There will soon be hundreds of network activities that will advertise hands-on, computer-based, collaborative project activities based on constructivist principles and consistent with all the standards. A few will be excellent but the vast majority will be junk. It’s easy to generate the form without the substance … With lower costs of publication, these dregs will flood the networks. Because it is easier and faster to produce bad material than good, the junk will be there first, giving educational networking a black eye.
Predictor: Tinker, Bob
Prediction, in context:In 1995, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology commissioned a series of white papers on various issues related to networking technologies. The department convened the authors for a workshop in November 1995 to discuss the implications. The following statement is taken from one of the white papers, “The Whole World in Their Hands,” by Bob Tinker, the president of Concord Consortium, he has a Ph.D. in physics from MIT and a reputation as a pioneer in constructivist uses of educational technology. Tinker writes:”There will soon be hundreds of network activities that will advertise hands-on, computer-based, collaborative project activities based on constructivist principles and consistent with all the standards. A few will be excellent but the vast majority will be junk. It’s easy to generate the form without the substance: to create hands-on activities that result in thoughtless manipulations, computer use that degenerates to competitive games, network collaboration that goes no further than pen pals, student projects that only require students to mindlessly cut and paste Net resources, constructivism that devolves into ignorance, and material that ‘mentions’ lots of items in the standards just to make sure there is content ‘coverage.’ With lower costs of publication, these dregs will flood the networks. Because it is easier and faster to produce bad material than good, the junk will be there first, giving educational networking a black eye.”
Date of prediction: January 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Getting, Sharing Information
Subtopic: E-learning
Name of publication: The Future of Networking Technologies for Learning
Title, headline, chapter name: The Whole World in Their Hands
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Futures/
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney