EVENT: 	2ND SCIENCE AND SCIENCE EDUCATION CONFERENCE

THEME:	CHALLENGES IN SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT AND ECONOMIC REFORMS

SUB THEME: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT

TOPIC: THE CHALLENGES OF SCHOOL EDUCATION IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY

ABSTRACT
The difficulty in understanding the future implications of new technologies in society is seen in the growth of the internet throughout the world, and in particular, in schools. As factors such as convergence, increased bandwidth, "edutainment", multitasking and changes to traditional socialization modify everyday life. There is a corresponding need to consider the ways in which emerging practises and beliefs challenge traditional assumptions about the nature of school education. Although schools are by nature conservative and can be resistant to reform, the collective influence of an increase in the number of networked computers, improved teacher training, and the impetus of a transformed culture in a wide society are likely to lead to a reconsideration of the nature of schooling.

INTRODUCTION
The growth of the internet is exponential, and the global internet population is expected to reach 300 million by 2005. Reflection on the consequences of such growth is prompted by reference to statistics on internet connectivity. In Australia, the estimate of 22% of all households with home internet access represented a 57% increase over the May 1998 estimate. The 1999 estimate of 1.5 million users is considerable from the 262,000 users reported in 1996.

Forecasting the future use of technology in society is impossible. Those who promote new technology, or those responsible for an invention or innovation, rarely give adequate ways in which humans will ultimately use it in a more distant future. When Orville Wright was asked to reflect on his part in the invention of powered flight after some years of aircraft use in war, he commented that:

"I don't have any regrets about my path in the invention of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused. I feel about the airplane much as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the terrible damage caused by fire but I think it is good for the human race that someone discovered how to start fires and that it is possible to put fire to thousands of important uses. At the time we first flew our power plane, we were not thinking of any practical uses at all. We just wanted to show that it was possible to fly. Even for some time afterward we didn't suppose it would ever be possible to fly or make landings at night.”

It is unlikely that Orville Wright or the pioneers who developed aircraft in the early years of the 20th century would have predicted the invention of the Jumbo Jet, and consequent demographic shifts and cultural exchanges. Similarly, the present trends towards the adoption of networked computers in homes, schools, businesses and throughout society has been accomplished by problems in predicting the future or in planning for it. Some writers insist that this is difficult or even impossible. With many small entrepreneurs working in internet capable technologies, innovations are announced in the press on a regular basis. The cumulative effect of unanticipated technological changes, which may be used in unexpected ways, means that the near future may differ from what is anticipated. Long-term predictions are even more problematic and contain elements of chaos, in the way that one unforeseen element can affect many others. In some cases, the most astute observers are unable to gauge the significance of scientific and technological achievements which are common knowledge. Bertrand Russell and Michael Polanyi discussed the practical application of Einstein's theory of relativity in January 1945 on BBC radio, but could not think of any. The first atomic bomb was detonated shortly afterwards and Time magazine featured Einstein's equation E=MC2 on its cover page.

While it may be impossible to paint a detailed future of the shape of society in a more distant time, extrapolation from existing trends allow the identification of problems which must be considered. In education, schools will face particular challenges as a result of technological change. There is no reason to expect that impetus which has seen the wiring of schools to the internet will slow, but there are reasons to doubt that teachers will use this new technology effectively, or that teaching practice will depart from tradition to accommodate it.

One concern is that the challenges facing schools is greater than that posed by the increase in technological artefacts such as networked computers in classrooms. The suggestion that technology is mode of human existence which can transform ways of knowing and thinking suggests a potential for computers to act as an agent of cultural change. Institutions such as schools face pressures from both within and without. An element of these pressures is related to the very ubiquity of computers throughout society. When there are relatively few examples of a new technology in general use, it is harder to envisage long-term societal changes. When Bolter compared the growth of computers with the increase of automobiles during the 20th century, he noted that it was difficult in the early years to predict the shape of society before millions of cars were on the roads. Henry Ford had earlier observed that when the first cars appeared, they were seen to have little commercial future, but were regarded as a nuisance which scared the horses. The internet likewise is in the early stages of it's expansion towards the mass medium, but it is likely to become ubiquitous much more rapidly than aircraft or automobiles since their first introduction. In only four years, the internet reached a number of participants which took television 13 years to achieve, and radio 38 years. The speed of internet spread is consistent with research findings relating to the diffusion of interactive technologies. Rogers, (2000) has found that interactive technologies typically reach the "critical mass" phase of adoption more rapidly than other newly introduced technologies, and that rapid growth may be expected shortly after critical mass is achieved.

PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Cultural transformations mediated by the internet and other interactive technologies are likely to result in students arriving at schools with altered ideas of the purposes of education and different ways of constructing meanings of the world around them. In this respect, Birkerts' critiques of a technologically driven society and Pepper's application of Birkert's ideas to education, leads to a discussion of ways in which society and education might change in the near future as a consequence of technology. 

The axes of print, attention span, knowledge breadth, language complexity and hypertext represent a series of directions in which technologically-related changes can occur during the early 21st century. In the scenario based on the axes, it would be very possible for there to be more changes in some axes than others. Given the difficulty of predicting the future other than in the short- term, based on extrapolations of available data, these axes nevertheless suggest that schools will be severely challenged if there is a moderate amount of change on any of these suggested axes.

Print Access
The traditional emphasis on print in educational system is likely to be challenged by a range of screen-based and telecommunications medium. The emphasis on what will appeal to students who have grown up in an environment saturated with images and ready access to information suggest that teacher attempts to use print-based materials to present challenging concepts may be resisted. While there is no suggestion that print will abruptly disappear, it is likely that we are in what Birkert (1999) referred to as an “overlap in communication modes”. During this period, culture, literature and philosophy which are encoded in print will be less available to students unless they can be converted to mediums such as CD-ROMS, the World Wide Web or television.

Attention Span
If technology is implicated in the reduced attention span of young people through hypertextual web sites and multiple channels on cable television, then it follows that traditional teaching which ask students to concentrate on one task for an extended time will be subsumed by a larger number of shorter and more interesting task. Ironically, one solution to this problem is the use of the very technologies in the classroom which have contributed to the difficulty in the first place.

Knowledge Breadth
The power of the World Wide Web to deliver an overload of information to students suggests that teachers will need to be able to teach the skills of integration, relevance and synthesis. Otherwise, students are likely to follow hypertextual trails which interest them without building an in-depth understanding. Such a process is likely to lead to increased uncertainty among students and may even contribute to alienation.

Language Complexity
As electronic publishing becomes increasingly common, traditional literature and forms of language use associated with it will come under pressure. In keeping with the trend to have fast-paced multimedia presentations, complex syntax and lengthy characterisation, explanation or description will become less common. Students’ preference for simpler language forms will be paralleled by a need for teachers to possess sophisticated skills in visual literacy.

Hypertext
Finally the growth of hypertextual applications changes the nature of the authorial voice. When students follow links they contribute to the authoring process by the choices which they make. The process of making meaning and emphasising multiple voices differs from that involved in traditional activities such as reading a novel. As a consequence, the established idea of identifying individual and often competing authors has to contend with alternate ways of working involving teams and co-operation.

STUDY BENEFITS
From a technological viewpoint, the growth of convergent technologies is likely to lead to the next generation of the internet or internet2. This technology will enable web broadcasting that can enable a student to use a computer much like a T.V set, in combination with conventional web characteristics. In addition, mobile phones which allow the users to surf the net have been available since 1996, and third generation wireless technology, which will allow wide and wireless computing is already in use in schools at Toksook Bay, Alaska, suggesting that schools may not need to be "wired" in conventional ways in the future. If the possibility of a further convergence between wireless technology, phones and web broadcast computers is considered, the potential for students eventually to have access to extremely powerful and mobile artefacts is increased.

Traditional Learning to eLearning
Concurrently, convergence can also be seen in other areas including changes to school curriculum, traditional subject boundaries, understanding of texts and notions of schooling and culture. Technological convergence should be seen in the broader phenomenon associated with rapid change and the disappearance of traditional boundaries. The social and cultural relevance of learning activities is related to a blurring of previously accepted categories in such areas as digital technologies, management systems, marketing, production, media, the arts, leisure, entertainment and educational environment. For schools, this means that new subjects such as theatre studies and media production have emerged, while within the shell of conventional subjects as English a reconfiguration of concepts of literacy has been accomplished by attentions to notions of social issues, multimedia, visual language, film, TV, and hypertext. As networked computers become more accessible in homes and schools, the World Wide Web as we currently know it will be very different. There will be further more away from text-based web pages to web-delivered multimedia, including video, audio and desktop video conferencing as the dominant mode of communication and representation shifts from writing to visual forms in such a context it can be expected that students will arrive at school with understanding of the world reframed by the pervasive electronic images from there digital environment.

Education to Edutainment
The resulting marginalization of traditional writing as the dominant mode of communication in on-line environments is likely to be accompanied by a further expression of "edutainment". This is the process which Troter (2002) has referred to as blurring the distinction between schoolwork and play. Thus students may expect education to become more entertaining. In this respect, multimedia on-line learning may exacerbate teachers' existing dilemma of matching pedagogy to students' expectation that schooling will be as fast paced and exciting as the internet.

Short Attention Span to Broad Attention Range
Rushkoff (2000), insists that the co-existence of broad attention range with shorter attention spans results in multi- tasking ability. Students who have lived in a digital environment from there earliest years develop the ability to simultaneously monitor a number of TV channels. The ability to process information more rapidly than adults may result in students approaching the internet in a radically different way from there teachers. While the teachers may aim for students to locate specific information on the internet, students may be engaged in a range of computer based activities.

TV and other Broadcast Technology Culture to Interactive Internet and Mobile Culture
The emergence of a new or changed student ability in conjunction with networked computers is paralleled by an alteration to the ways in which traditional institutional socialization is been replaced by transformation involving digital technology. Holnes and Russel (2001) maintain that the rapid take-up of communications and information technology by adolescents signals a qualitative change in the nature of popular culture and educational practices. The culture of the internet represents a significant departure from the culture of TV and other broadcast technologies, because interactivity, personalization, mobility and global reach effectively lifts adolescents out of the institutional control of school and family.

SUMMARY
Networked computers will eventually become common place in school and homes, but it is questionable if teachers will be able to use them regularly and effectively. Evidence from the use of computers in classrooms to date is discouraging. Determinist views which saw computers as a revolutionary agent of educational reforms were disappointed in the 1980's. A report by the ISTE involving 416 institutions in USA involved in teacher preparation indicated considerable shortcomings in the ways that teachers are prepared for the use of technology in classes.

Such results are not surprising, Cuban (2001) argued that previous classroom technologies such as television have not been widely adopted because teachers need to be convinced that challenges to the rituals of everyday classroom life are in there interests. School systems are inherently conservative and resistant to change. Departure from conventional practices and continuity are justified only if the intended innovation is simple, durable and reliable. Text books and chalkboards have been widely accepted but networked computers may not be.

Some school systems have assumed that the provision of computers for teachers or increased teacher training and professional development, would lead to more effective computer use. However, the existence of any technological artefact is no guarantee that it will be used for its intended purpose, and if computers are found in classrooms, they may not be used to their full potential.

A consensus is also emerging that the societal effect of the internet is profound. It is perceived as pervasive, revolutionary, and to possess the capacity to transform the way we work, learn and play. Gore (2000) has argued that computers will reshape human civilization even more quickly and more thoroughly than did the printing press, while Maddux (2002) observes that "the growth of the web is unparalleled in the entire modern history of spoken and written communication."

The potential for reshaping society is reflected in a dramatic growth pattern in schools, as a range of knowledge-based economics hasten to connect schools systems and classrooms to the internet. Access to the internet is seen as being essential to students in the U.S.A, where the number of schools with internet access nearly doubled in the period 1994 - 1996, and as many as 43% of schools now have five or more rooms connected to the internet. Australian statistics relating to e-mail connectivity and modem use also imply widespread internet adoption by schools. A sample of more than 400 Australian schools reported on their use of information technology applications, and the corresponding reports indicates that a minimum of 67% had e-mail applications, and 49% had web creation capability.

Similar trends are reported from Canada, the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Singapore. All Canadian schools were expected to be connected to the internet by 1997, and nearly all of the schools in the UK were expected to be connected to the internet by the year 2000. Similarly, Denmark expected that all lower and upper secondary schools, vocational and commercial schools would be connected by the year 2000. Singapore plans to install whole-school networking in all schools by 2002.

RECOMENDATIONS
Collectively, the possibilities inherent in the preceding axes of change imply a need to revise teachers' computer-related skills. Basics such as word processing, spread sheets and databases, which were among the foundations of teachers' computer knowledge in the late 20th century, will be seen as inadequate. The transformation of learning practices in digital environments suggests that a new type of teacher will be needed. Required skills in online environments are likely to include:
( i ) The creation, navigation and assessment of hypertext- based multimedia.
( ii) The use of desktop video- conferencing
(iii) The management of systems which recognise the human voice.
(iv) Ways in which electronic forms of communication such as e-mail, change conventional forms of narrative.
( v) The discernment of patterns in electronic information.
(vi)  Understanding of students' multitasking abilities.
Yet the successful implementation of a range of digital skills in schools implies more than teachers simply adding additional skills and content to an existing curriculum. Other recommendations include:

-An increase in the number of networked computers (or internet connected computers).

-The impetus of a transformed culture in wider society i.e. the challenge of traditional content and pedagogy, questioning the purposes of school by an agenda driven by impetus of socio-technical forces outside the school.                

FINAL EVALUATION
The use of computers in schools is inextricably bound up with the question of the process of schooling, and the ways in which the computer technologies are used in society. Hodas (2001) argues that computers change the culture of organisations such as schools by the way in which they are used in the world outside it. Alterations to the social, economic and informative relationships in which schools are situated lead to modifications in the ways that schooling is carried out. As online computers become implicated in cultural and societal change, it is increasingly likely that teachers' expectations of what is accepted practice in schools will also change.

The nature of teachers' changed expectations can be illustrated by reference to a hypothetical junior high school student. Jenny is thirteen years old and attends a co-educational school some ten years in the future. On her belt, she wears what resembles a mobile phone, which is also capable of e-mail and web access, with advanced multimedia capabilities. Her teachers' have already placed her homework for the day on the net, where her parents can check it. She expects to use computers in many of her classes for the day, although the school has planned carefully for socialization and sports involving non-computer activities. One of her classes is virtual, where she is supervised while she accesses the lesson materials on the net. This is an activity which is integrated into the school day.

Computer mediated cultural transformations are underway which will result in pedagogy of the print- dominated classrooms of the 20th century being regarded as giant. In much the same way that a black and white film of the 1930's shows telephone and automobile from another era, educators of the future will be able to look back on the present time as one in which the online school was only just beginning to emerge.

As the number of networked computers increase, the conflict between the traditional conservatism of schools and the cultural influence of computers throughout society is likely to be resolved in favour of significant adoption by school systems. A reconsideration of the purposes of school is likely to result.

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