Great post. You paint a truly bleak and scary picture. The thought of
databases certainly can conjure up Orwellian images. What I'm wrestling
with - as are we all - is trying to envision ways to use, in ways that are
more positive than negative, the incredible power to manipulate
information that computers and networks continue to open up. The school
mental model that I'm working from is about as far from your dystopian
vision as possible... the small democratic learning communities of the
EdVisions schools (http://www.edvisions.coop/). Although they are
project-based schools they rely on extensive and elaborate rubrics and
checklists to make certain that their students meet state standards.
Another example of this type of project-based work that is tied to
standards is provided in this video about a San Francisco based design
program. (http://www.edutopia.org/learning-design)
I think what we've seen with one-to-one laptop programs (at least at many
schools) is illustrative of how the concerns that computers (and sofware
like databases) might be dehumanizing ... kids sitting isolated staring at
their computer screens and not socializing ... turned out to be more a
fear of change and the new than anything related to what has actually
happened. Laptops turn out to be incredibly supportive of socialization
and our hallways are full of clusters of kids talking, reading books,
working on paper, working on their laptops, sharing (not file sharing...
just, good old fashioned... hey, look at this, or listen to this)
pictures, songs and movies. The dystopian vision that providing students
with laptops would promote social isolation turned out not only to be
false, but almost the opposite of what has actually happened. Although you
would need to feel your way forward carefully, and be testing, and
evaluating and rethinking and modifying all along the way, I suspect that
like with laptops, database driven learning -added to the best of what we
already do- is more likely to create a more humane learning environment
instead of the one you so effectively portray.
Fred
A forum for independent school educators <ISED-L@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU> writes:
>Classification: UNCLASSIFIED
>Caveats: NONE
>
>Fred,
>
>There is always peril equal to the promise of technology. In the
>interest of promoting discussion I offer a dystopian version of such a
>system.
>
>Students are placed in large study halls (100-200 students) for 5 hours
>a day for independent learning. Study halls are monitored by poorly
>paid "teaching assistants" with no educational training. Students work
>on courseware that has been purchased from the 3-5 primary content
>providers that recruit telegenic "education personalities" to present
>the content created by teams of experts with impressive credentials but
>no classroom experience. The courseware choices lean heavily towards
>the state standards of California, Texas and New York (based on
>population). Some providers allow local teachers to upload their own
>content but media-tuned students tend to view them as amateurish and
>ignore them.
>
>Students have thousands of courses to choose from and can move at their
>own pace but most follow "recommended" tracks because experimenting with
>variations takes too much time and then they fail their weekly automated
>progress assessments which requires a visit to a counselor. Video TAs
>are housed in call centers around the country to answer questions in
>video sessions and live chats. Most follow scripts and their
>performance reviews are based on exit surveys presented to students so
>they frequently give students "hints" to improve their progress through
>the courseware and earn better reviews. Students look at on-line
>discussions and group work with trepidation because they know the
>conversations are data-mined and used to improve anti-plagiarism tools.
>
>Students have 2 hours of classes with teachers each day. Teachers
>generally cobble together a career out of visiting 3-5 schools a week
>for classes. A single teacher typically serves 100-500 students.
>Students initially failed interim assessments as a way of getting
>individual attention and getting out of study hall but as the courseware
>improved attending too many "teacher based" classes stigmatized students
>as SPED. Grading and evaluation is done by educational processors that
>use AI to look for key words and arguments and are QCed by humans on a
>random basis to assure the quality of the AI. There are hundreds of
>sites dedicated to gaming the AI and the courseware but TurnItIn and
>others have branched out with programs that analyze usage patterns and
>parents are emailed automated expulsion notices if their students
>exhibit browsing behaviors that appear to be intended to game or probe
>the courseware. Cozy ties between courseware providers and assessors
>yield numerous grade inflation scandals.
>
>Boutique independent schools crop-up offering parents "computer-less
>classes" with social, emotional and educational benefits of human
>interaction.
>
>_Jason
>___________________________________
>
>Jason Johnson - Program Director
>Web Services Branch - Walter Reed Army Medical Center Ingenium (ISO
>9001:2000 certified)
>Office: 202-782-1047
>Cell: 202-262-0516
>jason.johnson@ingenium.net
>jason.p.johnson2@us.army.mil
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>
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Submissions to ISED-L are released under a creative commons, attribution, non-commercial, share-alike license.
