The technology of teaching

Unfortunately, many schools fail to accomplish their primary goal: the education of their students. The immediate causes of this failure are the boredom and chaos that students experience in their classrooms.

One reason for the chaos in schools is the existence of poor home environments with poor parenting. The worst of the 'poor home environments' are those that are rich in hostile, destructive, and demeaning interactions. Some victims of terrible home life bring disruptive behaviors into the classroom. Schools, which ought to offer respite from the chaos of certain homes, too often give students just more of the same. Thus, classrooms can inflict more emotional torments than boredom. In the worst cases, some students fear for their lives. Too often, even in the absence of such extreme circumstances, classrooms are still chaotic; some students actively resist learning, and a few of those make learning difficult for those who want to be educated.

Even frivolous communication is sometimes disruptive to serious study. In far too many situations, disruptions are typical; the time for serious study is drastically short. Without discipline to avoid or minimize the distractions presented by popular electronic media outside of school and without the discipline to focus on the subjects being taught within the schools, students are likely to underachieve or fail in their academic lives.

Closely associated with the self-defeating behaviors fostered by improper upbringing is the fairly common failure in our society to value adequately primary and secondary education. While most people clearly see the advantages that accrue to graduates of professional schools--lawyers, doctors and business leaders tend to do very well financially--many people fail to promote early education as a way to develop highly successful adults.

Another reason for the failure of schools is inadequate or downright incompetent teachers. Although some teachers do not have a very deep knowledge of their subjects, most teachers who have earned certifications have at least a minimal command of the material they are employed to present to their classes. Some teachers who have an adequate or even outstanding command of their subjects are boring: they are unable to present their courses in a way that captivates students and motivates them to want to learn more. Still other teachers who have all the knowledge necessary are incapable of controlling disruptive students and thus cannot prevent chaos from breaking out in their classrooms.

Most of us can focus on our conversations in bustling restaurants; we can tune out the noise. When students can focus on their work despite the hubbub, they might be very productive, and education in those circumstances may proceed apace. But we are unrealistic and unfair to expect that students will always or often do so in noisy, disorderly classrooms.

Yet another reason for the failure of schools is the antiquated methodology of education. The methods of education lag far behind the technologies used in commercial media. The great innovators in technologies related to communication put most of their efforts into products for the broader, more lucrative markets than educational institutions. Typically, the greatest amounts of money go to the most profitable ventures--not education. Education is relatively poor financially, and as a result, the technologies it can employ are very backward.

Outside of the classroom, most students have access to cellphones, cable television, DVD and Blu-ray players, computers with broadband connections to the Internet, movies with groundbreaking advances in special effects. While these technologies have matured and become commonplace in most of our lives, they have remained for the most part outside of the classroom; the promise they offer has not been realized in the schools. Some of the difficulties that teachers face result from the students comparing the typical classroom situation to the much better produced and much more exciting media available on TV, in movie theaters, and on the Web. Now, more than ever, with extremely strong competition for their attention, students get bored with school.

Nothing can substitute completely for competent teachers and supportive homes for students, but the effective use of certain electronic technologies can help the schools to achieve better results. Some widely available technologies offer great improvements on the practice of lecturing to a group of students.

A computer can be a personal trainer: it can be a tireless assistant available at any time of the day or night. Machines are infinitely patient. Teachers can be irritated when students ask them to repeat a statement over and over again. People often resent interruptions, but mechanical devices do not. Podcasts and videos can be paused, searched, and replayed countless times. Students with access to the Internet can stop most presentations online and search the stores of information to fill in the gaps in their knowledge.

And with private access to educational technology, students can avoid the social pressures and embarrassment associated with asking particular questions or trying to get help while in the presence of a group.

With effective programming, computers can easily test the factual knowledge or computational abilities of students, and they can easily track the progress of students and adapt lessons to particular degrees of competence.

DVD and Blu-ray players, and computers with connections to the Internet, offer access to materials that may provide better instruction than what we have come to expect from undistinguished teachers. Most students are happy when uninteresting teachers provide them a break from uninformative, incomprehensible or monotonous presentations by showing a video that affords a much richer experience.

As high-quality educational courses from sources like The Teaching Company become more widely distributed, as lectures from instructors at Stanford, Harvard, and MIT and other institutions of higher learning continue to be offered online, as virtual conferences become increasingly popular, as virtual worlds like Second Life continue to develop, students everywhere--in and out of traditional schools--will have increased opportunities for intellectual development.

Some argue that computers foster social isolation. To be sure, watching a movie in a theater with many other viewers is different from, and arguably better than, watching a movie at home alone. But to do well, students need some quiet time and even some time alone--at least time alone with their thoughts. The point of a lecture on math, economics or history is not to foster relationships among classmates; it is not to help students develop social skills. It is to impart knowledge to individuals.

Socializing should not play a part in the classrooms where teachers expect students to master information about particular subjects. Solitude is not essential: a library or study hall can be filled with people focused on their respective subjects. Where the mastery of subject matter is important, the best situation filters out extraneous social interactions that impede learning and then totally immerses the student in the lesson of the moment. Computers can facilitate the necessary disconnection of the individual from the immediate physical and social environment to promote the riveting of attention on a subject of interest in educational cyberspace.

But no one should expect that the use of electronic technologies can accomplish all the goals of education. We do not and should never expect computers to provide answers to all the questions that students might have. Interactions between teachers and students will always remain vital in any program of education.

Apart from their mission of imparting factual knowledge and computational skills, schools must also focus on training their students to be interactive, cooperative, contributing members of society. Socialization is an essential component of education. Learning respect for others, acquiring tolerance for the diversity of opinions, gaining openness to new ideas, developing skills for having productive conversations--all of these are crucial to human development.

Nothing should prevent schools from offering classes focused on socialization. These classes would feature face-to-face discussions and public speaking. They would provide lessons in which students focus on interactions with each other, where they can ask questions and get answers from classmates, debate ideas, learn to communicate in courteous ways that advance not only their factual knowledge and conceptual understanding of particular subjects but also their prospects for developing lasting, satisfying relationships.

Computers and computer networks will continue to make inroads to education. As the VCR freed us from the constraints of the TV program schedule, opportunities for getting instruction online will free more and more people to pursue their education without having to attend classes at particular times and places at exorbitant costs. Education will become at once more diffused and more focused: 'diffused' meaning distributed throughout society, available to greater numbers of citizens at all times of the day and in all phases of their lives, 'focused' meaning centered on the needs of individuals--starting where they are and taking them where they want to go.

While the greatest growth in education will occur outside the traditional schools, school buildings will not disappear in the near future. But if they are to remain relevant to our society, they must allow a technological transformation within their walls. In any case, people want education to be free from boredom and chaos. And cyberspace offers education a considerable promise of liberation from both.