The Rom revolution: making it work
Hit and miss. New technology is great, as long as it provides
the right material, writes Lisa Kearns.
The Age - Educ@tion Dec 1 1999 p2-3 . © The Age. Reproduced
by permission.
Despite the fanfare accompanying the technological revolution,
the use of CD-Roms and the Internet can be a disappointing experience
for teachers. Often the website content is below par, either because
it hasn't been well-designed or hasn't been kept up to date. Teachers
may lack computer literacy and approach the technology with trepidation.
Many CD-Roms sit in classroom cupboards gathering dust rather than
being used as they were intended. Sometimes the problem is to do
with the CD-Rom producers not considering the needs of their potential
educational users, focusing more on the "gee whiz factor"
of the technologies.
A recent survey by Griffith University's Australian Key Centre
for Cultural and Media Policy found that only 37 per cent of teachers
could make a multimedia presentation compared with 48 per cent of
students.
The director of Global-ID, Phil Taylor, says there can be a "serious
lack of depth of information" on CD-Roms and the Internet.
"It's very hit or miss and can be a frustrating experience
for teachers," he says. "The Web is being taken over,
or hijacked, by commercial interests, but people are interested
in how to make the technology an information -rich core of educational
experience."
Newcomers to the technology should be delighted by a new CD-Rom,
Lore of the Land, which has gathered many years of research about
Aboriginal cultural heritage. It invites users to consider and reflect
upon the relationship of all Australians to our land.
The CD-Rom can be used as a stand-alone educational tool, but it
has many links to related Internet sites and can be used as a two-way
device to head off on tangential explorations of related subjects.
It makes extensive use of film, video, maps and legal and other
documents, taking advantage of the information compacting capabilities
of CD-Roms to gather and link a great deal of information that would
simply take too much time and space to find and download from the
Internet.
As technology gains greater acceptance among teachers, Global-ID
is involved in putting up global websites for showcasing on EdNA,
the Australian educational Internet network of about 9000 key sites
of interest to educators. ...
Anne Walsh, a secondary school teacher involved with the production
of Lore of the Land as educational writer and designer, says there
is a specific teaching process, with lesson plans, that can be followed
when using the CD-Rom in the classroom, but it is also very flexible.
... "To be truly educational, we need to do something, to make
choices and take action that will move us all forward," Ms
Walsh says. The CD "has this element through the Internet links.
You can start with the CD and build on the process of involvement
inherent in it through the Web".
Marylin Woolley, a lecturer in adult literacy programs at the University
of Melbourne, says that while "many other CD-Roms appear mediated
and simulated", the product on indigenous studies is a new
and interactive form of documentary making.
Keith Pigdon, who teaches a multimedia course for postgraduate
students at the University of Melbourne, says it heralds that way
of the future for anyone interested in the educational possibilities
of information technology.
Cinemedia, the Victorian Government's multimedia authority, has
invested $15 million in multimedia. Its director, Adrian Barker,
says Lore of the Land is "the best CD-Rom I've seen".
The concept of Lore of the Land was developed by Fraynework Multimedia
as a resource for those seeking a better understanding of how non-indigenous
Australians are connected to the land. The interactive approach
provides the experience of the story by grappling with the challenges
of landscape demographics, history, social realities, legal judgments
in land law, leisure activities in relation to land use and the
divers cultural backgrounds of the newly arrived.
With sensitivity to the environment and land sharpened by the first
engagement with the CD-Rom, the participant is the invited to trace
the connection of the land outlined by Aboriginal Australians. The
references to art and music as expressions of culture and its story
about the land are presented by people from the Gunditjmara (in
south-western Victoria) and Kutjungka(Western Australia) regions
in moving statements captured on video and through displays of paintings
and songs.
"Lore of the Land is designed to encourage us to live in harmony
with each other and with the land we call home," says Adele
Howard, the producer. "Through deepening our knowledge of who
we are together, we can crate a new story."
The producers, aware of teachers' technology questions, will hold
some forums next year. But what of those still doubtful about other
aspects of computer technology?
Another information technology company, Wiser Software, is concerned
that often students are ahead of their teachers in computer skills
and has developed a software product, Wiser Educator, to help address
the problem. General manager, Bill Saubern, says the software can
boost teachers' confidence in a new age of collaborative learning.
It allows the use of videos, pictures, sound and animation in the
production of multimedia presentations with "ease and minimal
technical know-how".
Admittedly, these viewpoints on new technology in education come
from people with interests in the field. But generally the opinion
seems to be that CD-Rom is still relevant - and the Internet as
huge as we all know it is. CDs have the beauty of easy access, and
loads of material readily available with no need for slow downloading.
The best CDs of the future will contain Internet links to broaden
the learning of students beyond the disk.
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