Revolutionizing technology in schools

This is the earliest of my writing seasons. I wrote this a few months before i started this blog. Well, consider this as premium version of this blog because you are about to hear my very first thought about empowering schools in Indonesia.

Enjoy reading,
Jaha

Revolutionizing technology in schools

Every culture must negotiate with technology, especially schools. The school may try to deny its existence or to acquire technology blindly in the case. The struggle of negotiating with technology has been around for thousand of years. Neil Postman of New York University described about King Thamus of Upper Egypt who entertained Theuth, God of invention. Thamus entertained every Theuth's inventions except when Theuth invented writings for the Egyptians. Thamus was afraid that "those who acquire it, will cease to exercise their memory and become forgetful." We all know that it is not true. We see that writings have revolutionized how knowledge is distributed.

It appears that school shares the same perception as Thamus had. Thomas Alva Edison once claimed that educational films would replace books in schools in the future. We are his future and we have not seen it happens, even in his homeland, America. Seymour Papert of Massachusetts Institute of Technology said similar things that computer would revolutionize schools. We will see it then.

To see how school perceives technology, we must go back in time to see what formed its perception. Indonesia does not have long educational technology history and therefore, let us learn from the American educational technology history. Larry Cuban of Stanford University did two research projects and wrote two books about how technology implementation at schools works. In his books - written in 1986 and 2001 - he consistently states how teacher feels about television and computers in schools. Cuban said that there is a cycle of technology implementation in schools. The cycle started with euphoria in implementing technology in schools. The next stage come in the cycle is the scientific credibility about how school can benefit from technology. But then there is growing frustration about technology because technology is imperfect. It cannot blend impeccably to life because it lacks of standard. At the final cycle, who gets all the blame? The teacher, who is the most important element in designing and operating the process in the implementation, gets the blame. However, they were left out when the decision of implementing the technology was made.

We can see the impact on Indonesia in terms of wasted financial resources; time; and disappointment. Look at our educational television. TPI who was founded in January 1991, betrayed it supporters such as PUSTEKKOM and the stake holders by changing its course into pursuing business goals rather than corporate social responsibility. TPI's inability to survive was because it was lacking of strategy to bring schools' interest in applying it in classrooms. TPI provided the product but forgot to teach the market how to use the product.

Now we see another trouble brewing in computer technology. When I was working at the first e-learning company in Indonesia, along with many APJII (Asosiasi Pengusaha Jasa Internet Indonesia - Association of Indonesian Internet Service Providers) members and many other promoters, we did an internet awareness campaign for education. It is called Sumpah Internet Pemuda 2000. We encouraged the schools to build internet lab on their premises with a lot of promises that it is going to be beneficial to schools' educational objectives. The cost keeps flowing in maintaining this facility; however, there is no value added to school’s objectives. The teacher, who has never been asked whether the school needs those technologies, gets the blame. It was the biggest sin that the industry made to the school. We brought them product but we never tell them how to use it in the classroom.

When teacher develops resistance to technology, this can lead to school’s failure in negotiating with technology. We can overcome this by breaking the cycle of failure like what Cuban said in five steps.

First, we must come to a common understanding about what is technology and what is educational technology. If clothing is a product of technology, would you consider school uniform as educational technology? If technology is state of the art gadgetries, consequently we must we exclude books in educational technology. Technology is both product and process. Lesson plan is educational technology because it is a process that supports education.

Secondly, we need to identify the right technology for school's situation. In educational technology discipline this is called media selection. In order to help students reproduce the knowledge, student can use the old fashioned writing assignment or website development. The objectives determine the chosen media. Both media deliver the same result of knowledge reproduction. Old fashion writing assignment helps students in organizing train of thoughts while website development help students doing hyperthinking or non-linear thinking.

Rome was not built in a day; the third step is to devise an action plan to improve school technology literacy. In order to train students to be able to do hyperthinking, students must be able to organize their train of thoughts first. These two can even be broken down into several tasks. The action plan requires not only, lesson plan but also financial support plan.

The school may decide that it is best to understand logic of computer early. One of the many procedures that teacher can use is integrating information searching and processing in the classroom. In teaching about cleanliness to a pre-schooler, teacher may include activity of looking for that information and verifying it. This activity will vary in each education level. Challenge the teachers and the students to find more efficient way to search and process the information. Better technology means more efficient technology, isn’t it? Therefore, in the fourth action, school needs to devise a guided procedure for implementing technology on day to day basis at school for each level of education.

Lastly, but not the least, school must involve teachers from the very beginning of the decision making. Prior to teacher’s involvement, teacher must be empowered by building teacher’s awareness of their technology choice and its impact to the classroom. By making the teachers interested and involved in the school’s course of action, teachers’ participation can be higher. Therefore it will decrease resistance from teachers.

Postman was right. This negotiation process takes a lot to bet on. The school's failure to negotiate with technology will cause what Postman said "The surrender of culture to technology" when school is dictated by technology or what Cuban said about teacher's resistance. You choose, both are not favorable for us.

Jaha Nababan is Fulbright Grantee, Kelly-Cabot Scholar and graduated from Boston University School of Education.