There were no networks, Windows PC’s (just Apple II computers with no hard drives) laptops, touchscreen tablets, internet access or cellular phones. Decide for yourself if we have provided a learning environment and philosophy that allows students to be self directed learners and critical thinkers that prepares them for today's world.
SCHOOLDAYS 1991
Vision of Student Life in the Next Decade
By Ricky Carter
Terry and Susan Smith are on their way to school. It is a sunny day in May sometime in the 1990's. Terry is 15 and Susan is 6. Each one is carrying a dynabook: a small booksized electronic device with a display screen and a small touch-sensitive typewriter keyboard. This is the first year that children as young as Susan have been given dynabooks to use. Terry didn't have one when he first entered school.
Susan was particularly excited about having a dynabook because of its capacity to generate music. Susan loves music and when she got her dynabook last week Terry promised to teach her how to use it. After using his own dynabook to edit and illustrate a story he was working on last night, Terry listened to Susan read him a personalized computer-generated story that her teacher had loaded into dynabook. (It was about a girl name Susan who loved music. It used words that Susan knew plus few new ones she was just learning.) Then Terry taught Susan how to spell a few of the commands needed to use the dynabook as a music machine so she could compose her own tunes.
Although school does not formally begin until 8:30 the children arrive at 8:00. The school is open early for students who want to work on special projects. Susan plans to make an animated picture to go with the tune she has been accepted for distribution on the Computer Games Network. They are supposed to hear today.
After saying goodbye to Susan, Terry goes to his classroom. It does not look like a traditional classroom at all. Instead of desks facing a chalkboard, situated around the edge of the room are clusters of workstations. Each workstations consists of a large computer screen "desk" with a built -in keyboard; underneath is a series of switches and plugs that enable the user to connect his or her station to any student or teacher in the school, the resource library, or one of the national information networks. There is also a place to plug in a dynabook.
The center of the classroom is divided into a series of flexible areas that can be adapted for a small or large discussion group. At one end of the room are several large tables where children can work with a variety of math, science, or art materials that are stored on shelves in the wall. At the classrooms opposite end is a large video screen for displaying movies or for interclass communication. Next to the screen is a printing terminal. Terry enters his classroom and goes to his workstation. After turning it on and signing in he types the command:
>Mail?
To see if anyone has left him any messages. There are in fact several; one is from the resource library telling him that a new film on sharks - a particular interest of Terry's-has become available. He types the command:
>Schedule
and his schedule for the day is displayed. The message said that there will be a group showing of the film at 10:00, or it could be shown on Terry's workstation at his convenience. Seeing he has a free period, he signs up to see it with other members of a shark interest group at 10:00 in the Discussion Center.
Terry clears his screen and asks for his next message. It is from a friend who moved to California last month. Jose's note says that no, he hasn't seen any sharks, but one of the girls in the new class does know a lot about them and said she would be glad to connect with him.
These were the only message - nothing from the game distribution center. Next Terry checks to see if any of the game's co-author's are "on line" with the command:
>Listusers
but none of them are so he plugs in his dynabook and transfer the new illustrated version of his story into the memory of his workstation. He then starts a program named "Spell" which checks the spelling of each of the words in his story, displays any misspelled ones, which Terry then corrects, and adds them to his individual spelling list. Later in the day he will do some practice exercises to work on them.
Now he wants to see what his story looks like so he has it displayed on his screen. He decides he wants to change the background color of one of his illustrations and types in command to do it. He then uses a special "light" pen to enlarge the tail of a shark in one picture. Finally he decides to add one more shark to his illustration. At his command a grid is projected over his picture and Terry types in the coordinates of the place where he wants the new shark to be placed. He then gives commands for it to be reproduced at 1/2 size. These proved too small, so he erases the new shark and ask for it at 2/3. This still looks too small so he tries 5/6: just right. After finishing he uses the following commands:
>Save
>Sendcopy: Mrs. Feldman
to store in his workstation's memory, and also send an electronic "copy" to his teacher's workstation for comments.
Looking up from his work now, Terry sees that several of his friends have arrived. He joins them and they talk until 8:30 when Mrs. Johnson, their homeroom teacher, calls a whole-class meeting. She begins with an outline of group activities for the day, and then makes a few announcements. The last one is about a group of High School students who have been creating a simulation of the settling of their town and would like a few children to evaluate it. Terry wants to try it, thinking it might give him some ideas he sees Jeff, one of his co-authors signing up and feels better.
After the meeting Terry returns to his workstation to plan his day. He tells the station to display his schedule and the " things to do" list that he keeps in the station's memory. The shark film has already been entered into his schedule at 10:00. He decides to invite his friend David from another class to watch it with him. After checking to see if David receiving messages he types an invitation which is automatically transferred to David's workstation. But David types back that he can't attend because he has a Science lab.
Tomorrow at 1:30 Terry and two other reporters from the school newspaper are scheduled for a half-hour teleconference interview with a man in California who has set a New World hang gliding record. They will meet with their faculty advisor,
Mr. Parrish, at noon today to select their interview questions. Each reporter has made a list of questions, and Terry recalls that the other sent him their lists yesterday; he decides to set aside 11:30 to 12:00 to review them.
In History, Terry is studying the early explorers and has been involved in a Columbus' Voyage Simulation for the past week. He is in charge of provisions for one of the ships and will need to do some preparation before the next session, which is scheduled for 2:00. He sets aside 11:00 to 11:30 for that.
His writing groups will meet at 12:00 and Terry wants to do some final editing of his story, so he sets aside 12:30 to 1:00 for that, hoping Mrs. Feldman will have had a chance to go over it before then. Next Terry looks at his "to do" list. He has some math exercises to finish and also a worm dissection to perform by the end of the week for his biology class. He types:
>General Schedule
>Science Dissection Lab
to connect to the school master schedule and the science lad dissection chart. He sees that there is a dissection lab scheduled for 10:00 tomorrow with two open spaces, checks his schedule and signs up.
It is now 8:45, Terry decides to work on his Math in the time left before the shark movie. He connects to the resource library, identifies himself and is given the choice of a shape-generating geometry activity and an algebra project in which will have to work out equations to he navigate a rocket to the moon. He chooses the rocket algebra. After he completes the exercise the computer prints some question asking him how he was trying to solve the problems. Based on his answer it recommends a particular remedial lesson (Math is not one of Terry's strongest subject). He decides to put his off until the afternoon because he notices that his message light is on. He clears his screen and asks for the message.
It is a note from Mrs. Feldman saying she has looked at the story he sent her and has made a few comments. Terry asks the message to continue and reads the comments. Since he still has half hour until 10:00 he decides to work on editing his story now. He types in a command that display the latest version of the story on his screen; he also wants to see Mrs. Feldman's comments and has them showed next to his story on the display screen. The workplace is large enough to allow several things to be displayed at once. The screen is also sensitive to touch and Terry is able to "erase" or insert words or even move sentences around by touching them with his fingers. He is trying to work out a conclusion. Mrs. Feldman has suggested combing his current conclusion with one from an earlier version, which is stored in the memory of his workstation; he asks for it to be displayed next to his current version and his teacher's notes. Terry begins to work, trying different conclusions.
After half an hour the light flashes at the top of his screen letting him know that it is five minutes until 10:00. Still undecided between two versions of his conclusion, Terry decides to take both of them to his writing group and get other opinions. He saves the two versions he has written in his workplace and also types command for them to be printed out in multiple copies on the classroom printer so he can take them to his writing group.
Terry turns off his workstation and goes across the room to his friend Jeff who is also in the sharks special interest groups. Jeff has his earphones on - he is just finishing the town settlement simulation game with his friend Nancy, who is at home recovering from a cold but has connected her home telecommunications system to Jeff's workstation. They have composed a critique of the simulation and Jeff is sending it to the group who devised it.
Terry asks if Jeff got any new ideas from the game. As they walk to the room where the shark group is meeting, Jeff explains that the simulation gave him a whole new idea about how to use probabilities to determine whether someone gets put out or not. Terry suggests that the High School students who made the simulation might be willing to help them apply it to their game.
When Terry returns to his workstation at 11:00 and turns it on, he finds his message light on. Terry asks for his message: it is from the game distribution center. He calls Jeff over and they read it. The game center has not accepted their baseball simulation for distribution, but has accepted it for review. They will send it out to number of reviewers for comments. Jeff and Terry are very excited and immediately contact Steve, the third member of their group; he is in an English class, so they leave him a message.
The Columbus simulation is next on Terry's schedule, so he sits down for work. In the simulation they have been at sea for couple of months and navigator (his friend Sandy) thinks they will reach the New World soon. In his job as Provisioner Terry is in charge of rationing food and gathering more once they reach land. To prepare for the simulation he had studied nutrition to help in choosing what provisions to take. He now has to figure out how much food and water they have left and what they will need for the return voyage. First, he wants to get some sense of what might be available in the New World. He types
>Library
>Data
to connect to the resource library and switch to a database search mode. He then types in a set of descriptors to indicate the information he is looking for
: tropical environment
: plant life
: animal life
: edible
: food
The database responds with lists of possible sources that are at Terry's academic level. From the list Terry chooses a short film on edible tropical plants. The Columbus simulation includes a lot of video material so he wants to be able to recognize edible plants. He asks for the film to be displayed on his workstation screen and takes notes. His next step will be to look up the nutritional values of each plant…
This is a picture of what schools could be like in the 1990's. In terms of what is possible this forecast is probably a bit conservative - all of the technologies described actually exist at this moment. Whether the picture becomes a reality will depend on how schools and communities respond to these technologies as their cost decline and they become more generally available.
Will schools respond by simply entrenching old practices, using such technologies as electric workbooks, electronic page-turners, and digital managers that lead the child through narrow sets of skill sequences? Or will schools be able to adapt their vision of learning to the new potentials for variety and independence offered by these technologies?
The answers to these questions will depend on the decisions we make.