Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 1

The topic of education has been at the forefront of national news for

sometime now. During this year’s gubernatorial election in Texas, for example,

every candidate addressed the issue, focusing on the need to improve public

schools. Today, more than ever before, it is critical that this country and each

school district evaluate the methodologies used in the classroom. The influence

of a richly visual and entertaining world places new demands on teachers as they

must compete with the high level of stimulus students receive from watching

television, surfing the Internet and playing games in complex virtual

environments. Traditional models of education that call for extensive reading are

becoming outmoded since students learn differently because of media saturation.

Rapidly changing technology places new demands on students and teachers

alike, and while many students are adept at using computers and other electronic

devices, many school systems are simply incorporating technology into the

school environment by providing opportunities to learn software, to do research

and to access information on the Internet. Beginning with the assumption that

some schools do not use technology to its greatest potential in the classroom,

and taking into consideration the idea that students are learning differently

because of the influence of technology and visual culture, one must ask what

teaching methods will best prepare students for the ever increasing rapid pace of

life in the future. How can technology assist the learning process in such an

environment? Clearly, we cannot know with certainty what the future holds, but I

think we can assume that certain mental habits such as focused attention, mental

agility, as well as creative decision making and collaboration will be required for

survival in the years to come.

Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 2

Survival is the central focus for animals, and since humans are part of the

animal kingdom, they, too, are concerned with matters of survival. Animals must

survive in their environment: they must forge or hunt for food; they must defend

themselves against predators; they must reproduce to perpetuate their species

and protect their young. Adequate food and water supply is the most basic need

for survival in the wild. Without this, an animal dies. If that supply is diminished,

animals often migrate to a different location to find resources. This requires that

they learn rapidly about new environments; they are driven by this most basic

need to enter into the unknown. For example, the Meerkat living in the Kalahari

desert in Africa often move to new mounds when the food supply is diminished in

the old one. They do this by instinct. In any environment, these animals are

highly focused and keenly aware of their surroundings because they must be

attuned to hidden sources of water or food, and they must protect themselves

and their young from predators. This heightened sense of awareness driven by

the basic physiological need for sustenance is critical to survival in their ever-

changing environment.

While most students are not faced with such dire circumstances as a lack

of food or water, nor are they faced with annihilation by a predator, they do face

similar circumstances in that they must rely on a sound yet flexible internal

system that will enable them to be successful in their environments. Moving into

any new situation requires a learning process that enables the student to assess

the situation quickly, make mental note of differences and similarities from

previous models and decide on a course of action. Like the animal, students

face complex situations in daily life that require them to shift and change rapidly.
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 3

This requires focused attention. If students are indeed learning differently

because of the rich visual and auditory stimulation they receive on a daily basis

from computers and television, then can reading, writing and discussion really

prepare that student with the focused attention necessary for survival in a rapidly

changing world? Can the quiet, contemplative act of reading and writing really

be sufficient rehearsal for the cacophony of modern technological life? Can

classroom lecture and discussion really be entertaining enough for the person

who is accustomed to ten minute segments followed by three minutes of

commercials, both of which offer a high level of visual and mental stimulation?

This is not to say that reading will become an unnecessary skill or that classroom

discussion will be rendered completely ineffectual, but it is to say that reading

alone or classroom lecture/discussion alone may not be sufficient practice to

create a mental habit that develops focus and rapid decision making abilities.

Most educators today agree that real learning takes place by doing or by

practice. In writing a paper, developing a presentation or crafting a project,

students learn by applying information in new and different ways. Young children

spend countless hours learning the symbols of language by repetitive action.

They vocalize the sounds of individual letters; they gain the requisite motor skills

to form those letters on paper; they learn how those letters sound in tandem with

one another to form words; and they learn how those words string together to

form sentences.

This is really a secondary stage in the acquisition of language as these

children have long since been speaking, an auditory and verbal skill developed

through interaction with others before they enter the world of formal education.
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 4

The repetition of language and writing skills creates new models of

understanding and new possibilities of interacting with the world. They provide a

foundation upon which new knowledge can be acquired. Yet, as children begin

to explore more complex levels of knowledge, does the model of repetition

continue to be an effective mode of learning? And is it enough to maintain the

focused attention and interest of a student who has been exposed to a rich

media world? Can a student maintain interest, for example, in history when the

only requirement is the memorization of facts, dates and geography? Or will a

short story or novel be meaningful and exciting enough to capture the student’s

imagination when explored through the lens of structure, form and elements of

story? It is not that these formal elements are unnecessary to comprehension, it

may be difficult, however, for a student who has been exposed to a highly visual

and auditory environment to fully engage with the written texts of literature and

history in such a way that will be inviting enough for them to commit some level

of investment in the way they imagine and understand these stories.

It may be that students today require more interactive environments in

which to engage their imaginations in the acquisition of historical and literary

sensibilities. If focused attention and mental agility are crucial habits necessary

for survival in the years to come, then perhaps much is to be gained by including

virtual environments that engage students in gaming situations where they must

interact within a pre-scripted context and make decisions that influence the

outcome of the game.

Clearly, watching young people play video games reveals their level of

focused attention. They are quietly engaged in a world of story that requires that
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 5

they follow certain rules, make decisions, and then the game penalizes them if

they make mistakes. The process of making mistakes and learning what not to

do in order to proceed into higher levels in the game seems to be critical in the

gaming environment. When players make mistakes in a game, they lose points,

levels or tools, and they must replay that scenario again in order to regain their

status. This level of focused attention coupled with the concept of making

mistakes in an environment where the stakes are low seems a good model for

experiential and active learning within the classroom in many subject areas.

For example, in playing a game about The Odyssey, students might watch

an entertaining animated segment about Odysseus’ encounter with the Cyclops.

After watching this, the students might read the passage in the book, followed by

a group discussion. Then, they might engage collectively in a game where

certain details must be recalled in order to successfully complete the mission.

They must remember that Odysseus dismantled the Cyclops power by gouging

the monster’s eye out, that he used the trick of “Nobody” to subvert the

monster’s plea for help, and that he and his men escaped by hiding underneath

the belly of the rams. Upon completion of this task, a teacher might lead a

conversation where he or she discusses the strategies used in the ploy. Then

students could create a new game within a virtual environment where they

implement those strategies in another scenario.

One might assume that this new game, like the one about Odysseus,

would require a certain skill level in programming. However, instead of actual

programming, the student would simply choose from given characters and story

lines that would already be pre-programmed according to the desired outcome.

Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 6

Namely, the students demonstrate they have understood the character’s

strategies and can apply those strategies in a different scenario. There could be

several “right” answers, and each of those answers would simulate a different

story.

During an October address to Arts & Technology graduate students,

Dennis Kratz of, Dean of the Arts & Humanities at the University of Texas at

Dallas, cites Odysseus as the best example of the new modern man. Dean Kratz

acknowledged this character’s unique storytelling abilities and asserted that this

skill will be requisite in the years to come. By engaging verbally, aurally, visually

and creatively with this story, students gain the skills that Odysseus himself

possessed. Namely, they begin to act upon the skill of strategically implementing

creative solutions in the context of a new environment.

Instead of simply reading the poem, the students begin by watching the

short animated clip, and they become interested. They are engaged initially with

a medium that is both familiar and interesting to them. After they become

interested, then reading and discussion follow. In this way, both technology and

traditional teaching models have been employed. The collective gaming

opportunity serves as a testing tool, and finally, the creative game creation allows

the students to use their knowledge in different settings with a variety of “right”

choices available. Through this process, students will not only remember the

story itself by having the character of Odysseus embedded in their memory, but

they will also possess a strategic skill that will enable them to better succeed in a

variety of settings. Thus, it seems, that this type of virtual “play” could enhance

the learner’s experience of a classic text.

Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 7

The idea of “play” in a classroom environment has become a popular

method of teaching. Students engage in activities such as a quiz show, a mock

jury, and various types of contest-like scenarios. In doing this, students learn

through active engagement and collaboration. However, the word “play” is not

often associated with the idea of learning. More often than not, learning is more

closely aligned with the term “work.” For example, teachers assign “homework.”

Students take exams in order to test the mastery of information; the level of

competency they have achieved measures them individually. It is the idea of

“work”, it seems, that places a certain degree of stress in the classroom that

often thwarts the learning process.

It is my understanding that in the Japanese language, the idea of work or

any activity is often translated to signify something like “playing at” doing

something. This conception, I think, might be a better way of re-imagining

learning activities. The underlying metaphor of “work” when attached to learning

seems to suggest a hard won effort that can be tedious and exhausting.

The idea of play, however, contains a necessary component of leisure. If

students are “playing at” a learning activity, they are relaxed, engaged and

having fun. With a relaxed mind, a student is more receptive and willing to

participate, and therefore experiences a higher potential for learning. School

years offer the most valuable and available leisure time many people will have in

their lifetime, and therefore this time could be used to gain the optimal learning

results through play.

In like manner, most young animals often have the leisure time to play and

frolic with one another since they do not yet have the responsibility or the
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 8

necessary skills for hunting for their own food or protecting themselves. This

play, however, serves a larger purpose than just the activity itself. When small

animals engage in physical sparring with one another, they are essentially

rehearsing for potential conflict with predators. They build strength and motor

coordination that will give them a greater degree of competency in defending

themselves in dangerous situations when they become adults.

In addition to building physical stamina through play, these animals also

bond with their siblings and other members of their group. This bonding process

enables the individual members of the group to recognize and trust the other

members so they will all cooperate with one another in the daily tasks of finding

food and ensuring protection. For example, the Meerkat band together in

“mobs.” This group works together to dig their mounds, find small insects for

food and protect their young. This ability to collectively engage with one another

offers a higher potential for the survival of both the individual Meerkat and the

species as a whole.

Effective collaboration is also a skill that students will need in life, and the

classroom can serve as the perfect theater in which students can actively engage

in this practice. In many educational settings, the theme seems to be individual

accomplishment coupled with competition against others. For example, in the

current test taking model, upon which final performance is assessed, students

work individually, teachers encourage them not to “cheat,” and test moderators

canvas the room to ensure that students eyes are stoically focused on their own

work. This model seems to enable the students who are better test takers to be

the ones who rise to the top. Those who are poor test takers sink to the bottom,
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 9

and their intellectual capabilities are often overlooked. There might be many

reasons why one student might be a better test taker than another, yet it seems

that this model fosters the idea that it is the individual alone who must excel.

Cooperative work in test taking is generally not deemed an accurate

measurement of a student’s progress.

However, in later life, especially with the ever-increasing modes of

electronic communication and technology, students must learn effective

collaboration skills in order to thrive. Technology has brought with it a need for

interactive problem solving because of the given complexities it presents. As a

very simplistic example, one great mind could not conceive how to implement an

entire telecommunications system in a small country because too much

specialized knowledge is required in many different fields in order to implement

the system.

While any business leader knows that he or she will need many different

types of people with different skill sets to accomplish a job of this scope, many

people have not had the opportunity to “rehearse” for this intensive level of

cooperation. Instead of a steady flow of communication across division and

department lines, some groups close down the information stream in order to

benefit their own group within the company. Rather than understanding the

dynamic of the whole and relating that to a cooperative effort, they see

themselves and their own group as in competition with others from the same

organization. This can result in inefficiencies and failures at all levels of the

company.
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 10

It is important to recognize that this is not meant to imply that the

education system has left people under-prepared for cooperation and teamwork.

Rather, it is to suggest that when people first begin working in the business

world, they may have been exposed only to cooperative learning through

activities such as sports, clubs, band, choir and other group-based organizations.

While in some classes students have the opportunity to work with others on

group projects and presentations, rarely, in academics (except maybe in the

sciences) are students invited or encouraged to work with other members of their

class to creatively engage in collective work. This lack of cooperative learning, I

suggest, could be rectified through effective technology-based solutions.

One of those solutions could include classroom participation in a gaming

environment to learn about a literary work. I recently encountered a research

project founded by a partnership between MIT and the University of Wisconsin,

Madison that was created to investigate the possibilities of effectively utilizing

gaming in the learning environment. In a videotaped segment of his opening

remarks at the 2005 Games in Education Conference held in Los Angeles, Henry

Jenkins III, Director of the MIT department of Comparative Media Studies asserts

that the goal of some researchers in the field of educational gaming is to “engage

students more intensely in their real world environments and to tackle problems

confronting their own communities”

(http://www.educationarcade.org/files/videos/conf2005/1-

EAOpeningRemarks.mov). This organization created a game for learning

history. Titled “Revolution,” students interactively engage in the everyday life of

Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 11

the small colonial town of Williamsburg prior to the American Revolution. As

stated in the description of the game, the students:

“collaborate, debate, and compete, all within a simulation that maintains

historical suspension of disbelief with graphical and behavioral accuracy.

Revolution combines the best elements of live classroom role-playing

exercises and period drama films to provide a new kind of teaching

resource for understanding American history.”

(http://www.educationarcade.org/revolution)

This new method of learning the realities of pre-war America through a virtual

medium seems to support the idea that cooperative learning can be enhanced

through the use of technology, especially when considered in tandem with the

understanding that the imagination of many students has been informed by the

constant presence of rich media in their everyday life.

Students are constantly confronted with narrative visualizations that have

been constructed by someone’s imaginative storytelling and technical talents.

Even before the advent of television, film and the Internet, students learned

about history and literature through artworks they encountered in their school

textbook. For example, in Benjamin West’s Penn’s Treaty With the Indians,

students gain a sense of the everyday life of colonial Pennsylvania by observing

the way the artist rendered the garments worn by both the colonists and the

natives. They could learn about the architecture of the day and the landscape of

the town. They might engage in a conversation about how the compositional

structure of the painting might imply the inevitable demise of the natives since

they are grouped together near the dark forest, or how the placement of the
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 12

colonists near the open sea might suggest the white man’s capabilities of

exploration.

The idea of engaging with a visual medium in order to facilitate learning is

not new; it is just different. Early cave paintings reveal information about how the

people of that time experienced the daily activity of hunting. Ancient Roman and

Greek ruins unearth fragmented structures that were at one time fully operational

public spaces. Icons from the Middle Ages were used to instruct believers in the

Christian faith, and paintings from the Reformation period were often used as a

tool of the Catholic Church to reinforce their doctrines during a time when many

believers were drawn to the newly formed Protestant teachings. The paintings of

pre-revolutionary America, France and England, as well as those of Hitler’s

regime, were methods of propaganda to communicate and ideology to large

numbers of people. In late 1800’s America, many of Edwin Church’s landscape

paintings were placed in venues, and the visual experience of those paintings

were sold as entertainment.

Clearly, the visual technology of any given time in history has been used

for both educational and entertainment purposes. Yet, gathering information

about colonial life by looking at a painting from that period is quite different than

watching a dramatic film or playing an interactive video game about the same

subject. Because moving images and virtual spaces more readily simulate

everyday experience, they have the potential to more actively engage the

viewer’s imagination and interest. Thus, since most students have been exposed

to such a vast variety of rich media, we can assume that their imaginations are

tuned differently than those who did not experience this type of stimulation. In
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 13

light of this, educational methodologies that employ only reading, writing and

discussion must be reconsidered and re-engineered to incorporate rich media

into the classroom experience.

Yet, this can only be accomplished with by giving the student access to

technology, namely computers. As stated earlier, most school districts have had

computers in the classroom for sometime. In the beginning, designated rooms

that housed desktop computers were the norm. Students attended daily

sessions where they had opportunities to use the computer for a variety of tasks

from playing educational games to practicing typing and learning software to

researching a given topic.

Today, however, some school districts provide laptop computers to every

student for a fee, especially students at the high school level, and they offer

wireless and open access to the Internet. This practice, it seems, may have

been implemented as a result of the demand that students be technologically

adept by the time they complete their studies. Most state standards now require

that each and every class somehow incorporate technological resources into

their learning modules.

However valiant this goal, the idea of spending tax dollars to provide

laptop computers for students to use in the classroom and to take home seems

somewhat economically excessive. And providing open wireless access to the

Internet within the classroom seems irresponsible. While it is clear that students

must have access to a computer in order to incorporate virtual gaming in the

classroom, the answer is decidedly not to provide laptops with open Internet

access.
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 14

I cite two reasons for my contention against providing laptops for every

student to use at will: first, laptops are more expensive than desktops, and the

amount of resources consumed in purchasing and maintaining this equipment

must be enormous; second, if students are actively engaged with technology

within the classroom itself, there is no reason that they should need to take the

computer home.

One solution might be to redesign the classroom desktop. Most

classrooms I have visited are aesthetically unappealing with a sense of the past

lingering in the drabness of the walls. Desks are placed row by row, each

student facing the back of another. This is unsightly and ineffective when taken

in consideration with a cooperative learning model.

When students interact in virtual environments through gaming, this is not

the only interaction they will have. Group discussion requires that students see

one another. Many teachers have moved square tables and desks to facilitate a

seminar discussion group, and to some extent this has been adequate. But, if

we are really serious about fostering public education and including technology in

every classroom experience, perhaps there is a new model for the desk as well.

These new desks could be a contiguous semi-circle with retractable

monitors and wireless keyboard storage at each student “location” along the desk

surface. These monitors could be wirelessly connected to a central computer

from which all activity would take place and be under the complete control of the

instructor. Essentially, students would “share” the software for gaming, word

processing and other resources pertaining to the learning experience. I could

envision these as monitors similar to the “dummy terminals” used by data entry
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 15

operators in the days of the mainframe. Both the desk and the classroom itself

would be white for aesthetic purposes and have clean lines to avoid unnecessary

visual distractions. Each monitor setting need not be a stand-alone desktop unit

that must be individually maintained, but rather a portal for information for the

student s to collectively access. With an in-classroom network, students can

collectively participate in gaming modules, watch digital movies and create

collaborative presentations and projects. With this type of desk design, students

would also be able to face one another while engaging in conversation. The

monitor could simply be stored when not in use, making the desk a contiguous

workspace for verbal collaborative activities.

In terms of cost, it is impossible to weigh the differences between the cost

of the traditional desktop or laptop and this type of design since it has not been

developed. However, I speculate that the cost of both acquiring such equipment

would be less than or equivalent to the purchase of traditional units, and the cost

of maintaining them would be considerably less given the fact that there is only

one “real” computer per classroom and that the teacher controls the access to

the information.

As for providing open access wireless Internet, this practice seems

irresponsible. While the Internet is a great source of information, it is also a

social space and an easy means for all types of communication. When students

have open access, they have an open avenue for conversing with their friends,

which is what they would prefer to do over learning because the current model is

so boring. This type of interaction however great it is outside the classroom, can

avert the student’s attention to more pressing desires, such as uncovering the
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 16

dramatic personal events so prevalent in teenage life, not to mention the vast

amounts of information that should not be included in the classroom.

This distraction, however, does not create an environment where students

can hone their abilities to focus. Therefore, it seems more reasonable to provide

a closed classroom network, coupled with access to such resources as library

databases and learning tools like Blackboard. Teachers could have codes by

which they could control access to the Web. In this way, students do not have

the available resources for out-of-classroom communication nor do they have

access to information that does not pertain to the immediate learning experience.

They would be required to concentrate on the task at hand (and hopefully have

fun while doing it), which would then foster the much-needed skill of focused

attention.

In summary, as a culture, we are as yet not entirely clear about what skills

will be required for future survival. We can assume, however, with the certain

continuation of the rapid pace of information transfer, that students will at the

very least need to be able to have some level of focused attention during the

learning process.

While in their everyday life they have become avid users of technological

devices that require multi-tasking capabilities, in the classroom, a certain level of

focus must be given to the experience at hand. Multi-tasking might take place

during a gaming situation, but the student could still be focused on the game

itself rather than chatting with friends, emailing and talking on cell phones. Like

the little Meerkat who is constantly aware of the sights and sounds of his

environment in order to shield himself from danger, students can gain the skill to
Opinion: Using Technology to Improve the Classroom Experience 17

direct their attention to the world, notice change and respond accordingly when

given the opportunity to participate in focused and interactive learning.

Also like the Meerkat who, as a group, assist one another in daily survival,

students who engage in cooperative learning activities will be rehearsing for the

realities of a world that will increasingly demand collaboration through the use of

technology. Finally, as Dennis Kratz suggested, creativity will be a primary skill

for learners and workers of the future. In an ever-changing environment flooded

by visual media and new technologies, creativity takes a leading role, as does

imagination. Albert Einstein once said, “Imagination is more important than

knowledge, for knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while

imagination embraces the entire world.” This, I think, is a specifically important

consideration since technology itself embraces the entire world.