\ 0 O G C O C A ^ S C o

iy all day for us, ferreting outj wot and chemicals. By late; xjn all but the gun cotton is, I gingerly ignite a portion of

® f a s a test. One wad leaps untably on to tbe floor and set J be linoleum. No one is watching : quickly put it out. | start the show before a largej x of teachers. Mary's nerves1

T to commit an immediate iad t blunder as she explains the;

nberg" balloon (of which we at to ignite a small version), was d by Hindenberg. Stunned si-Vhen someone shouts "Zeppe-iry recovers her wits and makes, ; to the effect that she was just;

; the teachers' general know-; o my astonishment they are.

n and laugh. Everything then oothly until the las! experiment ss I had feared, rapidly blankets m in grey smoke, ampus police arrive with com-mie speed. The air conditioning led off at 5pm, they tell us, so; oo way to get the smoke out. It

drifted genily like a fog'

f,

out the building. and ! are taken aback at

y being presented with honor-i ensbership in the Science •s Association of Manitoba for s to science education". We

later what the university of that. One of their garbage

a s filled with our waste is unexpectedly will catch fire addle of the night. .-

•ay he Science Teachers' Confer-gjve a seminar. Flattered to overflow audience. Not that :gree with roe. One lady clearly am demented when 1 suggest ieaching can be improved by. her sometimes acting as an or atom; she obviously knows roo can never be exactly lo-id is concerned for her own

tts liinch clutching a partly-tle of red wine left over from aar. Immediately discover we niy tabic in a sealing of 500 to i*. I , quickly distribute the around the others at the table e cups) and hide the bottle chain. • • • • > . > » . evening Mary and I go, in

*bt, to a "gourmet party , We have worried, about the food 4ary is fascinated by the "little bbles". On b e i r j t o y it is

When freshmen at CUrkson College of Technology in upstate New York go to school this fail, they will become the first students required to own a compu-ter as a prerequisite for entry. Paying an additional $400 a year on top of regular fees, students will be issued a computer which they will own by tbe time they leave. There are no excep-tions - no matter what the course of study ' the student pursues. Other schools, such as Carnegie-Mellon Uni-versity ill Pittsburg, are also planning to require that all freshmen purchase a computer. - - • <- ' . '

1 Once again, the American education (system has latched on to what some [feel is only the latest in • Song line of fads promising a revolution in learning. From first grade up, computers are seen as a machine that can raise the nation above educational mediocrity.

| No longer confined to a world where technicians in laboratory coats hover over temperamental equipment in air conditioned rooms, computers now daily touch our lives. Computers are versatile, powerful tools that connect us globally and also keep a child mesmerized for hours in front of a blinking screen. - . ' /

Recognizing, if only vaguely, the increasing role computers are playing, (schools and colleges in America are rplacing a growing importance on this {technology. Nobody knows for sure what influence these machines ulti- • mately will have, if any, and nobody wants to be left behind, just in case.

Educators in this country are hur-riedly grabbing up the machines with a buy now,- plan later attitude. In-creasingly, the quality of a school is being judged by the number of termin-als in place. Never mind if teachers are underpaid or if plaster is falling from the ceiling, deliverance is at hand. One school leader recently told a member of the Carnegie Foundation's staff: "The first question parents ask is, 'Do you have a computer in the school?' *

.A survey completed several yean ago reported that about one in every three tax-supported schools in the United States had at least one micro-computer or computer terminal avail-able for instructional use by students. Since- then, the number of school computers has been increasing at a dramatic rate. - • -..-••••

Still, tbe trend is spotty and uneven. Math classes use computers more than other classes, and male students use them more than females. Further, • while all schools are how acquiring the . hardware, there are substantially fewer computers in schools that serve chil-dren from poor families than in schools serving more affluent households.

A 1982 survey of American public school districts concluded, "Schools with higher proportions of poverty level families are less likely to use microcomputers than are the weal-thiest schools'*. In 1981, tbe difference

Keeping a finger on the off switch S

Ernest Boyer

effect, the book is designed but the ;-v words are left unwritten... . ,- - >' *?• '

Computer companies bere bave -• -heavily lobbied Congress to make .

U;. school purchases of. computers tax-deductible. Corporations donate ex-

,{J! pensive equipment to schools, assum-ing apparently that little computer -users will grow up to be big computer buyers. But the school market is only 3 per cent of total sales, thus providing tbe computer firms with liule incentive to develop quality education prog-

r ~ Yet, educators remain convinced * •• that computers are an indispensable tool of the future. Computers do have a potential that has yet to be tapped. The flaw is not in tbe technology, but in .*> bow it has been applied." Whether tbe . . . new electronic' teachers enrich the '•'••

"schools will depend on whether prog-"rams are well prepared,' whether teachers are made partners in tbe process, and, above i l l , whether schools bave an education plan before" ' they purchase equipment.; -.-. • '•

• The challenge is not to view compu- ' ters as tbe enemy; nor is it to convert -the school into a video game factory. V Rather, tbe challenge is So build "a partnerhip between traditional and

between the wealthiest and the poorest school districts with instructional com- . ... . . puters was nearly IS percent. A year Uon-traditionaJ education, letting each later the gap had grown to slightly less. d o »*»» '< do. than 26 percent. • This last finding is particularly dis-turbing. It supports tbe claims of those who fear that the computer revolution may bypass disadvantaged students.

- The potential of technology is to free teachers from the rigidity of the sylla-bus and tap tbe imaginations of both teacher and student to an extent that ' has never been possible before. Today,

Children of the well to do will have "-teachers and school librarians can take access to the new information channels - instructional . .materials - .films, while children from poor homes that videocassettes, computer programs -do not bave the latest personal compu- and fit them appropriately into the ter, video recorders, and the like, will > curriculum. Such programs can help remain poor in information. They will students study on their own. fall further behind in the struggle for / l n the Song run electronic teachers equal opportunity. -i-v -V may provide exchanges of information,

Computers took like the perfect ideas, and experiences more effective-teachers. They never forget, are end- ly (certainly differently) than tradition-kssiy patient and provide exactly the aj teachers. The promise of the new same information for every student. • technologies is to enrich the studv of They can teach addition and advanced literature, science, mathematics, and . calculus with equal ease. Moreover,: the a m through words, pictures, and jtudesti attracted by the novelty of the ' auditory messages. To achieve the electronic teacher, seem to take to goal, technology must be linked to their studies with a renewed interest." <jchoo! objectives. - i j : . . . i — , • '

But, like all good education, it, But- computers cannot teach stu-wba s being taught that counts and ^ That is the mission of

.most of tlw so-called software available r ^ I t a c h c : and the classroom must be to schools ts rote and dull. Program ' a w h t r t l h e „ i t c h e s „ e W ! n e _ material often does not give students . « . . . the opportunity to go outside the ^ " J f T f , " " ' *«. I* ' narrow confines of l h e uninspired - - A b o v e all, the classroom should be a program, and frequently it is not where students are helped to put connected to school curriculum, -a tbeirovn, lives in perspective, to sort

While stating that computer insmic- - the bad from the good, the sixxSdy tion can free a teacher from repetitive from that which is eiegaat and endur-drills, Karen Sheingold of The Bank . F o r «his E « d D o t

Street College condudesthat", . ' .one computus. i - V ' * only has to took at a sampling of these * ; . ~ ' activities to raise questions about the The fluihor is former UntiedStates content, the pedagogical approach, the commissioner of education and prest-formats and even the errors in some o f . . dent of the Camtgie Foundation for the ^ the programs that are being used .^J"-,..Advancement of Teaching. .-. • ~

The problem I should like to list three factors •X'' which contributed to Robbins' impact:

Ours is to acknowledge the problem and to seek- alternative solutions.