LAST Monday's Computimes articles "To PC or not PC" and "Is a £63m bill for school PCs worth it?" raised some important questions which need to be asked and are being asked in countries all over the world.
However, they are questions which ought to be examined in conjunction with some others. In such a short article it is difficult to address all the relevant issues, but we will try to focus on some of the other matters which are significant in trying to answer these questions.
Charles Handy in The Empty Raincoat. Making Sense of the Future says that every generation perceives itself as justifiably different from its predecessor, but plans as if its successor generation will be the same as them.
This time it needs to be different." He argues that to meet the challenge of the future many of our fixed views about work, education and society must change.
One of his key points is the necessity for the community to promote intelligence, which he maintains is and will be its main source of wealth. He contends that our education system must endeavour to make independent learners of all the pupils in our schools. "Technology, and the possibilities of the multimedia, will make independent learners of us all."
We expect schools to prepare our children adequately for their future. For that reason the education system, as well as transmitting what is best from our present and past, must also look to the future.
Information and communication technologies have already achieved prominence. Information is more and more available through the new technologies instead of merely on paper. How many parents have been surprised by the knowledge displayed by a child to find that the child had learned it from one of the newer media?
The school system, if it is to be relevant for the future life of children, must ensure that they have the skills not only to use these technologies but also to be able to find, retrieve, decipher, filter and assimilate the masses of information stored on tape and disk; in text, graphic and digital form, both near and at remote locations.
We need a new definition of literacy which must include the ability to comprehend not only text but also complex images and sounds. Children must learn to abstract from the volumes of material and the speed with which it arrives what is pertinent to their studies. Schools cannot deliver on this if they are deprived of these technologies.
The changing nature of the culture in which people, especially children, learn embodies technologies in an ever more pervasive way. The question can no longer be "should the new technologies be in schools?" but rather "why not?"
Children used to having their attention captured by video, TV and computer games are less motivated by chalk and text than previous generations. Can we seriously expect children to continue to find relevance in schools if the context of the teaching learning process is one which is technologically inferior?
Many teachers are using the new technologies to enhance the learning environment for their pupils. Even young children proudly display printed anthologies of their writing and produce regular newsletters and newspapers. Some have used email to relate to other children across cultural divides and come to an understanding of each other.
Video and the World Wide Web allow for the appreciation of life outside the immediate environment of the child. Many school classes visited the Kobe (Japan) site on the Web last year after the terrible earthquake there and had the opportunity to empathise with their peers and assist in their process of healing. The potential of the information and communication technologies is enormous and the resources for learning opportunities are on the increase.
If people have doubts about this potential they can see, how well it is exploited by visiting any of the many national or regional computer fairs organised by the Computer Education Society of Ireland and others, or the Young Scientists Exhibition and other competitions.
Cyril Drury, in a 1994 study of information technology in Irish post primary schools, reported: some schools are well equipped while others have severe resourcing problems." The situation at primary level is worse.
We should be very concerned. As the 1994 Bangemann Report to the European Union put it: "The main risk lies in the creation of a two tiered society of haves and have nots, in which only a part of the population has access to the new technology, is comfortable with it and can fully enjoy its benefits."
Recently we, as a nation, recognised that unless we invested heavily in our telephone network Ireland as an economic force would be gravely handicapped, hence a costly upgrading of telecommunications. Cost is still an issue but there are few who would argue that we made a mistake in improving our telephone system. Investment continues in many areas as the nation tries to keep up with the competition. Investment in information and communication technologies for our young is another national priority.
It will be financially expensive but it is a move we can ill afford not to take.