Information Technology Comes to the Classroom

 

William C. Wood James Madison University Harrisonburg, Virginia William Wood is a professor of economics and director of the Center for Economic Education at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.

Across the nation educators are beginning to learn the results of classroom experiments with information technology. Some of the experiments have been highly controlled and some have been undertaken more casually. Now that these experiments have begun to provide us with a sketch of what works well and what doesn't, this is a good time to pause and assess the results, considering potential benefits and costs. Considering the benefits and costs of information technology comes naturally to those who subscribe to the economic way of thinking. But it is an alien perspective to those who are convinced that technology is good, period, such that more technology will be better and technology surely will improve education. This view serves some of its proponents well by representing them as strong supporters of educational improvement, but uncritical enthusiasm does not necessarily lead to good policy.

Benefits of Technology
What are the benefits of applying information technology in classrooms? At least four have been identified to date.

1. Students have greater and more equal access to information. Access to information was once limited by the quality of the library and media center in a student's school. With the Internet, that is no longer true. Students now can have instant access to information from around the world and even from outer space. They can view important texts online and participate remotely in interactive experiments. Nowhere is this change more striking than in access to economic data. Anyone with an Internet connection now enjoys immediate access to economic data that once could be obtained only via major research libraries, often at a cost in time of several days or even weeks. (See page 22 for a list of Web sites to research economic data.)

2. Instructors can lead classroom activities with new ways of displaying information. Computer display equipment for class viewing used to be prohibitively expensive; now it is coming within reach. The new equipment makes it possible to add multimedia content to class presentations and to interact with computer models right in front of the class. The model can be as simple as one of ordinary addition or as complex as a simulation of monetary policy.

3. The reach of the classroom can be extended well beyond traditional boundaries. Interaction among students and teachers used to be limited to those physically present in the classroom. New technology now makes it almost as easy to interact with students halfway around the world as with students in the next county. Teachers are only beginning to discover the potential benefits involving students via the Internet in far-flung scientific expeditions and in explorations of the humanities in museums and libraries.

4. Students can become comfortable with ways of working and thinking that will be highly valued as they proceed through school and into the workforce. Knowledge and understanding of information technology is highly valued in the workforce. New ways of working and thinking go beyond simple computer skills; employers need workers who can work interactively and quickly in a team setting. Lage, Platt, and Treglia believe that technology can create what they call "the inverted classroom."¹ In such a classroom, events that used to take place outside of class would now take place inside, and vice versa. Simple lecture and learning of facts, for example, could be moved outside the classroom, to contexts in which good reasons are apparent for such learning. That would free up in-class time for what would otherwise have been homework but now becomes group-oriented problem-solving and interactive activities.

Costs of Technology
The costs of increased instructional technology are not easily evaluated. Some costs are monetary, but the more important ones may be opportunity costs - opportunities forgone when instructional technology is used more intensively. Three important categories of cost have been identified to date.

1. Integrating information technology has high resource costs. Technology has sometimes been sold as a means of reducing educational costs. Although this is true in a few selected areas, the more common experience is that technology increases costs. At the outset, there is the cost of new hardware, but that is only the beginning. School districts also must pay for software, training, and continuing support. (In the private sector, small firms often employ a full-time person for technical support services.) Many systems touted as money-savers over the long term are scrapped because of technological obsolescence before "the long term" ever arrives. Particularly in the educational use of Web sites, it is now clear that early estimates of cost have been unrealistically low. The problem is not starting up a Web site; that task has become inexpensive and relatively easy. It is no longer astounding or novel to learn that a teacher and class have established a Web site. However, it is less common to find that a classroom Web site is well-maintained and up-to-date or even that it resides continually at the same Internet address, so that others can gain access to it in the future. These and related qualitative features of Web technology generate costs over and above start-up costs.

2. Some uses of information technology lead to superficial instruction. New technology makes it possible for teachers and students to produce impressive-looking documents and Web sites. New software makes it easy for those with no training in statistics to produce credible-looking statistical analyses. New reference sources make it easy to quote Shakespeare without bothering to read Shakespeare. Still, the results of applying technology in this way prove to be impressive only to those who don't know the subject matter well. An electronically enhanced presentation lacking substance and insight looks hollow to those who are well informed, regardless of its sharp appearance.

3. Some important skills are not well taught with current technology. The most important skills we can teach are reading, writing, and analytical and critical thinking. These skills are still best taught by the live interaction of students and teachers. Recall that one benefit of information technology is its power to create engaging displays of information. However, when the lights go down and the projector comes on for an electronic slide show, students have a tendency to go into a "television-watching mode" rather than continuing to interact with the teacher.² In a way, new technology has allowed teachers to appreciate just how important a chalkboard or overhead projector can be. Using this familiar, low technology, the teacher can respond to any question or take a class in any direction that seems appropriate, without being constrained by the plan built into a prepared computer slide show.

Moving Forward
Although the opportunity costs of technology may be high, clearly some teachers are finding ways to overcome the costs and to generate substantial benefits for their students. In this issue of Econ-Exchange, we learn how four teachers have succeeded in delivering the benefits. In each case, the teacher began with excellent lesson content and enhanced it with technology.

Cynthia Weldon's "E-Commerce is Elementary" would be an outstanding plan for simulating business activity in the classroom even without technology. But its proposed use of technology — computers for production and the Internet for sales — extends the reach of the project well beyond that of traditional classroom simulations. Patricia Aigner and Katherine Richey's "Industry Under Fire" points the way toward a history and social studies unit that is challenging and comprehensive even without its technological component. The use of technology, however, makes its content more accessible to students with varied learning styles and helps teachers work on critical thinking skills, thanks to enhanced access to information via the Web. Lisa Herman-Ellison's "Making Federal Reserve Policy" describes a simulation that proves valuable for high school students even if they used outdated print statistics to write recommendations. But access to current economic indicators used by the Fed adds realism and interest to the exercise.

Summary
Experiments to date have shown that information technology has great potential to improve instruction. We already see some of the benefits. But the benefits can be oversold and, in the end, information technology serves as a complement to good teaching, not as a substitute for it.

References
1. Lage, M.J., Pratt, G.J., & Treglia, M. "Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment," Journal of Economic Education, 31:1 (Winter 2000), 30-43.
2. Parks, R.P. "Macro Principles, PowerPoint, and the Internet: Four Years of the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Journal of Economic Education, 30:3 (Summer 1999), 200-209.