AOL, Microsoft, BT, the computer solutions company Research Machines and others are all offering a range of Internet provision for UK schools at no cost, a marginal cost or some subscription level depending on the services on offer. There are "Net Nannies" to keep children from wading into unsuitable web sites, "walled gardens", of curriculum materials and net guides published weekly recommending relevant and interesting web sites. The information explosion is here, but what is it doing for children’s learning?
Reports tell us that children are more motivated. Of course, having sat listening to a teacher all day, working from text books and watching occasional education programmes, any change from this will be welcome and motivating. The freedom to surf the net, finding new sites, and making decisions about where to go next are bound to be motivating in the beginning. Web sites are colourful and inviting and offer the potential to be stimulating sources of information.
Professor Stephen Hepple at Ultralab, UK has observed children working in his labs. Their ability to multi-task seems to be sharper than adults. Witness any children’s Saturday morning TV programme. Images move fast and furiously across the screen, sets are busy and flashy. Now move to the classroom scenario - this is passive and tame by comparison. The Web offers environments that are more familiar with the home setting them with school, so pupils feel more comfortable and less dependent on the teacher. Schools are about doing something the teacher has asked you to do, home is about doing what you want to do. What teachers and schools now have to do is harness that engagement and turn it into a productive and worthwhile learning experience.
However harnessing that learning may not be as simple as it seems. What skills are required for learning in the technological age? Are the traditional valued skills as important? Should we not be trying to find out how children learn in multi-tasking environments? Should there not be more research observing, watching and questioning children in the home environment about the computer games they play and the way they absorb information from television?
Data interrogation and interpretation skills are increasing in importance as the access to information becomes almost infinite and if learning from the web is to become more widespread and effective. Being able to select from the wealth of data that is available at the touch of a button requires understanding of keyword searches, an ability to be critical and sceptical of information and to select what is relevant for the purpose.
Students will need to have a strong sense of the questions they are asking, their metacognitive skills need to be developed in order for them to continually ask themselves the questions that will enable them to make informed judgements about the relevance and reliability of the information gathered. Leaving students to surf the net to find out about hedgehogs could leave many frustrated and bored after an hour online of fruitless searches. They need to have clear goals which they can be instrumental in setting and to be clear as to the purpose and intention of their search.
One solution might be for teachers to do an initial trawl of the Web first and to bookmark possible sites of interest, but they must be alert to the fact that this might be too prescriptive for some students and could curtail any natural sense of curiosity.
Inviting students to brainstorm the range of questions they might ask, selecting and answering a number of factual questions as well as "what if?" questions, refining their questions when they do not obtain the answers they are seeking are vital skills for encouraging autonomous learning. Key words must be selected carefully for searches in order to collect data quickly and effectively. The skills of data interpretation, questioning relevance and validation of findings all take time to learn, but are skills that will enable pupils to function effectively in the information age.
Teachers need this training too. These new technology skills are unfamiliar to many teachers - they often know far less than their students about new technology and this can be an uncomfortable and unfamiliar position for a teacher to be in and therefore a possible threat which might prevent them from using technology as an integral part of their teaching. Training needs to be not only about learning how to use new technologies, it also needs to be about relevant pedagogical models. The role of the teacher changes when there are other sources of interactive knowledge and information available in the classroom. The teacher no longer has control in this environment of what information students have access to and where it comes from. For some teachers this is a welcome experience, but for others the challenges it presents may be daunting and support for them in new ways of working is vital. Teachers are still an important and integral element of the educational process in that they challenge and guide students through the learning environment, but how to do this while encouraging pupil autonomy needs careful consideration and support through continuing professional development.
Another issue is in the infrastructure to support new technological innovation in schools. As stated at the beginning of this article, Internet provision is free of charge at the moment as operators vie for control of what is potentially a lucrative market. Cable companies installing free services in a school may be doing so in order to capture the home market and other schools in the locality. Their motivation is not always purely education and benevolent. Head teachers and principals need to be aware of what the market can offer before accepting what seem generous deals.
But even before that, what infrastructure do schools have to support the Web? Some schools are "IT rich" and linking to the Internet presents few problems, apart from telephone changes. However many others have "IT poor" environments. The Internet will not run on a 286 machines or the BBC Master (still a common computer in many UK schools). The only suitable machine may be on the head teacher’s or school secretary’s desk. This leads to inequalities especially if the "IT poor" schools are in areas where children do not have access to IT at home.
The gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" widens as home computing reaches the 40% mark, which the market believes is the current saturation point. In order to bridge that gap, schools need support in updating their IT provision and giving all pupils as much access as possible to the technology that is going to shape their future.
The Internet can be an effective tool for learning but more detailed research needs to be undertaken as to how it can be most effective, how it shapes learning and how the best tools for using it can be developed to support educators and their students.
Dr Michelle Selinger can be contacted at the School of Education, University
of Warwick, UK
Tel: +44 1203 522304 Fax: +44 1203 524110 Email: m.s.selinger@warwick.ac.uk.