Re: SHAPE OF FUTURE SCHOOLING

["Lex Systems Inc." <lex@THE.LINK.CA>]

At 03:55 PM 6/15/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Hi Jim!
>
>I was disturbed by your message on the future of education. While I
>agree that technology can play a very important role in education, I
>think if we rely on a technology-based model of education, we will be
>missing out on a very important component of teaching and learning, that
>all-important human factor, which you seem to feel is unimportant.

>Many children rely on that hug, that pat on the back, that encouraging
>smile from their teachers. In my opinion, the best teachers are those
>who can combine all the factors you mention in your message with
>compassion, going the extra mile for students who need them. People who
>thirst for knowledge and who are self-motivated will thrive in the
>environment you picture. Others will smother or drown. We are there for
>ALL students, not only "the best and the brightest."
>
>I hesitated before writing this, left your message sitting in my Inbox,
>hoping that I might be able to simply ignore the message or that I would
>read it differently later, as I do not like to offend anyone. But, upon
>reflection, I feel this is just too important to be ignored.
>
Thanks for your reply.  I am surprised someone else didn't
take issue with me on the question of physical interaction lost
in Web instruction.  It is an argument that should be made,
and I am not personally offended in any way.

First of all, I should state that I am trying to predict what
IS going to happen rather than what should.  I am
most interested in what Web-instruction is GOING to do rather
than with the inevitable down side to this "social movement".

That being said, I am personally still optomistic about the
ratio of benefit to loss in our society.

Really, I would hope that room would be made for MORE positive human
interaction using Web instruction.  Bear in mind that this
time is made available from things like:

a. The 25 hours per week that each young person averages watching
television, which is pre-digested and non-interactive.  People
on the Net are human, they will tell you when they hurt, and will
react if you treat them unfairly. This is not the case with
television where injured bodies are somehow impersonal.  You
can learn how to play fairly on the Web.  You may or may not
learn that from cable-tv.

b. The interactive things going on in schools which are not
positive.  Have you ever sat around and asked people what junior
high was like for them? For every warm supportive moment there
are reports of 10 negative incidents in the halls, locker rooms, and
playgrounds.  I taught in 4 junior highs, and did my best.
For some kids I just prayed they would live through the
experience.  I must say that in all of those times I was
never impressed with the learning curve of the average student.

I have made the point that the world is going back to its
"small tribal" roots through the Internet.  If we succeed
in offering specialized courses on the WEB, we should free
time to allow for the development of small community youth
groups and other organizations to allow for positive human
interaction that will parallel the little-old-white
one-room schoolhouse.

All over North America, we have recognized the need to
disband the large instituions for the mentally infirm.
These places were soul-destroying (by in large) and
offered nothing but permanent live-in care without
much hope of eventual re-integration of the inmates.

Why then have we continued to build larger and larger
schools at the same time?  We are forever hoping that
larger schools will recognize an economy of scale, when
what we are really doing is building instituions large enough
to house their own ghettos.  What we gain in offering
those economies of scale is lost in producing an
environment detrimental to the well being of many kids.

I used to teach as many as 200 English students in a day.
That meant I could offer less than three minutes of interaction
per day per student.  Is there really a social gain for the
average student no matter how good a teacher I could be?

With the web offering access to the offerings of larger well-
staffed institutions, why in heaven's name would anyone WANT
to sent their kids to a  mega-secondary school?

Web-base instruction will likely not jeapordize
the small rural school, but it will threaten the
literal existence of mega schools. Even the local
football team can function in the outside community, a school
building is not essential to it.  There is no glue
sufficiently strong to hold a big school together
in the future.

Web-based instruction will also allow for more home
participation in education, and more social interaction
at that level.  This will likely be slow in coming though,
as one would suspect that many families have simply
lost the capacity to function as a social unit outside
such basic things as watching WWF wrestling together.






Jim Bruce

LEX SYSTEMS
Box 178 Dalmeny, SK,
Canada  S0K 1E0

Phone: 1-800-665-4828   or 306-254-2040
Fax:      1-306-254-2612
Web:    http://www.link.ca/~lex/
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