The waiter cleared away the lunch dishes and disappeared with the order for coffee when we got down to the really important talk. As always, it was about kids -- hers and mine. We had worked through the behaviour problems and trashed the latest toy trends when the conversation became heated. My friend, who lives on a modest budget and considers our once-every-other-month lunch a treat, wondered out loud if she should buy her seven-year-old daughter a computer. I threw one of my "are you serious" looks her way, rolled my eyes and asked, "Why does Julia need a computer?"
My friend leaned closer to the table. In a near whisper she confided that without a computer she feared her daughter would get "left behind" by the other kids.
Like many parents, my friend has been sold the idea that computers equal smart kids. Media, from ads to editorial copy, bombard us with the message that cyberspace is the place to be. Be there, or be square. Our childlike fascination with techno-toys invests them with a profound importance. Parents who once fretted over the availability of French Immersion classes now look for schools with a link to the World Wide Web. But in the rush to put a computer in every classroom, many school administrators and parents have neglected to ask the one really important question: why? What magic will happen when thousands, millions, maybe even billions are spent to electronically link schools?
Some answers may be found within the Centre for the Study of Computer in Education, a research unit operating within York University's Faculty of Education. Charged with examining the moral, ethical and educational implications of computers, the research unit is Canada's first university-based centre focusing on the educational use of computers. And although it's about to celebrate a 10th anniversary, the research work conducted here has never been more important. Established in 1987, the Centre's recent projects range from a three-year study of student writing and the impact of word processors on it, to working demonstrations of how computers can enhance the traditional lecture and tutorial format of post-secondary education.
Millions in tax dollars are being tossed into the largely untried and untested theories that computers help kids to be better readers and writers. "Getting the hardware into the schools is the easy part. How it becomes meaningful is the real challenge," says Stan Shapson, Dean of the Faculty of Education. "What is the value added that technology gives? We should be able to show it."
One of the key goals of the Centre is to help the next generation of teachers find a way to make computers an effective teaching tool. Knowing how to use the machinery is no longer good enough. Shapson says teachers must be able to challenge the technology and question its effectiveness. "We have to research the impact of initiatives to make sure they are effective. There have been too many educational bandwagons where the results don't match the enthusiasm."
In other words, putting computers in the classroom won't make kids any smarter. That's one thing critics and cyber-academics like York's Ron Owston seem to agree on. Owston, the founding director of the Centre for the Study of Computers in Education, is an enthusiastic web surfer who uses the techno tools of the internet in his courses. In a recent graduate course, 80 per cent of Owston's course content was taught on-line. His on-line seminars have allowed students in as many as three separate locations to exchange ideas in "class," bringing together students who normally would never meet. Shoot-from-the-hip comments, like the time-wasting blather that fills web chat rooms, are frowned on. Discussions are to the point and focused, with Owston assuming the role of facilitator. "They [the students] often ignore me in discussions that go on long after the class has ended," says Owston.
Over the course of their traditional studies, faculty of education students will pick up a variety of new skills, among them how to create a web site. While credit isn't given for computer skills, students build up a familiarity and comfort level with the technology. The idea is that as teachers they will apply these skills in their own classrooms, changing the way computers are used in traditional classrooms. "If computers are to have any real value as an educational tool, the approach to education has to change," says Owston. The Faculty of Education is accomplishing this through its involvement in national on-line learning projects. Faculty of Education professor Trevor Owen's work in this area has won international recognition, most notably for its Writers In Electronic Residence (WIER) program where Canadian poets, essayists, dramatists and fiction writers go on-line with elementary and secondary school students to critique and discuss their work.
