Technology as Support for School Structure and School Restructuring.

Schools can adopt computer technology without making any changes in their goals or organization. Or, as Mr. Newman shows, technology can be a catalyst in the creation of new structures for learning. School restructuring is currently a focus of many reform efforts that recognize that improving education requires changes in governance, modes of teacher/student interaction, incentives, and methods of evaluation. [1] The roles played by technology in schools and school restructuring are very much a matter of debate. While it has been common for technologists to paint scenarios in which schools are transformed by technology, other analysts of school change argue that technology will not penetrate beyond the margins of the school system. [2] By contrast, Allan Collins has argued in the Kappan that the rapidly growing role of technology in the workplace will drive the adoption of technology in schools and spur collateral changes, including a shift from lecturing to coaching and from a competitive to a cooperative social structure. [3] Both positions assume that technology and current practices are to some degree incompatible, an assumption that oversimplifies the potential impact of the adoption of technology. Much of the widespread implementation of computer technologies in schools is, in fact, quite compatible with existing structures. To support restructuring, however, technologies must be specifically molded to the task. I wish to describe a technology environment called Earth Lab that is intended to support a fundamental change in the school - a change away from isolated classrooms, compartmentalized curricula, and rigid class schedules. I begin with a contrasting case: a class of computer systems that are designed to fit into the existing school structure. The technology design itself does not determine the impact on the school. The contrast is largely in the way the technologies are typically used. The two systems are also contrasts in market success: in one case, there is a rapidly growing industry; in the other, a prototype system is slowly taking hold in just a handful of sites. SYSTEMS THAT FIT THE CURRENT STRUCTURE Computer technology is not inherently inconsistent with current school structures. In the past few years, a category of products has emerged that makes it quite easy for schools to acquire and use computer technology without making any major changes in their goals or organization. A report by the Educational Products Information Exchange (EPIE) Institute, an independent organization that provides consumer information, gives a detailed listing of this class of school technology, which is known as integrated learning systems (ILSs) gr integrated instructional systems (IISs). [4] These systems typically consist of networked personal computers with a file server that both delivers programs to the individual workstations and keeps records on the progress of individual students. The ILS software (or "courseware") covers most of the school curriculum - thus the term integrated. Systems are sold to school districts at a cost ranging from $60,000 to $180,000 or more for a "lab" of 20 to 30 stations. These systems are growing in popularity, according to the EPIE report, which estimates that sales doubled in 1989. The EPIE report documents a generally high level of satisfaction with ILSs on the part of teachers and students. The EPIE researchers also note that "teachers want more software options, and (along with students) they want ILS lessons to be more varied and less repetitious in instructional style (or, as students put it, |less boring'). "[5] Overwhelmingly, teachers say they would like to have the ILS stations in their own classrooms rather than in a lab so that the work can be better integrated with their curricula. In general, though, ILSs can be considered a successful implementation of computers: one that serves a perceived need and fits in well with the practices of the school. …