Approved-By:  "EDTECH Moderator" <21765EDT@MSU.BITNET>
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edtech
Date:         Wed, 22 Jul 1992 22:34:39 EDT
From:         WIGNALL@VALPO.BITNET
Subject:      RE: Technology and curriculum reform

Dave Mandell at St. Mary's wrote an observation/question that triggered
an immediate response in me. He asked if there was something about edtech
that was demonstrably better, or something about today's students that
"mandates the use of multimedia.."
Yes and yes.

Educational technology, be it chalk and slideshows or interactive multimedia,
brings a new set of channels to the information transfer process. The
limited channels available to us now, such as the live lecture, slideshow,
or video, are all limited by the level of interaction educators are used
to managing. We attempt to increase the "bandwidth" of a lecture with
visuals and discussions but the whole process is altered very little.
Conservative faculty members want to do content presentations, maybe a
little discussion and problem solving, maybe some lab work, and then we
test to prove the effect. Educational technology has not yet made the
impact it will on the teaching/learning process because we are trying to
insert it into this old approach. This approach still insists the teacher
is the center of the universe, the students should only be tested after
all the content has been presented to them on a platter, and that the content
of the course should be presented gradually across the semester like a tide.

Shoving educational technology down a faculty members throat does not work.
As someone once told me, "You can't teach a pig to sing for two reasons. It
can't be done, and it annoys the pig." The better approach is to change the
process. Make the process more efficient by asking the learner to do more
active learning, not just accept more. By using problem solving with computer-
based exercises students are in control of both the pace and the depth of
learning which the teacher can increase through tougher, better questions
and more focused material. The teacher still presents information but is
more of a manager than infogod at the podium. (My term can be applied to
anyone who has the arrogance to structure a course with over 75% lecture.)

Applications that prove the approach..
PC-Solve by Pacific Crest Software (it come with learning guides for subjects
across the disciplines.--it's a shame it can't teach me to type-- there is also
a Mac-Solve available. This program is math heavy, already used by engineering
, math, physics, and other courses but it's potential is trememdous.)

Works, yes the software by Microsoft, (it comes with text, modeling, and
charting tools built in. The software is powerful to most of us because
it uses familiar models i.e. writing, spreadsheets, and data lists. But it
could be much more powerful if it was used as an integrated tool within a
discipline.

Hypercard or Toolbook, these interactive programs allow students to create
links in the information they would otherwise simply regurgitate on paper in
a linear form. Most students actually do the outline for papers after they
write it. Hypertext programs allow learners to do the research as they would
in a 'traditional way' but the learner must also provide a format, guide, and
linkages to other related information. You ask more of them, you get more
from them.

As for multimedia, it's what we do already do now in most liberal arts
courses, but in a primitive manner. Interactive multimedia allows for
learner-centered education by placing the learner in the driver's seat.
Students today are provided a vast array of information, much of it raw
data, and rarely asked to distill it into cogent lessons. Conservative faculty
balk at the idea of edtech not because it causes problems for tenure or
because it is too cumbersome. They lived with tapes, and films, and slides,
and typing, and photocopying, and stenos, etc. for years. The problem with
edtech is that it will change the paradigm. With fewer 18-22 year old students,
fewer residential students, more older students who need retraining, and
less money going to the classroom the paradigm has problems anyway. Edtech
does not solve anything. It changes everything.

Successful edtech in the humanities provides context. When the learner can
read the philosophy with art, music, architecture, and political background
available at the touch of a mouse the philosophy is more than readable--it's
in a context that explains more than any footnote could. Multimedia then
provides for a content rich environment to explore information--information
that now exists hundreds of journals, books, recordings, and images. Access
to this information is now faster and more effecient with edtech resources.
The Joel Wyatt challenge to EDUCOM, Zenith's Masters of Innovation, and other
programs are asking for solutions. Some work, some don't. The real problem
now is plowing through the multimedia sales approach offered by some large
multinational computer companies (that will go nameless...). Digital video
and multitasking are great techie buzzwords but they do more harm than good
when read by already tepid faculty. What we need now are users, not sellers.
That's one thing I hope to get from this list.

I'll now return this soapbox to the rightful owner...

Eric Wignall
Wignall@Valpo.Bitnet
Manager, Instructional Media Center
Valparaiso University
Valparaiso, IN 46383
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU