Effectively Using Technology In Education: A review of Wired together: The on-line classroom in K-12 Volume 1: Perspectives and Instructional Design.

Citation: Berge, Z. L. & Collins, M. (1998). Wired together: The on-line classroom in K-12. Volumes 1 thru 4. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press.

Reviewed by Pixy Ferris

With their new text, Berge and Collins succeed in a difficult task: that of providing a well-designed and useful resource for educators. Their effort should be hailed by scholars in higher education as well as the intended audience of K-12 educators and administrators. Berge and Collins succeed in doing what many educators have called for - they not only ask the right questions about the effective use of computer technology in the classroom, but they answer the questions from a sound pedagogical foundation, and they provide effective strategies and models for the incorporation of computers into education. The singularity of this achievement can only be understood when one considers the history of technology in education. Historically, as scholars from Plato to Postman (1992; 1995) have observed, technology has often been adopted by educators with no clear rationale or focus. For his criticism of technology in education, Postman (as other scholars leery of the indiscriminate use of technology in education) is accused of being a technophobe. Yet the proliferation and widespread incorporation of computer technologies into education has lately led even the proponents of technology to question its use. For example, Steve Gilbert, Director of AAHE's TLTR Initiative, and Steve Ehrmann (1995), both strong proponents of technology in the classroom, stress the importance of asking the right questions when using technology in teaching, rather than simply using technology for its own sake. Berge, acknowledging his debt to Steve Ehrmann in the introductory essay of Wired Togethe , uses Ehrmann's focus on asking the right question to create in Wired Together a text driven by the pedagogy rather than by technology.

The importance of a pedagogically driven focus on technology in the classroom assumes a new significance given rapid computerization of schools. Over the past decade, governmental and private sector initiatives have led to an unprecedentedly rapid injection of computer technologies into school systems. For example, Clinton's Technological Literacy Plan provided a two billion dollar Technology Literacy Fund over a five-year period to school systems (Whitehouse, 1996). The private sector was quick to rally behind the Clinton initiative, with large gifts of technology and funding to wire schools (Apple, 1996). Yet, in spite of the emphasis on technology there has not been a concomitant committment to training teachers. It thus appears that the K-12 school systems are increasingly gaining access to technology faster than these technologies are being incorporated into teaching, giving K-12 teachers and administrators no time to even ask the right questions about the technology. Here Wired Together provides a timely resource.

The pedagogical focus of Berge and Collins' text, therefore, is a notable achievement. The editors themselves state their intentions clearly, recognizing that "... while technology changes rapidly, the pedagogical issues remain fairly constant " (Preface, p vi). Thus the text meets a very real need as a resource for computer usage in the classroom. The breadth of the essays and varied backgrounds of the authors ensure a wide range of resources from which educators, administrators, and policymakers should be able to find something of interest. Wired Together brings together authors from a variety of backgrounds and professional experience. Contributors range from "techies" to teachers and professors, educators to administrators, technology coordinators to media specialists. Their essays vary from the specialized to the general, the theoretical to the practical. The essays are arranged in four broad categories: introduction to the technology, models of implementation, perspectives on implementation, and instructional design. Each of these broad categories provides a somewhat cohesive focus. Taken individually, each essay has something to offer the novice user of technology in education , while taken together the essays offer a comprehensive resource.

A brief consideration of the text follows, using the four sections as an organizational focus. In my opinion, the 'Introductions' section is the strongest in the book as it provides a wide range of information to guide prospective users of technology. Most of the essays here are essential reading for the appreciation of the case studies that follow. The Introductory section begins with Berge's essay ('The instructional technology train: Why use technology in the classroom') on the use of technology in the classroom. Berge proposes a pedagogy - driven model, emphasizing the use of technology to ask the right questions. He appears to be inspired by Steve Ehrmann's Essay on "Asking the Right Questions" (cited on pg. 4). Berge's emphasis on the necessity of asking the right questions to shape the changing face of education is important as its sets the tone for the rest of the text.

Berge's essay is followed by Santoro's 'What is the on-line classroom.' In this piece Santoro defines the computerized classroom for the novice. Here the author not only introduces the term "computer-mediated communication" or CMC for the first time, but defines some of CMC's components (computer-based conferencing, informatics, and computer-based instruction) for the beginner. This essay provides a comprehensive and easily digestible overview. What I found particularly useful about this essay is the many URLs for his own Web resources provided by the author. These are significant in that they not only provide a starting point for teachers, but they also model the potential for computers in the classroom.

McGreal's discussion of "Restructuring education and the information highway' follows. I found that this essay, with its focus on restructuring educational systems, to be the only one in this section of the text deviating from the theme of a pedagogically driven technology. Although useful in its focus on strategies for restructuring, I felt this essay to be weak in its failure to establish particular needs for restructuring the existing educational system. I felt the theoretical premise driving this article differentiated it from the others, to its detriment.

The Dexter article, on "Uses, then technology or technology, then uses" makes up for the weakness of the earlier essay by providing an intelligent discussion of an important issue in education. Dexter builds on her own experience as part of a policy-making group responsible for planning for, and implementing, technology in the classroom. Her experiences provide a useful model for other teachers, administrators, and policy-makers in similar situations.

The following essay, Norum's "The administrator as the critical connection in learning environments," also develops the texts' pedagogical focus. Norum discussess the task of the administration as a change agent in the "new" school, a school where the technology is an integral part. She posits an increasingly popular viewpoint: that the role of the administration is not to function as change agents who introduce technology, but to ensure the effective use of technology.

The final essay in the Introductory section, "The internet and acceptable use policies," by Schrum and Day, concludes this section with a consideration of the need for schools to develop policies for computers in the classroom. Schrum and Day's essay becomes specially important given the rapid "wiring" of schools across the nation,. Through an extensive literature-review the authors provide teachers and administrators with guidelines for the development of their own acceptable use policies.

The Introductory section is followed by three sections providing models and perspectives for users who wish to incorporate technology into educational systems. (Also of note is the glossary, compiled by the editors with Michael Day.) I shall review these articles somewhat more concisely, as many of the essays consist of case studies that are most effectively read in their entirety. Case studies comprise the bulk of essays in the second and third sections.

Section II (Models for Implementation) provides three successful case studies using computers in education. In her essay on 'The integrated instruction tool,' Grandgeorge describes an interesting case: an elementary school in Virginia where technology is an integral part of the curriculum. Allen and Gerrior, in their essay 'Choice 2000: Attaining a high school diploma, ' provide a very different scenario: a totally online school in California. Van Wilkinson and Hartley also describe a successful program in California in their essay 'Migrant summer connectivity academy.' They detail the successful use of technology in reaching a unique minority (Southeast Asian) migrant student community.

Further case studies are provided in the third 'Perspectives' section of the text. Three of the six essays here are case studies, with Luthra's essay on 'Telecommunications in the classroom in an overseas American school' being the briefest and in some ways the least useful. Luthra describes her experiences at an American school in India, but other than revealing the difficulties inherent in her particular situation, her descriptions lack detail.

The essays by Tiessen and Ward ('Creating shared understanding through distributed learning') and Burgstahler ('Students with disabilities and the online classroom') are much richer. Burgstahler provides a detailed description of the benefits of educational uses of technology for students with disabilities, while Tiessen and Ward use a case history of three-week history project as the vehicle for a description of strategies for the use of CMC in the distributed classroom.

The six case studies are useful in that they provide detailed descriptions of what works when using technology in the classroom, how it works, and why it works. Cases are an excellent educational resource in many ways: they are not only experiential but allow for analysis, and they describe experiences in much richer format than other research. The inclusion of the six cases described above thus provide a useful resource for users. I would personally, however, have preferred to see the six cases be combined in one section for cohesion.

The three remaining essays in Section III are of a different nature: they provide advice and strategy for the integration of technology into education. Of these essays, I found Szabo's piece on 'Updating our mental models' to be the most interesting. Szabo deals directly with the 'deeper problem that exists with respect to how educators view teaching and learning with CMC' (p. 155). He not only offers reasons why our current 'stagnant' thoughts on CMC in the classroom need to be reviewed, but provides new ways to think about technology. With this essay Szabo directly develops the editors' theme of a 'transformed' (p. 6) pedagogy incorporating technology as an integral component.

Hackbarth's essay 'Exploiting educational features of commercial online services,' is also a useful resource for educators. He focuses on the ways in which commercial services such as AOL, Compuserve, etc. can aid the educator in the classroom.

In a similar vein, Shapiro deals with the World Wide Web in her article 'What do users learn from Web technologies?' Rather than offering specific resources, she provides a historical overview and then reviews the literature on the WWW in the classroom. While her findings are cautiously optimistic, Shapiro concludes that training is of real importance.

The last section of the text covers 'Instructional Design' issues. Having proceeded this far in the text, readers should now be conversant with the theory, and familiar with successful examples of technology in the classroom. These three final essays offer specifics on design issues, working from the general to the particular.

In his essay 'Instructional design for CMC in the K-12 environment,' Eastmond provides an overview of instructional design, using one particular model to illustrate the steps educator should take in designing CMC instruction. Ahern, in 'Groups, task and CMC' and Laughon, in 'Designing effective telecommunication projects,' focus in on CMC and specific projects. Ahern discusses the importance of understanding group dynamics in the classroom before providing a specific model to help teachers use CMC in the classroom. Laughon discusses effective projects that incorporate the Internet, and shows teaches how to use the Internet effectively.

Taken together, the nineteen essays in Wired Together have the potential to become an invaluable resource to educators. The value of the text can best be seen when one considers the results of a recent national survey on information technology in teacher education. This survey of 416 teacher-education education programs (representing a sample of approximately 900, 000 teachers for the 1997-98 academic year) found that most of the programs failed to train the teachers in the use of technology in their classrooms. Specifically, the survey found (among other findings) that: ... most teaching faculty did not model use of information technology (IT) skills in teaching ... most teacher preparation programs do not have a written, funded, regularly updated technology plan. ... while IT is available in the K-12 classrooms where student teachers get their field experience, most student teachers do not routinely use technology during field experience and do not work under master teachers and supervisors who can advise them on IT use.... ' In general, the technology infrastructure of education has increased more quickly than the incorporation of IT tools into teaching and learning (Milken Family Foundation, 1999).

The gravity of these findings highlights the real value of a text such as Berge and Collins' Wired Together . It appears that the majority of new teachers enter technology-rich classrooms without the knowledge or skills needed to effectively use the technology in their teaching. These teachers must rely on textual resources to guide them in their use of technology in the classroom. Berge and Collins are to be commended for their timely series of texts that can help teachers equip students for survival in an information society. I, for one, commend Wired Together , and hope that the editors are as successful with the other volumes in this series.

References

Apple Computers. (1996, February 29). Apple rallies behind President Clinton's technology literacy challenge extending call to action to education developers. Cupertino, CA: Apple Computers.

Clinton, B. (1996, January 23). State of the Union address. Nationally televised broadcast. Milken Family Foundation. (1999). Information technology in teacher education study report. Available: http://www.milkenexchange.org/research/iste results.html

Postman, N. (1992). Technology: The surrender of culture to technology. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Postman, N. (1995). The end of education. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf.

Whitehouse Dispatch. (1996, February 15). America's technology literacy challenge. [On-line]. Available: http://ww2.whitehouse.gov/WH/dispatch/021596.html