ver the next year a profusion of low-cost computers will appear on the market with the potential to finally realize the educational promise of technology - if we can undertake a vigorous research program to support the curriculum advances they make possible.

Educational applications of computers and networking have been stalled because the technology is not widely available. In order to become sufficiently facile with sophisticated tool applications, learners need near-continuous access to these technologies. Only when one makes routine use of a range of tools can a learner reap their advantages, but when it happens, technology can dramatically accelerate learning.

Today "technology" in schools is almost synonymous with a desktop "personal" computer wired through a LAN to the Internet. This is the ideal configuration which, because of its purchase price and maintenance costs, very few students can use for any significant time. As new options become available over the next year this definition of technology will have to be expanded. Inexpensive set-top computers, handhelds, tablet computers, and wireless connectivity will change the landscape. The result is not simply cheaper desktop computers; the technology will be mobile, connected, and easy to use and maintain. The computers may have limited capacity, but every kid can have regular access to one or more and, through them, to the Internet.

We are not ready for these new opportunities. Few people realize that a technology like the PalmPilot™, which is targeted to a specialized segment of the business market, can be appropriated by education. But the PalmPilot is as powerful as the old Mac II and costs $100- $300. And it can run interesting educational software such as probeware (see "Making Smarter Probes," page 5). As technologies like this become widely available over the next few years, the disparity between what could be taught and what is actually taught, increasingly will be obvious and intolerable. As educators, we need to expand our vision of where students can go and how computers can take them there. We need to harness all the resources available to exploit these new options. Tool applications must be shoe-horned into smaller computers. And new applications that take advantage of mobility and connectivity need to be developed.

Educational applications alone will not fulfill the educational promise of this technology. The full impact cannot be realized within the K-12 curriculum as currently implemented. Many important technology-based innovations are implemented only if they can fit into the definition of what is important as enshrined in the current curriculum. A curriculum is more than the topics taught; it is the interdependence of topics that allows them to build on each other. Current materials rarely build on the new learning options created by technological innovations. For instance, the well documented capacity of probeware to allow kids in elementary school to interpret graphs is not used to improve the teaching of algebra.

The full realization of the promise of information technologies in learning will require a new K-12 curriculum that incorporates interdependent technology-based learning goals. If students can understand graphs and decimals in fourth grade, then the entire math and science curriculum after fourth grade should build on that understanding.

The problem is that creating a new curriculum sequence is a massive effort that requires a better research base and extensive experience. One cannot experiment casually with what students should learn for fear of missing critical concepts or undermining student motivation. Yet, we must undertake this work, or see the educational potential of technology remain unrealized.

Robert Tinker is President of the Concord Consortium. bob@concord.org

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