Informational Technology and Its Impact on …

[Pages:36]Informational Technology and Its Impact on American Education

November 1982

NTIS order #PB83-174664

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 82-600608

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402

Foreword

Over the last decade, American education has come to face a number of new demands that must be met with limited resources. Many of these new demands arise from the rising dependence of our society on technology as a basis for domestic economic growth, international competitiveness, and national security. In October 1980, the House Committee on Education and Labor, its Subcommittee on Special Education, and the Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology of the House Committee on Science and Technology asked OTA to examine the extent to which information technology could serve American needs for education and training.

This report documents two basic sets of conclusions: 1. The so-called information revolution, driven by rapid advances in communica-

tion and computer technology, is profoundly affecting American education. It is changing the nature of what needs to be learned, who needs to learn it, who will provide it, and how it will be provided and paid for. 2. Information technology can potentially improve and enrich the educational services that traditional educational institutions provide, distribute education and training into new environments such as the home and office, reach new clients such as handicapped or homebound persons, and teach job-related skills in the use of technology. The OTA report provides an overview of the issues relating to the educational applications of the new information technologies. It examines both the demands that the information revolution will make on education and the opportunities afforded by the new information technologies to meet those demands. Rather than focusing on a single technology, it examines a wide variety of new information products and services such as those based on the combined capabilities of computers, telecommunications systems, and video technologies. Similarly, the report surveys a broad range of educational providers, and examines how the application of information technologies may affect their abilities to provide education and their respective educational roles. OTA acknowledges with thanks and appreciation the advice and counsel of the panel members, contractors, other agencies of Government, and individual participants who helped bring the study to completion.

/. //.

Informational Technology and Its Impact on American Education Advisory Panel

Willis Adcock Assistant Vice President Texas Instruments Inc.

Joel N. Bloom Director Franklin Institute Science Museum and Planetarium

Colleen Cayton Maxima Corp.

Robert L. Chartrand Congressional Research Service

Mark Curtis President Association of American Colleges

L. Linton Deck Fairfax County Schools (Virginia)

Sam Gibbon Bank Street College

Harold Howe, 11 Harvard Graduate School of Education

Robert Hoye Director, Instructional Technology University of Louisville

Judith Lozano Superintendent of Southside School District San Antonio, Tex.

Maurice Mitchell Chairman of the Board National Public Radio

Sarah Resnick President Media Systems Corp.

Vic Walling Stanford Research Institute

Nellouise Watkins Director, Computer Center Bennett College

Joe Wyatt Vice President for Administration Harvard University

Informational Technology and Its Impact on American Education Project Staff

John Andelin, Assistant Director, OTA Science, Information, and Natural Resources Division

Stephen E. Doyle* and Sam Hale,** Interim Program Manager Communication and Information Technologies Program

Fred W. Weingarten, Project Director Prudence S. Adler, Assistant Project Director***

Dorothy Linda Garcia, Analyst Beth A. Brown, In-House Consultant Susan F. Cohen, Congressional Fellow Linda G. Roberts, Consultant (Senior Associate, Department of Education on detail) Elizabeth Emanuel, Administrative Assistant

Shirley Gayheart, Secretary

Teresa Richroath, Secretary Jeanette Contee, Wordprocessor

Contractors Christopher Dede, University of Houston Beverly Hunter, Brian K. Waters, and Janice H. Laurence,

Human Resources Research Organization Sharon Lansing, Consultant Kathryn M. White, Editor, Writer Renee G. Ford, Tifford Producers, Ltd., Editor, Writer Deeana Nash, Collingwood Associates

OTA Publishing Staff

John Bergling

John C. Holmes, Publishing Officer

Kathie S. Boss Debra M. Datcher Doreen Cullen Donna Young

Joe Henson

v

Acknowledgments

The following individuals contributed as contractors or reviewers during the course of this study.

Richard Ballard, TALMIS Corp. Charles Benton, Films Inc. George Blank, Creative Computing Robert C. Bowen, McGraw-Hill Book Co. Dee Brock, Public Broadcasting Service

John Cameron, Department of Commerce Sylvania Charp, School District of Philadelphia Richard Diem, University of Texas at

San Antonio

Seymour Eskow, Rockland Community College Albert Goldberg, WCISD Jim Johnson, University of Iowa Valerie Klansek, Upper Midwest Region

Resource Center

Paul Larkin, Prince Georges Community College

Joe Lipson, WICAT Tom Loftis, Office of Personnel Management Arthur Melmed, Department of Education Andy Molnar, National Science Foundation Richard B. Otte, National Institute of Education Richard Robinson, Scholastic, Inc. Worth Scanland, U.S. Navy Patsy Vyner, Close Up Foundation Fred Wood, Department of Agriculture

Andy Zucker, Department of Education

Photo Credits

All photographs by Ted Spiegel, @1982, except for the following: Pages 17 and 31?IBM Corp. Page 36 (unnumbered) --National Science Foundation Page 150 (unnumbered) ?U.S. Department of Agriculture

Contents

Chapter

Page

I. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

The Information Society. . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Role of Information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Information Technologies . . . . . . . . . . 6

Impacts on Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . 7

New Needs for Education and

Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Case Studies on Information

Technology, ..,...,. . . . . . . . . . . 8

Potential Technological Solutions . . . 9

Policy Issues and Options . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Issues. ...,..,...,.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Options for Federal Action . . . . . . . . . 11

2. The United States as an Information Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Economic and Societal Impacts of

Information Technology. . . . . . . . . 16 Changing Economic Base of the Nation 19

3. Implications for Economic Growth and Human Capital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Knowledge and Growth . . . . . . . . . 25 Education and Growth . . . . . . . . . . . 27

Human Capital Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Need for Technical Education . . . . . . . . 29 Information Literacy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Information Professionals . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Information Scientists . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

4. Trends in Information Technology . . . . . 37 Findings ..., . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Communications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Cable . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Satellite Communication . . . . .,.. . . . . . 38

Digital Telephone Network. . . . . . . . . . . 39 Local Distribution Networks . . . . . . . . 40 New Broadcast Technologies . . . . . . . . . 41

Direct Broadcast Satellite. . . . . . . . . . 41 Low-Power Broadcast . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Desktop Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Hand-Held Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Human Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Storage Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Video Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Video Cassette Recorders . . . . . . . . . 47

Improved Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Filmless Camera . . . . . . . . . .,.. . . . . 47 Video Disk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Information Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter

Page

Videotex and Teletext . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Information Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Electronic Conferencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Advanced Business Services . . . . . . . . . 52

5. Educational Uses of Information Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Functions of Educational Technology, . 55

Passive Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Interactive Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Learning Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Information Resource . . . . . . . . . . 59 Administration and Instruction

Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Distribute Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Testing and Diagnosis. . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 Capabilities of Educational Technology 62 Cost and Effectiveness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63

6. The Provision of Education in the United States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Social Change and Education in America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

Elementary and Secondary Education . 70 Public Schools. ..,... . . . . . . . . . 70

Status of the American Public School System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

Future of the American Public

School System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Private Alternatives to Public

Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74 University and the Four-Year Colleges, 78

Public Role of Higher Education, . . . 78 Status of American Colleges and

Universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Two-Year and Community Colleges. . . . 83 Proprietary Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85

Status of Proprietary Schools . . . . 85 Characteristics of Proprietary

Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Markets Served by Proprietary

Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Applications of Information

Technology in Proprietary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Future Uses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91 Future Uses by Other Industry

Segments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Education in the Home. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Status of Education in the Home . . 92 Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Education in the Library . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Status of Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

vii

Contents--Continued

Chapter

Page

Museums. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Museum Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Status of Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98

Business and Labor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Role of Education in the Workplace . 100

Industry-Based Training and

Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

Trend Toward Decentralized

Instruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

Training: Investment. Expense. . . . 102

Relationship With Local Educational

Institutions and Industry-

SponsoredEducational Institutions 102

Information Technology in Corporate

Instruction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102

Factors That May Affect

Instructional Use of Technology . . . 103

Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Union-Sponsored Training and

Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Education Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

Other Types of Instructional

Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

Information Technology inUnion-

SponsoredInstruction . . . . . . . . . . . 107

7. State of Research and Development in Educational Technology . :. . . . . . . . . 111

Findings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Introduction and Background . . . . . . . . 111 Changing R&D Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Federal Funding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Private Funding. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Federal Commitment to Educational

Technology R&D, Fiscal Year 1982 116 Discontinued and Consolidated

Projects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118 Continuing Projects. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 New Grants for Fiscal Year 1982 . . . . . 121 Federal Support for Educational

Research Laboratories . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Educational Technology R&D Support

by Other Nations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 France . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 European Commission . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Implications of the Present Federal

Role in Educational Technology R&D . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Present and Future Support for

Educational Technology R&D . . . . . 125 Case Studies of Landmark R&D

Dissemination Efforts in Educational Technology . . . . . . . . . . 126

V.ll.l.

Chapter

Page

Case Study 1: Children's Television

Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126

Case Study 2: Development,

Production, and Marketing of

PLATO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

Case Study 3: Computer Curriculum

Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133

Case Study 4: CONDUIT . . . . . . . . . . 135

8. Conditions That May Affect the Further Application of Information Technology in Education . . . . . . . . . . 141

Available Data on Educational Applications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141

Microcomputers and Terminals Disk . 141

Videocassette Recorders and Video Cassette Recorders and Videodisk 143

Climate for Use of Information Technology in the Schools. . . . . . . . 143

Hardware and Educational Software

Vendors: Views of the Education Market . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145

Conditions Affecting Commercial Courseware Development . . . . . . . . . 146

Summary of Current Conditions . . . . . . 147

9. Federal Role in Education . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Education Legislation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 The Early Years: 1642-1860 . . . . . . . . 151 The Years 1860-1930 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152 The Expanding Federal Role:

1950-1970's . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 The Courts and Education . . . . . . . . . . . 157

Federal Role in Museums . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Federal Role in Libraries . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Effect of Federal Telecommunication

Regulation and Legislation on Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161 Governmental Control of Telecommunication. . . . . . . . . . . . . 161

Governmental Control of Education . 161 The Federal Communication

Commission and Educational Telecommunication Services . . . . . . 162 Instructional Television Fixed Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 The Public Broadcasting Service . . . . 164

Low Power Television and Direct Broadcast Satellites . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Cable Television . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164 Telecommunication Legislation and

Educational Services . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download