Compelling ICT Educational Applications
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Introduction
This Page contains Part 2 and Part 3 of a sequence of eight 2000-2001 editorials I wrote for Leading and Learning with Technology.
The terminology "Compelling Application" was suggested by a student in my 1999-2000 graduate seminar on IT in Education. We were discussing "Killer Applications" and noted that this is not appropriate vocabulary for educational software. (There had been recent shootings in schools.)
The general concept of Compelling Applications has proven to be an effective way of telling part of the story of IT in education. Many people resonate with the terminology and can suggest examples of software that they have found compelling.
The general concept was used as a central theme in a Preparing Tomorrow's Teachers to use Technology proposal that I submitted to the US Department of Education in March of 2000. This proposal was funded at the level of approximately $425,000 a year for the three years beginning in June 2000.
The following 2000 Editorial from Learning and Leading with Technology captures the essence of a Compelling Application. In this IAE-pedia Wiki, I am particularly interested in Compelling Applications that can help improve our educational systems throughout the world.
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Roles of IT in Improving Our Educational System. Part 2: Compelling Applications
Moursund, D.G. (October 2000). Roles of IT in Improving Our Educational System. Part 2: Compelling Applications. Learning and Leading with Technology. Eugene, OR: ISTE.
When microcomputers first started to become popular in the late 1970s, most computer-using businesspeople viewed them with disdain. Microcomputers were underpowered and not particularly useful in solving the problems and accomplishing the types of tasks businesspeople faced. Instead, microcomputers were "toys" that might best be used to play games or solve inconsequential problems.
This attitude toward microcomputers was forever changed with the 1979 development of the first spreadsheet software. A spreadsheet running on a "toy" computer was a powerful aid to doing bookkeeping and accounting tasks. Moreover, the software made it relatively easy to incorporate formulas (for example, compound interest and payment schedules) to help solve a particular problem. Thus, the spreadsheet software could handle many of the types of real-world problems faced by businesspeople.
The spreadsheet had an additional feature, one that made it particularly compelling. A spreadsheet can be viewed as a type of mathematical model for a particular aspect of a business (such as payroll or inventory). With this computerized mathematical model, it is easy to ask "what if?" questions and get prompt answers.
Compelling Applications
Spreadsheet. From the point of view of businesspeople, the spreadsheet was the first compelling application of a microcomputer. For this particular group of people, spreadsheet software has the following characteristics:
- It is intrinsically motivating. (The user is intrinsically motivated to learn to use the software, because it is such a powerful aid to doing his or her job.) It empowers the user to solve problems and accomplish tasks that the user cannot readily accomplish without use of the software.
- It is reasonably priced. Indeed, the worker's increased productivity far overshadowed the cost of both a microcomputer and the software. Thus, it was advantageous to businesses to provide such facilities to their workers who had need for them.
- The time and effort needed to learn to use a spreadsheet is reasonable relative to the available time and capabilities of many businesspeople. One does not need to be a "rocket scientist" to learn to use a spreadsheet. In some sense, the compelling application embodies some of the knowledge of a field, so that the user can more rapidly gain a functional level of skill, as compared to a person who is learning how to do bookkeeping and accounting tasks by hand.
It is important to make two points here. First, compelling is in the eyes of the learner/user. Intrinsic motivation makes an application compelling.
Second, a compelling application empowers its user to do things that are not readily done without the computer system. Spreadsheet models, along with formulating and answering "what if?" questions, are very powerful aids to representing and solving business problems.
I suspect that most of us have not thought much about how the spreadsheet and other business software have changed business education. Essentially every high school in the country has replaced its typewriter labs with computer labs. Students now learn keyboarding instead of typing. They learn to represent and solve bookkeeping and accounting problems using spreadsheets and other accounting software. They learn to develop databases, and they do "electronic" filing. The more-modern business programs are now including a focus on e-commerce, preparing their students to work in this rapidly growing aspect of business.
Desktop publishing. The Macintosh computer that first became available in 1984, with its graphic user interface, was woefully underpowered. However, it had a mouse, and it came with both word processing (allowing multiple typefaces and font sizes) and graphics software. With the aid of a relatively inexpensive laser printer, the user of such a system could do professional-level desktop publishing. Take a look back at the three components I used to define a compelling application. Clearly, desktop publishing is a compelling application for many people.
Think about what this compelling application did for mechanical drawing, engineering drawing, and graphic arts curricula at the secondary school level. And, think about the spill over into journalism courses (e.g., the school newspaper and yearbook). Indeed, we are now beginning to expect that all students develop a reasonable level of knowledge and skill in the design and layout work required in desktop publishing, even in elementary school.
Two Key Questions
Now, I want you to think about two important questions.
- What evidence do we have that business students in our secondary schools are getting a better education because of IT?
- What are some additional examples of compelling applications that have had or have the potential to have a significant effect on our educational system?
The first question is important because it brings a new perspective to saying what constitutes an improvement in education. We no longer consider neat penmanship or speed and accuracy doing simple arithmetic to be major goals in business education. And although being good at spelling is still useful, its importance has decreased because of spelling checkers in word processors.
Nowadays, we want graduates who can think, and who can represent and solve the types of problems that are common to the academic areas they have studied. We want them to effectively use commonly available aids to represent and solve such problems, and we want them to be good at learning new aids as they come along. We want our graduates to have good interpersonal skills so they can work effectively with their fellow employees and with customers.
Our current business education program is much changed from the past. Relative to contemporary needs, our business curriculum from 25 years ago would be classified as "terrible." More than likely, 25 years in the future, our current business education program will be considered terrible. Because IT is such a powerful aid to solving the problems and accomplishing the tasks faced by businesspeople, we are trying to hit a rapidly moving target. (I hope you are saying to yourself: "Hmm. I wonder if there are other components of our educational system that are faced with similar difficulties because IT is changing so rapidly.")
The second question is important because it gets us started thinking about other changes that have already occurred in our educational system because of compelling applications. Moreover, it gets us thinking about whether there might be many compelling applications whose widespread use could lead to significant improvements in our educational system.
In Summary
Compelling applications from business have been integrated into our educational system and have produced significant changes in this system. A person who learns to make effective use of these compelling applications is empowered. This person can solve problems and accomplish tasks that are deemed important in our society and than cannot readily be done without the use of IT.
Perhaps you are detecting a pattern? Consider the hypothesis that compelling applications from business are apt to be powerful change agents in the K-12 curriculum. Remember that the underpinnings of science are generating and testing hypotheses. You can add to your understanding of the science of teaching and learning by testing this hypothesis. Perhaps the hypothesis is not correct. Do you know some good examples of compelling applications in business that have not had an effect on K-12 education?
Now move your thinking outside the business curriculum. Spend some time thinking about the non business courses you teach or are familiar with. From your point of view, are there compelling applications that should be an integral component of some of these courses? Please send me your ideas about other compelling applications that have, have not, or could affect K-12 education.
Roles of IT in Improving Our Educational System. Part 3. More About Compelling Applications
Moursund, D.G. (November 2000). Roles of IT in Improving Our Educational System. Part 3. More About Compelling Applications. Learning and Leading with Technology. Eugene, OR: ISTE.
In last month’s article (Moursund, 2000a), I used spreadsheet and desktop publishing software to illustrate the idea of compelling applications of microcomputers in education. You’ll recall that a compelling application has the following characteristics:
- It is intrinsically motivating, and it empowers the user.
- It is a cost-effective aid to solving certain problems and/or accomplishing certain tasks.
- It is time- and effort-effective. It embodies knowledge and skills in a manner that helps the user to gain a significant level of functionality in solving certain problems and/or accomplishing certain tasks relatively quickly.
Some More Compelling Applications
It is fun to talk to computer-using educators about some of their favorite and most compelling applications. The following are a few examples of typical candidates.
Electronic Gradebook. “It doesn’t seem to save me much time. But, it allows me to provide better quality feedback to my students about how they are doing and what they need to do. It helps me to quickly answer questions from parents and from the school counselor.”
Desktop Presentation. “I use it all the time. It has replaced my collection of acetate overheads. I can quickly up-date my presentations, I can easily make handouts for students, and it costs nothing to provide copies to my colleagues.”
Spelling and Grammar Checker. “It used to be that when I graded student writing, most of my efforts went into marking spelling errors and rather routine grammar errors. Now I have all of my students using word processors that have spelling checkers and relatively good grammar checkers. If a paper contains the types of spelling and grammar errors the software detects, I merely return it to the student to be redone. I spend much more of my paper-grading time focusing on the higher-order thinking and expression of ideas.”
I am sure that you will have no trouble adding to the list. Roughly speaking, the types of examples teachers provide fall into a few categories:
- Applications that help the teacher do work related to preparing and presenting instruction and handling the grading and reporting aspects of being a teacher.
- Applications that are integral components of students’ required coursework. This includes the full range of software in an integrated application package and multimedia software.
- Applications that fall into the general category of computer-assisted learning (drill and practice, tutorials, and simulations) and distance learning.
- Applications based on use of the Internet to retrieve information and to communicate.
- Adaptive technologies to help students with various types of physical disabilities.
- Edutainment.
Some of the compelling applications are of particular interest to teachers, some to students, and some to both. The remainder of this article presents a distinctly different type of computer application in education. Most educators I talk to find this example particularly compelling.
An [Edutainment] Application of Brain Theory
In the past couple of years, many popular press articles have discussed progress in brain theory. The Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD, www.ascd.org) devoted most of its November 1998 issue of Educational Leadership to this topic.
Brain theory research relies heavily on information technology (IT). Computerized instrumentation has been developed that can track neural activity in various parts of a person’s brain as the person receives input from the five senses and works to solve problems and accomplish tasks. Here is a scenario of a significant educational breakthrough that has occurred as a result of this type of research. It is based on information found at www.scilearn.com.
- Toni’s Scenario
- Toni was four years old. She had been diagnosed as severely speech delayed due to hearing impairments. Toni had a neurological problem in which her brain was not able to process the sounds of phonemes at the speed in which they are delivered in human speech. It wasn’t that Toni could not hear—it was that her brain could not adequately process the sounds it received. The incoming phonemes of speech just sort of piled up in her brain, making a jumbled mess that her brain could not decipher.
- At best, Toni faced a minimum of four years of intense one-on-one intervention by a highly trained speech therapist. Even with such an intensive educational intervention, the results would be problematic.
- However, recent brain research has led to the development of an IT-based intervention that pro-vides a much quicker solution to this educational problem. A four-week intervention developed by cognitive neuroscientists at Scientific Learning was used to train Toni’s brain to process the phonemes of speech at the speed that most people achieve through “normal” brain development. (In essence, Toni spent some time each day playing a highly motivational computer game designed to help her brain learn to process phonemes faster.) With the IT solution provided, Toni’s hearing and speech problems were overcome at a cost of about $800.
How is this possible? Toni could hear phonemes, as long as an individual phoneme was presented approximately 20 to 30 times slower than it is in average speech. Fast ForWord® uses words made up of very slow and long, drawn-out phonemes, and the response is to press an appropriate key. The game is designed to be attention grabbing and highly motivational. Toni could succeed at this game. Over time, the length of the phonemes presented was slowly decreased. Over a period of a month, Toni’s brain adjusted to these shorter phonemes. (Remember, the young brain has extreme plasticity.) In essence, Toni’s brain was re-wired through use of edutainment drill-and-practice software!
In the first article in this series (Moursund, 2000b), I talked about Benjamin Bloom and the “2-sigma” gain in learning that can be achieved through individual and small-group tutoring (Bloom, 1984). It is not clear what value to assign to “N” in order to make a statement that Toni and others like her make an “N-sigma” learning gain in the processing of speech. Certainly “N” is a lot larger than 2.
Perhaps you have read about similar IT-based aids to help children with certain types of dyslexia. It may well be that 2% or so of all children have the types of neurological problems that are easily addressed by these IT-based interventions. Roughly speaking, this means that in the United States, approximately 100,000 children are born each year who could substantially benefit by these breakthroughs in brain research.
Editor’s note: This type of compelling application fits well into the up-coming L&L theme issue on Student-Centered Use of Highly Interactive Computer Software. Read more in the editorial calendar at www.iste.org/L&L under About L&L.
In Summary
Most computer-using educators have no trouble identifying a number of computer applications that they and/or their students find compelling. There is significant research supporting the educational value of some of these compelling applications. For others, the decision to use the application is made independently of any supportive research. Remember, compelling is in the eyes of the person being compelled. A student may find an edutainment game compelling because of its entertainment value, even though it happens to have some educational value from the point of view of a teacher.
The compelling application of IT combined with brain theory brings a new dimension to education. It is one of the most compelling applications of IT in education that I have ever seen. It is suggestive that for certain students we can do a really lot better than we are currently doing.
In subsequent articles, I will continue to explore roles of IT in the Science of Teaching and Learning (SoTL). I am particularly interested in use of IT to make education a really lot better for the great majority of students.
Resource
Fast ForWord is available from Scientific Learning, 1995 University Ave., Suite 400, Berkeley, CA 94704; 888.665.9707; fax: 510.665.1717; info@scilearn.com; www.scilearn.com.
References
Bloom, B. S. (1984). The 2 Sigma problem: The search for methods of group instruction as effective as one-to-one tutoring. Educational Researcher, 13(6), 4–16.
Fast ForWord [Online document]. (2000). Berkeley, CA: Scientific Learning. Available: www.scilearn.com.
Moursund, D. (2000a). Roles of IT in improving our educational system, part 2: Compelling applications. Learning & Leading with Technology, 28(2), 4–5, 21.
Moursund, D. (2000b). Roles of IT in improving our educational system, part 1: The science of teaching and learning. Learning & Leading with Technology, 28(1), 4–5, 13.
Author
This Page was written by David Moursund.
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