Professional Documents
Culture Documents
The Evolution
of Information
Technology:
Implications
for Curriculum
Schools must change
their curriculums to reflect
the changes technology is
making in the workplace.
.
questions such as:
How many jobs will be available
intelligence as basic cognitive skills
increasingly shift to the tool’s portion
(Gorry et al. 1988), and new types of
interpersonal skills will be needed for
.
in the early part of the next century?
What will be the mix of skilled .
of the partnership.
Methods of assessment will alter
occupational roles in which computer-
mediated communication is important
.
and unskilled positions?
Will sufficient “middle class” oc-
cupations be available to prevent a
f rom measuring mastery of descriptive
k nowledge to evaluating attainment of
h igher-order skills. Developing tech-
(Kiesler et al. 1984). In such an eco-
nomic environment, adults who lack
sophisticated experiences in shared ma-
polarization of wealth in society, or n ological methods for collecting and chine-enhanced interaction may be at a
will most such jobs be deskilled by a nalyzing detailed performance data disadvantage (Reder and Schwab 1988).
.
intelligent machines?
How will these technological and
economic shifts affect equity?
c ould greatly improve the assessment
of individual learning needs (Office of
Technology Assessment 1988b). For
Students in conventional classroom set-
tings have few opportunities to build
skills of cooperation, compromise, and
A reasonable assumption is that, e xample, we could easily collect the group decision making; shifts in teach-
during the next decade, developed exact hesitation time a student took ing must occur so that computer-sup-
countries' economies will evolve so as b efore each problem-solving step in ported collaborative learning becomes a
to generate some knowledge-added
occupational roles and many lower-
skill jobs. Eventually, however, if the
learning subtraction; this could be
.
aluable diagnostic information.
“Learning-while-doing” will be-
.
major type of student interaction.
Interlinked “educational informa-
tion utilities” that supply access to a
majority of the population is to have ome a more significant component variety of data, tools, and training
interesting, well-paid work roles, edu- f occupational education, as com- might emerge (Dede 1985). For exam-
cators must help shape the needs of ined computer and telecommunica- ple, a device may soon be marketed
the emerging workplace rather than tions technologies allow delivery of that combines the attributes of the
merely respond to present trends
(Levin and Rumberger 1987).
Three New NSBA Reports Available
Implications for Curriculum
Design and Content
Three new reports from the National School Boards Association may help educators
As the American workplace begins to make greater use of technology. Planning for Telecommunications: A School
use intelligent devices, the goals, con- Leader’s Primer gives an overview of technology used for “distance learning” in
tent, and clients of education will alter schools. On Line, Financing Strategies for Educational Technology explains ways
(Office of Technology Assessment that school districts can obtain funds to purchase and implement technology.
1988a). The impact of knowledge Thinking about Technology in Schools: A 1988 Snapshot reports on a survey of 773
bases on the content and design of the of the nation’s largest school districts regarding their attitudes and experiences with
school curriculum will be profound. technology. Single copies of the first two reports are $12; single copies of Thinking
T O illustrate, here are some potential about Technology in Schools are $35. Available from NSBA's Institute for the
Transfer of Technology to Education, 1680 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314.
SEPTEMBER 1989
telephone, radio, television, video- Dede, C.J. (1988b). “The Probable Evolu-
tape, computer, copier, and printing tion of Artificial Intelligence Based Edu-
press. If I heard an item of interest cational Devices.” Technological Fore-
casting and Social Change 34: 115-133.
while watching the nightly news, push-
ing a function key could output arti- As the workplace Gorry, G.A., A.M. Burger, R.J. Chaney, K.B.
cles on that topic from major newspa- shifts to an Long, and C.M. Tausk. (1988). “Com-
puter Support for Biomedical Work
pers. Scanning those might produce
keywords of interest; another key- emphasis on group Groups." Proceedings of the Conference
task performance
on Computer-Supported Cooperative
stroke would trigger a knowledge Work (September 26-28, 1988; Portland,
base search. From the list of articles
that resulted, I might identify the name
and problem Oreg.), pp 39-51. New York: Association
for Computing Machinery.
of a researcher active in this field; yet solving, Kiesler, S., J. Siegel, and T.W. McGuire.
another command would dial that per-
son’s work number. If no one an-
collaborative (1984). “Social Psychological Aspects of
Computer-Mediated Communication.”
swered, a final keystroke could send learning will American Psychologist 39: 1123-1 134.
become more
Kraft , P. (1987). “Computers and the Auto-
an electronic mail message. All this mation of Work.” In Technology and the
integration may seem merely a gain in
speed, but from that perspective the important. Transformation of White Collar Work,
edited by R.E. Kraut, pp. 99-112. Hills-
airplane is “just” a faster version of the dale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
automobile. Such a device could be settings, a greater emphasis on collab- Levin, H.M., and R.W. Rumberger. (1987).
inexpensively accessible to a wide orative learning, a curricular shift from “Educational Requirements for New
range of users, altering the curriculum presenting data to evaluating and syn- Technologies: Visions, Possibilities, and
by shifting emphasis from acquiring thesizing ideas, a focus on solving Current Realities.” Educational Policy 1,
data to discussing and synthesizing real-world problems using concepts 3: 333-354.
.
ideas.
As discussed earlier, hypermedia
would enable a long-standing instruc-
and skills from multiple subject areas.
The most important barriers to this
evolution will not be technical or eco-
Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Con-
gress. (1988a). Technology and the
American Economic Transition: Choices
for the Future. Washington, D.C.: U.S.
tional goal: an integrated curriculum. nomic but conceptual and organiza- Government Printing Office.
In a hypertextbook series, the math tional; and, unless controlled, the out- Office of Technology Assessment, U.S. Con-
“book” would contain links to materi- come of these changes may be gress. (1988b). Power On: New Tools for
als in social studies, biology, history, undesirable. We must begin shaping Teaching and Learning. Washington,
language arts, and physical education. the use of these emerging tools now if D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
The important interrelationships we are to have a bright educational President’s Commission on Industrial Com-
among different subject areas could be future. petitiveness. (1985). Global Competition:
explicitly represented through con- The New Reality, vol. 2. Washington, D.C.:
1 U.S. Government Printing Office.
cept maps; students could modify For the interested reader, I have writ-
Reder, S., and R.G. Schwab. (1988). "The
these webs of linkages to help them ten detailed, annotated scenarios of sophis-
ticated “learning-while-doing” task perfor- Communicative Economy of the Work-
learn (Yankelovitch et al. 1985). The group: Multi-Channel Genres of Commu-
curriculum could shift from a subject- mance aids: an intelligent tutor and coach
nication." Proceedings of the Conference
(Dede 1987a) and a computer-supported
centered, disciplinary emphasis to a on Computer-Supported Cooperative
cooperative learning environment (Dede
focus on real-world problem solving 1988a). Work (September 26-28, 1988; Portland,
using perspectives and tools from Oreg.) pp. 354-368. New York: Associa-
multiple fields. tion for Computing Machinery.
References Reich, R.B. (1988). Education and the Next
Economy. Washington, D.C.: National
Using Tools Wisely Education Association.
Dede, C.J. (1985). “Assessing the Potential
Some claim that technological ad- of Educational Information Utilities." Li- Rumberger, RW. (1987). "The Potential
vances are driving the emergence of a brary Hi Tech 3, 4: 115-119. Impact of Technology on the Skill Re-
new era: industrial society is being Dede, C.J. (1987a). “Artificial Intelligence quirements of Future Jobs in the United
replaced by a civilization based on Applications to High Technology Train- States." In The Future Impact of Tech-
knowledge processing. Others dis- ing “Journal of Educational Communi- nology on Work and Education, edited
agree that the industrial economy is cations and Technology 35, 3: 163-181. by G. Burke and R.W. Rumberger, pp.
ending but do see many occupational Dede, C. J. (1987b). "Empowermg Environ- 174-192. New York: Falmer Press.
shifts as people implement new infor- ments, Hypermedia, and Microworlds." Yankelovitch, N., N. Meyrowitz, and A. van
mation technologies to aid in their The Computing Teacher 15, 3: 20-25. Dam. (October 1985). “Reading and
work. Dede. C.J. (1988a). “Emerging Information Writing the Electronic Book." Computer
Technologies of Interest for Postsecond- 18, 10: 15-30.
The implications for the school cur-
ary Occupational Education. " In Educa-
riculum and instructional practice tion Planning for Economic Develop-
could be profound: a new definition of ment, vol II, by K.M. Back, C.J. Dede, P. R. Christopher Dede is Professor, School of
human intelligence, more sophisti- Fama, and O.W. Markley, pp. 1-68. Aus- Education, University of Houston-Clear
cated methods of assessment, decen- tin, Tex.: Coordinating Board, Texas Col- Lake, 2700 Bay Area Blvd., Houston, TX
tralization of teaching into workplace lege and University System. 77058.
26 EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP