New school
The other day I wrote a response to a WSJ piece about how computer science students are outsourcing their homework to India. I’m all for it. I’m also for allowing students over the age of 10 to use any information technology they want to solve the problems they’re given in school. I’m definitely for crushing the outmoded notion of “every person for themselves”, and for encouraging kids to collaborate in ad hoc ways that mirror the best of what we’re seeing in the “real world.”
I suspect I’m in the minority in the strength of my views, but perhaps not as much as I thought. The weekend edition of the WSJ had a great piece on how a growing number of schools are “legalizing ‘cheating’” (Legalized ‘Cheating’ by Ellend Gamerman, WSJ Jan 12, 2006).
“The old rules still reign in most places, but an increasing number of schools are adjusting them. This includes not only letting kids use the Internet during tests, but in the most extreme cases, allowing them to text message notes or beam each other definitions on vocabulary drills. Schools say they in no way consider this cheating because they’re explicitly changing the rules to allow it.”
Traditionalists would argue that this move away from closed book, heads-down testing signals a degradation in educational standards, or some other poppycock. They made the same argument when the electronic calculator came on the scene in the 70s. For that transition we have several significant studies to consider the effect, including this one from 1996:
Results found significantly higher achievement for students who used calculators for problem solving, computation, and conceptual understanding compared to students who did not use calculators. A significant difference also existed in the attitudes of students favoring those who used calculators in mathematics classes when compared to the attitudes of those who did not use calculators.
-Smith, B. A. (1996). A meta-analysis of outcomes from the use of calculators in mathematics education.
The calculator wasn’t an academic crutch, as its detractors expected. It has helped unlock the world of numbers for many people, helping them around intimidating mechanical aspects of math. Students were better able to focus on solving problems, which often gets lost in the effort to turn kids into human number crunchers.
I have no doubt that unlimited access to information, both from primary sources and the Internet’s limitless user created commentary, has the potential to make students far better processors of information. By grade 4 or 5 kids should be sifting, sorting and connecting ideas and information without a second thought by using the best available tools. That means immediate access to anything and everything. That means sharing ideas with each other in a blink of an eye.
The mistake is to imagine text messaging, internet access and outsourcing as they would have impacted our own schooling several years ago. But that’s all wrong. Courses, exams and homework can’t look anything like the turgid versions we survived. They need to revolve more around conversation, collaboration and access to information, and a lot less around memorization, individual performance, and answer hoarding. I think this neccessary shift is scary for a hell of a lot of people and it will lead to a civil war within the education establishment. Bring it on.