Disclaimer

On the basis that each moment of life I am learning, and that this can and does mean that I change my mind, the reader should remain aware that nothing I say here is necessarily a true reflection of my current philosophy (not even this statement).

Philosophy on Education

Introduction

Dede made an interesting comment about the progression of communications technology in 1995, claiming that this technology had progressed so rapidly in the previous fifteen years that, calling the world-wide-web an ‘information superhighway’ is, "… the equivalent of someone in 1896 declaring that the airplane will be the canal system of the 20th century" (Dede, 1995).  What we consider the impact of technology to be must be considered carefully. In recent years a synthesis of communication technologies has served to continually extend the capabilities of networks. The scale of this trend suggests that the influence of these new technologies may well form an underlying mechanism for the future of education. From the perspective of curriculum development, these technologies are creating new challenges. Their impact is shifting educational focus from getting enough information, to the challenge of surviving amid so much information. A consequential change is that one of the core literacies now required for social and vocational fitness is the ability to filter and decipher knowledge. This is a fundamental change. Hardin puts it this way, 'Technology is affecting education in revolutionary ways, and the momentum toward these changes is irreversible (Hardin, 1998)

Curriculum and Technological Change

From the perspective influences on curriculum construction, technological change is redefining not only how we communicate, but in turn is redefining how we need to educate.  The ready availability of information has lessened the necessity of ROTE learning, but raises new issues in terms of effective searching and the development of an ability to evaluate information. The development of analytical skills and higher order thinking is increasingly an important focus. The stakeholders and interest groups in this process are many and varied, with pressure for change and reform brought from teachers, schools and school councils, government authorities, industry and students themselves. All have differing perspectives on the best curriculum planning models to deal with this change.

It is necessary to consider, what exactly is the change? The root of the change are in an increase in technological and networking capacity, but what are the ramifications for curriculum development, and interpretations necessary for the classroom? Many educators hold the view that computers and Internet connectivity are "tools" for learning and thus, an increased grade point average is often the only measure of value for technological resources. However, an important perspective for all educators, government administrators and school boards to consider is, that networking represents not just a new set of tools, but a new environment for learning and teaching. These communications technologies encourage new possibilities and develop new requirements. An outcomes based education policy must accept that the new communications technologies will impact upon core curriculum requirements and must influence diversity, context, assessment issues and practice. It is important to place our interpretation of current curriculum into as strong a future-proof context as possible and eventually, but not in the distant future, every student will need access to the information represented on the web in order to be competitive in their workplace.

Technology and Vocational Preparedness

While there are still vestiges of a liberal-humanist influence on our education system, a fundamental orientation of  state secondary education is towards an economic-rationalist agenda of vocationally oriented educational outcomes which in theory target industry needs, sometimes referred to as, "… human-capital theory" (Brady and Kennedy, p67, 1999).  Whether or not education based on this framework is a sound policy is in itself a topic for an essay, but for the purpose of this dialogue I must presume that vocational preparedness is a central preoccupation of the education system, and focus on the way curriculum addresses this. Most particularly, in what ways do the possibilities of technology influence curriculum developed to address vocational outcomes?  Traditionally, major decisions related to education course content arrive top down from administration, and are implemented by teachers who frequently spend all but a small portion of their day confined to a room in which students are rewarded for working quietly and independently. In contrast, success in business relies on collaboration and teamwork. The traditional education system is only just beginning to transform into an environment that encourages collaboration as a focus in learning. Emerging technologies can catalyse this change and in fact encourage new systems of collaborative development. This is a fundamental transformation, in which the archetypical education system, in both theory and practice, now has the tools and incentive to incorporate and facilitate a transition from providing information, to developing collaborative conceptual frameworks for educational activities. These changes are quite vital in a changing world increasingly dominated by the technologies of electronic communication and collaborative networking.

Curriculum Models and Technological Resources

 Kennedy states that, "…curriculum developers must reflect on actual practice to understand …(appropriate)…curriculum development practice" (Kennedy, 1984, cited in Brady and Kennedy, p 105, 1999). This statement applies to consideration of the issues raised by the implementation of technological studies within the educational curriculum. There is a debate about the cost / value relationship of technology in education. While technology may be able to provide long-term advantages in educational budgeting when resources are allocated towards efficient collaboration, this is however, dependent on a curriculum focus that identifies the need for collaboration and supports its' implementation. If this shift in curriculum focus is achieved, then technology can become a 'virtual' benefactor, providing the means to access greater resources than could otherwise be afforded, by virtue of the fact that resources so obtained can be broadly shared. A wide-band networked infrastructure with access to appropriate software tools allows students, classes, and teachers to access and produce online materials, do extensive collaborative work, and share instructional resources. The Internet, for example, provides online information and is a medium by which students and schools can communicate and collaborate, opening opportunities for broad consultation. In this way, Information Technology  infrastructures can impact on conventional instruction processes by expanding learning resources beyond individual teacher and school materials, providing lower cost sourcing of information and expertise, and providing communication links for isolated students.

 These advantages however are only accessible if curriculum models facilitate their implementation, if the funding levels match the rhetoric, and if expenditure decisions are appropriate. An assessment of current capacity in this regards shows mixed results. For example, according to participants within the Queensland IT Teachers forum, the Queensland Government recently agreed to approximate expenditure of $6,500,000 on Microsoft products over the next three years, with very little consultation on the effectiveness for schools of this software leasing methodology (Q-Site responses to Microsoft Agreement, 04.09.99 - 17-09.99). Decisions which are not collaborative risk the advancement of effective implementation of technology and can cause some degeneration of the entire education system, as very few areas are more expensive than technological infrastructure. Contrasted to this particular issue is Education Queenslands' demonstration of efforts to collaborate with educators, by providing assistance to find appropriate electronic resources, through their Electronic Resource Evaluation Project (EREP visited 25.07.99)

This point is important, as the cost of technology is frequently raised by advocates of barriers to incorporating technology into the educational environment.  Aside from the issue of appropriate decision making, blocks to the implementation of a strong technological infrastructure associated with an appropriate curriculum are largely psychosocial, more than they are technical or directly economic. It is about what we choose to spend money on. This is a policy issue, one which educators must over time address.

 In assessing the impact of technology it is unfortunate that no comprehensive national surveys have been done in Australia that this author could locate (1), however some analysis may be afforded of this issue by observing the following statistics from the Teaching, Learning, and Computing: 1998 National Survey Report #1, by the Centre for Research on Information Technology and Organizations at the University of California, Irvine and The University of Minnesota, published in February, 1999. This research was funded by the program of Research on Education Policy and Practice at the National Science Foundation and the Office of Educational Research and Improvement, U.S. Department of Education. While the statistics relate to the United States, they reflect a global trend in which Australia is participating.