed explanation of the categories and expense breakdowns is available from the Interpose web site. (Adapted from Interpose, 1997, p. 1)
No matter the framework the manager chooses to determine the costs of a web site, he or she must approach the issue by calculating the direct and opportunity costs of items. West's categorization of costs is certainly comprehensive. Yet for simplicities sake, consider Levin's (1983) suggestion for a relatively simple and straightforward approach, the ingredients method. Using this method, the manager can usually breakdown the components of a project into four or five major groups. The author suggests for the purpose of this analysis of web sites the following groupings used by Rothstein and McKnight (1995) are appropriate. They are Hardware, Training, Support, and Retrofitting. Due to the existence of "Freeware" versions of many Internet applications software, the author has chosen not to include them in the groupings. The next section of this article will address the cost of the included groups individually.
Hardware
Hardware costs include the expenses associated with wiring, routers, servers, and personal computers (PS), including installation, maintenance and service, and networking. The actual prices of these components change on practically a daily basis. Therefore the educational manager should view any specific price figures quoted in this article as a guideline. The actual costs rely on many factors so the manager must do contemporaneous research for up-to-date and accurate prices.
In order to implement a web site the following hardware conforming to standards are needed for connection to the Internet.
Encompassing many expensive implications, these standards are outlined in Table 9
TABLE 9 HARDWARE STANDARDS FOR SCHOOLS CONNECTING TO THE INTERNET
The accepted standard for the hardware architecture for a school creating its own web site is a LAN with a local server and dedicated lines connected to the Internet.
Hardware including PCs is the most significant item for schools when determining costs. The start up costs per pupil are estimated to be $212 to $501 with an additional maintenance expense of $40 to $105 per pupil. As is the case with many of the costs associated with IT because the technologies maybe used for more than one purpose, e.g. Administrative functions, these figures should be spread among all of the components of the technology budget that use them. The manager should estimate costs of telecommunications lines and services at 11% on annual costs (Rothstein & McKnight, 1995, p. 94).
Support Costs
Support costs represent about one-third of the expenditures on the IT system. When training is added to this category the figure balloons to 46 percent. These systems are integral to success of any IT project since they contain the costs of personnel to administrate the network and train staff in its application and comprise the largest on going cost. Rothstein and McKnight (1995) estimate the figure for support and training to cost the school from $71,000 to $185,000 per year. (p. 94) This figure is low if a web master is employed separately from other support and training personnel.
Retrofitting
Many school buildings will require major retrofitting to put the infrastructure for the LAN into place. Beyond the running of the network wiring other costs may include electrical, environmental and security system upgrades. Also, dependent on the age of the building significant costs are associated with asbestos encapsulation or removal. Rothstein and McKnight (1995) estimate these expenses at $10,000 to $15,000 (p. 94) that in the author's experience appear as being low.
Comments on Costs
Recent estimates of web site development costs for business are between $10,500 to $13,000 for "low end" sites (Frook, 1997). Keep in mind that this is for a firm to come and develop the site but it can give managers a bench mark figure of web site costs.
It is imperative that the educational manager create ways to finance the costs of IT. Taking advantage of scale economies through partnerships with other schools, regional educational centers, institutions of higher learning, and private concerns are avenues to pursue. Aggressive pursuit of grant funding is a way to offset many IT costs, especially training. Do not overlook the power of volunteerism and donations for your school.
The costs of a network and a web site are complex and ongoing. It is imperative that the educational manager constantly seek new information and cost-efficiencies to finance a school web site.
PART IV: THE BENEFIT SIDE OF THE EQUATION
Difficulties in Valuing Benefits of Information Technology Investments
The difficulty of placing values on the benefits of IT in the business world is a well documented fact (Emery, 1971; Stoneman, 1983; Bender, 1986; Dos Santos, 1991). Consider this quote from Clemons and Weber (1990): "We have found that strategic IT programs often lack formal economic justification" (p. 10 and characterizes the valuing process as a tricky and difficult task. They quote the CFO of a Fortune 500 company as saying, "in today's environment we don't think the numbers really tell the story [regarding investments in IT]" (p. 13). Emery (1971) further poses that information has not inherent worth, but rather how we use the information is its source of value. He further posits the ideas that we can judge the power of information on the behavioral changes in the organization or how it affects decision making. These ideas pose interesting possibilities for research into valuation of the benefits of a school web site through changes in measurable indicators, e.g., student achievement.
Because of the vagaries of valuing IT investments often managers are very conservative in dealing with this issue. Clemons and Weber (1990) suggest some guidelines that may prove useful in the evaluation of strategic investments in information technology:
To think comprehensively about the valuation issue, educational managers should become familiar with some other perspectives on IT valuation. An accepted method for benefit analysis is advanced by finance academics who have dealt with the issue of valuing the benefits of IT investments through the application of DCF analysis and Net Present Value (NPV) methods. Since these methods of analysis rely on static temporal perspectives and overemphasize immediate return on equity, they underestimate the valuation of IT investments and suggest that alternatives to traditional capital budgeting approaches are needed (Bender, 1986; Kim, 1990; Dos Santos, 1991).
Table 5 summarizes a number of other alternative perspectives for dealing with the benefit valuation issue.
TABLE 5 ALTERNATIVE VALUATION OF BENEFITS OF IT INVESTMENTS
| Author and Dateof Article | Summary of Valuation | Implications for Web Site |
|---|---|---|
| Bender, 1986 |
User satisfaction as basis of valuation Consider IT expenditures as a proportion of total expenditures rather than in isolation Establish guidelines based on this ratio |
Satisfaction of web site users can be easily measured Student and staff satisfaction derived from constructing the site is easily measured Ratio of IT expenditures can be easily arrived at and used as a benchmark |
| Dos Santos, 1991 |
Describes shortcomings of cash-flow analysis - to present time anchored Consider value of gaining experience with technology as foundation forfurther investments Suggests incorporating IT valuation in terms of stock options' theoretical model |
Experience with technologies may facilitate new paradigms of instruction and curriculum By embracing the progressive outlook of this change may leverage school for partnerships and grants Revenue streams may be generated through develment of technological products |
| Alpar & Kim, 1990 |
Describes shortcomings of cost ratios to valuing IT investments Cost Function Approach suggests that all valuations do not have to be put in pecuniary terms |
Idea of using indexes for for valuing inputs and and outcomes is promising for education |
By considering an adaption of these ideas as valuation strategies and researching their application, the educational manager may gain some tools for dealing with the question of the benefits of investments in IT and consequently, web sites. The next section of this article considers the two classes of benefits, the intangible (those not easily measured in monetary terms) and the tangible (those benefits that are measurable in monetary terms).
The Intangible Benefits --Those Not Easily Quantified
Dos Santos (1991) suggests that when dealing with IT valuation issues, "qualitative approaches are recommended" (p, 87) and that, "investments in new IT projects are based on "gut feel" or "intuition," rather than hard evidence" (p. 71). Within the scope of this article adherence to strict quantitative methodologies is space and time prohibited. Yet by following this vein of thought, the author examines in detail the following three topics falling under the heading of intangibles. These three topics provide the yeoman's share of rationale for spending on school web sites, but are at present, remain unquantifiable in monetary terms. By examining the importance of the permeation of the WWW into today's world, constructivist educational theory, and the link between learning and hypertext the article provides three important anchors for educational managers valuing the benefits of web sites.
The Permeation of the WWW Into Today's World
The students in today's schools will live in a world full of new technologies. When one reflects on the speed of changes in the last two generations,the pace of innovation is breathtaking and for some, even a bit scary. Networks of computers are a large component of the contemporary technological landscape. As the role of networks grows in the functioning of computer technology, interconnectedness of a myriad of resources will permeate the work and home life of people.
Web sites are an important component of the most famous network of all, the Internet. Consider the statistics of history's most heavily trafficked sites, "the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (189 million hits/17 days); U.S. Open Tennis Championships (70 million hits/14 days) and Deep Blue (74 million hits/9 days)" ( U.S. News and World Report , IBM Advertisement, Dec. 1, 1997, p. 73). These numbers substantiate the idea that the WWW is no longer a novelty but a growing and for some people, an integral part of their lives. Therefore schools that ignore this technology do their students an injustice and put them behind other students whose schools provide this resource.
Furthermore, consider the plight of the economically disadvantage student. If they do not have access to computer technologies at school, they will not have it at all. At the present time only 35 percent of the 98 million U.S. households have personal computers with only 17 percent of them connected to the Internet. Data further suggests that those less affluent are less likely to be online. In a recent Dataquest survey, less than 10 percent of the households with income under $30,000 were online. (Hale, 1997)
This access issue for the less affluent leads us to the basic ethical questions of educational equity. If schools do not deliver this tool to its less fortunate students are they adhering to one of the basic ideals of public education in the United States; that all children have an opportunity to obtain a world class education? The practical issues surrounding this general equity issue and more specifically, access to "future" tools involves a debate well beyond the scope of this article.
Evidence indicates that we still have a long way to go to achieve technological equity. For instance, in 1993 if a child is a minority, he or she is less likely to use a computer with 40 percent of blacks and Hispanics not using computers either at home or school. Compare this with a 20 percent figure for white students. (Student Use of Computers, 1997) In classrooms with minority enrollments of 50 percent or more, access to the Internet was provided in only 5 percent of them. Those schools with the highest level of student poverty were about half as likely to have Internet access as schools with lower levels of poverty. (Heaviside et. al, 1997) In high poverty schools serving the disadvantaged, a careful analysis of resource allocation takes on even greater significance. Questions such as; should we spend our money on textbooks or web sites need careful consideration and answering.
Yet if one surveys the statistics, schools are providing access to computers to their students. The attending correlate then becomes, if students have access to computers in today's schools it is likely they are exposed to the WWW. In 1993, more than two thirds of all students in grades 1-12 used a computer at home or at school. The percentage of students using a computer at home or school doubled from 1984 and 1993 to 27 percent. Between 1984 and 1993 low income students computer use increased by 32 percent supporting the contention that schools appear to be the equalizer for the economically disadvantaged. (Student Use of Computers, 1997) Granted,the situation in individual schools varies greatly yet evidence supports the idea that schools are a provider of technological equity. To the disadvantaged, the school's access to the Internet and its web site may provide a window into the world. How does one put a pecuniary value to the opening of the disadvantaged student's mind?
The discussion so far has the school and student being the recipient of the resources on the Internet and WWW. The focus of this article is from the perspective of providing a stop on the WWW through site construction. Yet the transposition of the facts supporting computer use to this application is not problematic since computer use is the foundation of the WWW. McKenzie (1997) wrote a pioneering article summarizing the reasons a school should set up web sites. He poses, "The question arises of why bother? What is the point of this exercise?" (p. 1). It explores the question of the use of technology in schools from an entirely different perspective.
McKenzie (1997) proposes that there are four primary goals for a school web site. First, by providing bridges to the outside world, the information systems of a school's Web site provide its users with educationally worthwhile information in timely and efficient fashion. They introduce visitors to the school through a medium that sends a progressive image of the school. The web site provides an introduction to the school's offerings, the school mission, calendars, lunch menus, instructional programs and other items of interest. As school is realized in many regions of the country and competition for student arises,this function takes on added importance. An example of a school portraying itself through this medium is the Wiles Elementary School in Gainesville, Florida (http://www.sbac.edu/~wiles/index.html).
Second, another function of a good school web site is to save staff and student's time. Through the scouting of educationally valuable sites, a compendium of educationally relevant sites can be compiled. Virtual museums, today's news, electronic field trips, and access to electronic libraries are but a few of the sites that a student or teacher may find useful. For instance,the web site for the Bellingham, Washington Schools (http://www.bham.wednet.edu) provides links to the curriculum of each grade level.
Third, the web site also provides the opportunity to display and share student work. Through the creation of electronic galleries and publications, exemplars of student work can be viewed by parents, the community, and the world at-large. Two excellent examples of this exemplification of constructivist theory can be seen at Australia's Blackburn High School (http://www.ozemail.com.au/~bhs56/) and Midlink Magazine (http://longwood.cs.ucf.edu/~MidLink/).
Lastly, the school's web site can also serve as a data resource to engage students in real world problem solving. Information that in the past, may have languished in file cabinets is now easily stored and accessed. Follow-up studies and the manipulation of data provides new cohorts of students the opportunities to use previously compiled knowledge. A very ambitious example of this type of project is the Globe Project (http://globe.fsl.noaa.gov/ welcome.html) where over 3000 schools in 39 countries are working with research scientists to find out more about our planet.
McKenzie (1997) summarized the changes in school web sites characterized by an increase in their sophistication as:
Two years ago, it may have been enough to a lunch a web site simply to be a presence on the Web. Many of these early efforts were a bit like Hollywood movie sets . . . With large graphics but not much solid content. Today those same schools have shed those early efforts and moved dramatically toward one or more of the functions described in this article. They have begun emphasizing strong content at the local level combined with excellent information about he school and pointers to the best educational resources on the WEB. (p 4)
The reasons for school web site construction form a foundation for other intangibles such as those described in the next sections of this article. Also, keep in mind that these activities involve additional expenses other than those of networks designed to only "receive" information.
Constructivism--Cognitive Theory as the Foundation of Educational Computing
Epistemological debate has again heated up in educational circles over the last decade or so and it is germane to the topic of this article. In fact, it is a vital component to "valuing" the intangible benefits of expenditures on web sites by school districts. Fueled by new finding on the workings of the brain, constructivist theory on knowledge acquisition have found strong support in the educational community. This theory is based on a different way of looking at the acquisition of knowledge than the traditional objectivist viewpoint and is the basis for the renewal of an ongoing, age-old debate. The objectivist philosophy is predicated on the objective, rational, and scientific view of the world. Also called the empiricist, behavioral, or rational theory, it postulates that there are absolutes and specific reality in the world that can be measured. I this philosophy the teacher is the interpreter and conveyor of truth; the student, a passive vessel whose role is to soak up objective reality passed on to them by the teacher.
A good overview of constructivism that implicitly describes the utility of educational technology as a tool for the theory's implementation is contained in the following passage from a report titled, Using Technology to Support Educational Reform :
There is now a widespread agreement among educators and psychologists (Collins, Brown & Newman 1989; Resnick 1987) that advances skills of comprehension, reasoning, composition, and experimentation are acquired not through the transmission of facts but through the learner's interaction with content. This constructivist view of learning, with its call for teaching basic skills within authentic contexts (hence more complex problems), for modeling expert thought processes, and for providing for collaboration and external supports to permit students to achieve intellectual accomplishment they could not do on their own, provides the wellspring of ideas for many of this decade's curriculum and instruction reform efforts. (Means, Blando, Olson & Middleton, 1993, p. 1)
The philosophical basis of the debate between the constructivist and objectivist and a summary of its implications for educational technology is found in a clear, succinct summary in Roblyer (1996). This author outlines constructivism in educational practice as featuring problem-oriented learning activities, highly visual instructional formats forming "rich" learning environments that use a variety of resources, collaborative and cooperative group work, learning through exploration, and authentic assessment methods. This article also summarizes a number of research findings on constructivism and computer technology. It reports positive results with teacher's help being more individualized, students' enjoyment of geometry lessons enhanced, and there was an improvement of abstract reasoning skills.
There are three schools of thought in constructivist theory, the rational, radical, and moderate. The main distinction between these theoretical variations of the philosophy is the degree by which they view the individual's role in the construction of meaning in their world. Therefore, the learning related to it is differentiated. Radicals view reality as totally the product of the individuals interpretation and construction of it. In their view, a teacher's role becomes one of a coach to an apprentice and learning and assessment is the function of the individual's interests and goals. The main differences between the moderates and the rationalists is the degree of teacher diretedness in instructional and assessment practices. The moderates view this as a function of student decision making whereas, the rationalist view these as the teacher's responsibility.
Related to theory about knowledge construction is the concept of higher-order thinking skills. Pervasive in educational writing,curriculums, and criticism is the idea that a goal of schools should be the teaching of higher-order learning and thinking skills. Young (1997) succinctly outlines what these skills are and how they can be taught. Higher order learning is defined as:
a type of intellectual skill that involves recalling and combining relevant rules to form a new, more complex rule. When learners have found a particular combination of rules that fit a novel situation, not only have they solved the problem but also learned something new. . . . The other aspect of new learning may be ways of solving problems in general--in other words cognitive strategies. (p. 38)
This type of learning also includes metacognition that deals with the way one thinks about his or her own learning strategies with the goal being to fulfill an individual's cognitive potential. It includes the planning for problem solving and monitoring and evaluating one's learning. In metacognitive processing non strategic or domain-specific knowledge partners with information and intellectual skills that pertain to the problem solving at hand. Young (1997) also outlines a number of tools for teaching higher-level thinking skills. For example, multiple component problems drawing on prior knowledge supported by modeling and scaffolding leading to higher order thinking skills and knowledge are outlined.
Another study by Fletcher-Finn and Suddendorf (1996) explored the question of whether or not computers affect the way young children think. Specifically, the researchers were interested in the metacognitive processes as reflected through a child's ability to talk about his or her thinking processes and the degree of the ability to mentally time travel. The results showed a significant and positive relationship between a child's use of computers an these tasks. The author's suggested that the basic nature of a child's interaction with a computer helps metacognition through the precise thinking involved in giving computers operational directions.
A high quality empirical study by Cousins and Ross (1993) investigated computer usage's affect on higher order thinking skills and further supports constructivist' arguments. They found that in their sampling of 483 ninth and tenth graders and 43 teachers that task-specific computer, cooperative group learning significantly influenced the treatment groups scores on tests of correlational reasoning.
It is important to understand the learning theory underlying the move to technology in schools. Without it, we tack on a new tool to instruction in its objectivist form and there will be no change to the basic thinking going into an teacher's pedagogical processes. We will, in essence, have more of the same old sage on the stage, teacher directed lessons. Roblyer (1996) astutely concludes that:
It has become increasingly evident to researchers and teachers alike that the mere presence of a technology product or method in an instructional situation is not sufficient to expect any special difference in student achievement, demonstrated attitudes, or any other behavior. There is a growing belief that the kind and extent of impact that technology will have depends on many factors, one of the most important being the way in which it is employed and more specifically,the way teachers choose to employ it. (p. 12)
To those who believe in the power of both constructivist theory and the role of the computer as an instructional and management tool, excitement about the potential of the partnership between these two contemporary reform entities grows as new thought emerges on the subjects.
Moreover, constructivism has had an impact on contemporary practitioners' thinking and is an essential component of why schools are spending tremendous sums of money on computer technology. Constructivist theory contends that we learn not in isolated bits and pieces, but in connected and rich ways in the context of personal experience. Constructivists view learning as an active process rather than acquiring knowledge and instruction in this model is a process supporting the building of knowledge rather than just communicating it. These are characteristics of learning processes enhanced by educational computing. A specific example is the active, context rich and connected thinking strengthening cognition (Jonassen, 1996; Kozma, 1994) that must be employed by students building web pages on a server. Furthermore, the collaboration and cooperation often employed in this site construction process enhances learning. (Slavin, 1991)
Some constructivists suggest that a metaphor for our minds in the process of learning resemble a rhizome. A rhizome is a root crop, and underground system of stems, roots, and fibers who bear, bulbs, and leaves. This plant has many interconnected pieces both on and below the surface. As one imagines a rhizome, it is easy to see why some use this symbolism. Wertsch in Johannsen (1991) has stated this case very well. He argues that we are not only all connected to other people individually but also collectively, as in speech communities or roles in other social groups. Wertsch's view of:
Learning, then, is neither a manner of discriminating these symbols of the world and the rules for manipulating them nor of activating the right connections in the brain. It is, rather, a matter of constructing and navigating a local, situated pathway rhizomous labyrinth, a process of dialogue and negotiation with the and within a local social cultural context. (p. 177)
The complex connections that characterize the WWW easily fit this metaphor as well. The Mind as Rhizome viewpoint sees technology as an integral component of cognitive activities. The computer opens new opportunities and makes available new learning activities. A good example of the use of technology to expand cognition is found in George Landow's (1992) case for the design and use of hypermedia. He states, "that we must abandon conceptual systems founded on ideas of center, margins, hierarchy, and linearity, and replace them with ones of multilinearity, nodes, links, and networks" (p. 2). Through the use of new technologies more closely resembling the Mind as Rhizome metaphor new ways of instruction may be developed, many based on hypertext and web activities that will reach learners in new ways. For instance, problem-based learning is a model of instruction that often uses computer instruction and has strong roots in constructivist instructional methodology (Duffy & Cunningham, cited in Jonassen, 1996)
As mentioned previously, reality-based situations are also the foundation of instruction for constructivists. Computer technology, and specifically the WWW, provide a medium for such situations. Studies have shown that attitude change is likely because of, and learners reacting favorably to, situations involving the use of instructional technologies that are authentic, relevant to them, and technically stimulating (Vanderbilt Cognition and Technology Group, 1990; Simonson, 1987; Dimond & Simonson, 1988). WWW activities can be an educational tool anchoring the learning experience in the "real" world.
To date, there are only a few documented studies exploring the use of educational technologies to foster constructivist learning. One is "The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury." This set of 12 video based adventures is designed to improve students' cognition in mathematics from grades 5 and up. Researchers at Vanderbilt University's Learning and Technology center tested the program and found students did as well as their counterparts in traditional classrooms on one-step word problems. These students scored better than their counterparts involving many steps requiring more complex reasoning skills.
Kids Network, a National Geographic Society project connects nine to fifteen other classrooms via the Internet in collaborative science projects. Working on eight week long projects it was found that those students participating in the project scored better than those in traditional classrooms when tested on some science concepts. They also scored better on test items that required them to do related tasks such interpreting bar graphs.
Another project embracing constructivist theory is SimCalc. It uses advanced computer technology to introduce elementary and middle school students to basic calculus concepts. University of Massachusetts researchers tested this program with students at inner-city middle schools. Their findings were that these students scored as well or better than typical high school or college-age calculus students on several sets of problems. (Viadaro, 1997).
Due to the connections between constructivist theory and computer technology,it is apparent that this new way of thinking about learning is the single most important justification of spending on web sites. It is an example of a tool essential for enhancing the cognitive powers of human beings. Moreover, it is though this medium that students are given an opportunity to interact with the technology that in turn, engages the learner.
Too often in the past, technology in its many forms was relegated to the service of instructionalist pedagogy. Goodlad (1984) and others have described the textbook centered, teacher-directed methods that have dominated our schools. Salomen, Perkins and Globerson (1991) pointed out that an entirely new perspective needs to be employed to efficiently integrate technologies such as the WWW into schools. They point out, "No important activity can be expected when the same old activity is carried out with a technology that makes it a bit faster or easier; the activity itself has to change" (p. 8). When students are engaged in meaningful tasks over longer periods of time, impressive cognitive effects have been demonstrated. (Harel cited in Papert, 1993) If the students are engaged in using the cognitive tool of a web site as a problem solving apparatus in the context of "real" life problems constructing knowledge rather than its reproduction, expenditures on this resource may be assigned a high monetary value. As well, if this technology contributes to the reform of schools, many will consider it an invaluable investment.
Information on Hypermedia and The World Wide Web
Hypermedia is software that integrates the multimedia of text, sound, graphics, animation, and video to produce a message delivered via the computer. (Hignite & Perreault, 1993) Furthermore, one part of this message can be linked to other related information. Another part of the message is linked to other messages and so on. The result is a nonlinear path of many related topics and presentation media that, in the process, may take one far from the original message.
As stated previously, this is the basic structural design behind the WWW. One computer database contains information on a subject with links to other databases that contain related information. These other databases contain connections to other databases and so on. While "surfing" the databases, the path of connections becomes convoluted and nonlinear to the point of moving far from the original data or mater of interest. As mentioned in the introduction to this article, with the tremendous growth of the WWW, educators are showing increasing interest in using these tools for instruction.
Due to the emergent nature of this technology, research in this field is limited. Stating that there are not enough quality studies to do a meta-study, Ayersman (1996) presents a thorough review of the research findings that currently do exist about hypermedia. A synopsis of his review follows in Table 6 and has important implications for those interested in the construction of web sites:
TABLE 6 AYERSMAN'S SYNOPSIS OF RESEARCH ON HYPERMEDIA
| AUTHOR AND YEAR | SUMMARY OF FINDINGS |
|---|---|
| Baber, 1994 | Commercially designed hypermedia programs are poorly designed |
| McKillup & Baldwin, 1990 | Hypermedia software creation is taking two forms. Teachers, in conjunction with software developers are creating resources for their particular discipline. A more common approach is students working collaboratively to develop their own software projects. Research shows this social constructivist approach has benefits. |
| Ayersman & Liu, 1995 | Positive attitudes are reported after hypermedia-based learning. |
| Becker & Dwyer, 1994 | Students using hypermedia experienced anincreased sense of control and intrinsic motivation. |
| Lin & Davidson, 1994 | Control groups score higher on measures of memory while hypermedia treatment groups led to superior knowledge transfer and higher cognitive activity |
| Large, Besheshti, in Breuleaux & Renaud, 1995 | Combining text and animation results greater recall, inference, and comprehension |
| Ayersman, 1994 | The sparse research on learning styles and hypermedia shows no significant differences between learning styles and cognitive performance when using hypermedia |
| Ayersman, 1995 | Studies comparing the two structures of information in a computer environment, the linear model and hypermedia have found that the nonlinear learning environments can result in an initial drop in achievement until students become accustomed to the environment |
| Boone & Higgins, 1994 | A longitudinal study of 300 K-3 students found that low-ability students using hypermedia reading software realized significantly higher levels of achievement than control groups |
| Swan, 1994 | Seventh and eighth grade students' learning about students' abilities to link historical concepts was enhanced |
|
Kinzer, Hasselbring, Schmidt, & Meltzer, 1990 |
Video-based anchors were effective for learning disabled language students who enhance their comprehension and reading skills |
| Leher, Erickson, & Connell, 1994 | Case study research reports a change in teacher's roles towards a more constructivist approach. (Toomey & Ketterer, 1995) Another descriptive study reports that ninth grade students off task behavior diminished in a hypermedia learning environment (Ayersman, 1996) |
The research on WWW based learning is very limited. One source germane to this article was Wilkinson, Bennett, and Oliver's 1997 article on evaluation criteria and quality indicators for Internet resources. This article explains why schools need to enter the web based on careful research and comments on the quality of resources found there. While focusing on the consumption of material on the web, it gives the producer of such material pause to reflect on the quality of the material one places there.
This theme of quality of material on the WWW is central to the construction of sites thinking on benefit assessment. One does not have to look far to see less than desirable material on this medium. Wilkinson et.al. Call for criteria and procedures that allow internet users to evaluate the quality of resources they have gathered electronically.
Eleven possible criteria include:
Currently, a panel of experts is working at the University of Georgia to devise an evaluation format based on these indicators.
The material on the web was sampled by Debashis (cited in Wilkinson, et.al., 1997) and he found that of 1,140 randomly selected sites, 21.93 percent of the material was public relations and another 20.70 percent was advertising. As schools become a manufacturer of material for the web, they should establish quality indicators in their production efforts. This quality factor may spread to other aspects of the school's culture. The attending increase in the organization value is not an easily measured construct and deserves consideration since it has the potential of being an important contributor to the economic analysis of the intangible benefits of web site expenditures.
As educators look at hypermedia as a tool for web construction it is imperative that they view it as an instructional tool to construct knowledge. A tool for learning with, not learning from. (Jonassen, Myers and McKillop, 1996) Previously, traditional approaches to computers in education were rooted in behavioral learning principles, whereas contemporary approaches are rooted in cognitive learning theories. The focus is not on the product technology of the computer but on the idea technologies provided by this tool. (Hooper & Rieber, 1995). As students use multimedia and hypermedia to construct material for the WWW, this concept is realized as they design and construct knowledge (Perkins, 1986) involving complex skills in learners (Lehrer, 1993). Evidence of these types of activities in schools is already available in over 2,000 school web sites (Collins & Collins, 1997). The obvious connection between hypermedia, constructivism, and the web justify these constructs as components of our model for determining the benefits justifying expenditures on web sites.
Tangible Benefits
In the traditional realm of CBA tangible outcomes are defined as those that are measured in monetary units and as such, these concrete measures of resource allocation are a very important component of a CBA of a project. When one is analyzing funds earmarked for the building of dams, roads, or new production machinery, the impacts of the project lend themselves to measurement in monetary units. For instance, in the case of the building of a dam, the output of electricity and the jobs created have a dollar value. This data can them be easily introduced into the CBA equation.
As mentioned several times previously, this type of straight forward valuation is problematic for education. This analysis is best adapted to in education research when longitudinal data of the earnings of people receiving some form of treatment that can be tracked over time. (Levin, 1983). Obviously, this poses problems for the educational leader responsible for making expenditure decisions in the here and now. In the realm of IT benefits, tangibles that lend themselves to monetary measures are any revenues generated by the project. For instance, it is not unheard of for a school to become a beta (test site) for corporations developing software and hardware and later have a revenue stream generated from this arrangement (as is the case at the author's school). Space on the web server could be sold to other concerns and the schools facilities used for training. If revenues from these sources are generated they are included in the analysis.
Willingness-to-pay is another method used to value the benefits of a project. This is an especially important lens to view the valuation of benefits because it accounts for the interests of individuals and less organized groups that because of political pressures can often be under represented in policy analysis. (Stokey & Zeckhauser, 1978) This approach is especially relevant as data suggests the American public is willing to pay for educational technology. In a recent survey of 1,012 voters, 61 percent responded that they would be willing to pay an additional $100 in federal taxes if the additional money were used to equip public schools with computers and up-to-date technology. (Hart Research Associates in White, 1997) This tangible piece of valuation data is important for the educational manager as he or she is assessing benefits ad making decision for IT expenditures.
A last point to consider is the technology and expertise that is used to build a school web site can also be employed to build a school or district intranet. An intranet is a version of the WWW that contains the internal databases of an organization that is out accessible to external users. The consolidation and streamlining of internal process and procedures can be significant savings to an organization. For instance, Digital Corporation consolidated 300 internal databases into 150. The company estimates its savings to be $5 million in maintenance costs last year and other savings to be around $4 million a year. (Farre,1997) Although further exploration of this spin-off of WWW technologies is beyond the scope of this article, some schools have established or are moving towards this technology. If applicable, the quantification of the savings realized from web site experience or hardware already in place may be applicable to your analysis.
Cost-Effectiveness Indicators--Some Suggestions
The monetary measurement problem of benefits of educational spending lends itself to cost-effectiveness or cost-utility methodology. In cost-effectiveness analysis the benefits can be measured in terms of program objectives. Table 7 summarizes research findings on the cost-effectiveness of educational technology:
TABLE 7 COST-EFFECTIVENESS STUDIES OF EDUCATIONAL COMPUTING
| STUDY'S AUTHOR & DATE | FINDINGS |
|---|---|
| Fletcher & Orlansky, 1986 | This often cited study of military training found computer-based instruction 30% cheaper. Consider travel costs were included in the analysis |
| Levin, 1989 | Eight math and reading Computer Assisted Instructional (CAI) programs were found to be considerably cheaper and effective than reducing class sizes, extending length of school day, or using adult tutors, but considerably less than peer tutoring |
| Levin, 1989 | If one reduces hardware and peripheral costs to $0 the total cost of CAI is only reduced by 11%. Implies human resources are the greatest expense for implementation |
| Ellertson, Wydra & Jolley, 1987 | Distance learning is not necessarily more cost-effective in a school setting (Rossi & Montgomery, 1994) |
Mahmood and Mann (1993) suggest that using performance indicators is an appropriate tool for measuring IT investments and through canonical methods the aggregation of correlations between performance indicators can become a significant framework for analysis of IT investments. In the case of analyzing the dedication of resources to web sites, the author proposes the following as indicators of program effectiveness. These are common and easily measured constructs of school settings:
TABLE 8 COST-EFFECTIVE INDICATORS OF SPENDING ON WEB SERVERS
| EFFECTIVENESS INDICATOR | RATIONALE FOR INCLUSION OF INDICATOR |
|---|---|
| School SAT score averages compared to before establishment of site (or other standardized test scores) | Academic indicator |
| Graduation rates | Academic indicator |
| Dropout rate | Satisfaction indicator |
| Average daily attendance | Satisfaction indicator |
| Percent of graduates to college or work indicator | Program effectiveness |
| Percent of students in Advanced Placement classes | Program effectiveness indicator |
| Student/Teacher/Community satisfaction surveys | Satisfaction indicator |
| *Number of web pages constructed on prototype | Permeation into school culture |
| *Number of "hits" of prototype pages | Quality of site indicator |
| *Much of the software and server space for small prototypes can be procured for little or not cost. Often a staff member in a school will run the project because of personal interest. | |
Technological changes are an ongoing product of humankind. The question, dislocation, and changes it creates are not unique to the revolution in our contemporary world created by connecting computers to one another. Consider this quote by Heertje (1973) as he discuses the famous economist, Thorsten Veblen's view of machines:
For him the machine was not an incidental product of economic affairs but a starting point, and an expression of, the life of an entire society. Mechanization in fact exacerbates scarcity rather than eliminates it. Technical development creates new needs by satisfying old ones. The stream of consumer goods is constantly renewed. The introduction of new techniques requires more and more preparation guidance and control. (p. 267)
With very little imagination, it is easy to take this quote and apply it to the world of IT and the WWW. The changes wrought by the marvels of the computer and its impact on our society and consequently, its educational institutions is a marvel that is practically unexplored.
This article was written to explore this phenomenon by focusing on the costs and benefits of spending for the subsequent construction of a WWW site by schools. An examination of the reasons why this is a relevant topic for educators is made and the general principles of CBA are outlined to give the educational manager a tool for analyzing expenditures on IT and consequently, web sites. A sampling of costs associated with IT and connecting to the Internet are given. A reoccurring idea is that the quantification of benefits is problematic in education and suggestions are posed for thinking about this issue. Also, the educational manager is given several avenues for thinking about expenditures on this communication medium.
By considering the permeation of IT in our world and specifically the WWW, the cognitive theory of constructivism, and the gains in learning made through the employment of hypertext, the author posits that the tangible and intangible benefits of expenditures far exceed the costs. That is, the gains for our students that are often difficult to measure through traditional means such as paper and pencil testing are significant. Through the adoption of a new educational paradigm based in web construction and usage, the potential of many more students will be recognized as learning is transformed from a passive, teacher-directed activity into a relevant, real world context that engages and motivates students. The author contends these benefits should be weighted substantially when conducting the CBA.
In doing the research for this article, it became crystal clear that the general field of IT and specifically WWW technologies is a fertile ground for all types of empirical research. It is apparent that new ways of viewing the economics of information are needed because of the vagueness of quantifying its components through conventional economic analysis. Moreover, the application of IT and more specifically the WWW to education is an area needing considerable research and study. Research on the economics of the educational applications of the WWW is nonexistent. Also, the results of web based educational applications and their effect on student achievement is needed. Through further research on these topics the problem of quantifying costs and benefits can be addressed.
Way beyond the dollars and cents analysis of a CBA, the technologies examined in this article position students to learn in a meaningful context while developing technological skills essential for positioning oneself in the world of the present and future. Yet, the evidence presented in this article supports educational expenditures on web technology from many different perspectives. Various voices sound the call for more technology in the classroom and the creation of new ways to apply it to schools. Through the frameworks and evidence supplied in this article, the educational manager has a tool to answer them.
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BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES
Gregory C. Geer is the Principal of Eastridge Junior High School in Rochester, New York. Currently, he is enrolled in a Ph.D. Program at the State University of New York at Albany. Email: geer@rochester.infi.net
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Copyright Statement Interpersonal Computing and Technology: An Electronic Journal for the 21st Century © 1998 The Association for Educational Communications and Technology. Copyright of individual articles in this publication is retained by the individual authors. Copyright of the compilation as a whole is held by AECT. It is asked that any republication of this article state that the article was first published in IPCT-J. Contributions to IPCT-J can be submitted by electronic mail in APA style to: Susan Barnes, Editor |