Changes will improve the quality of student learning only when there is sufficient wisdom and sophistication in communities to find the little good on the Net and reject the many slick but inferior network-based educational packages … Complete net schools backed with impressive educational pseudoresearch will be sold … Insidious advertising will slip in as a way of reducing the costs. The availability on the network of excellent materials, even if almost drowned by junk, may excite discriminating parents who might pressure schools to do better. Of course, the opposite will happen more frequently; the stern parent will find justification on the network for more disciplined learning, as will the creationist, white supremacist, and every other crazy faction. Communities without the resources to have discriminating educators and parents [may trade] one poor educational strategy for another.
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:”Changes will improve the quality of student learning only when there is sufficient wisdom and sophistication in communities to find the little good on the Net and reject the many slick but inferior network-based educational packages that will certainly be pressed on districts and parents. Edutainment will be trumpeted as a harmless way to learn and have fun on the Net; complete net schools backed with impressive educational pseudoresearch will be sold to unsuspecting districts. Insidious advertising will slip in as a way of reducing the costs. The availability on the network of excellent materials, even if almost drowned by junk, may excite discriminating parents who might pressure schools to do better. Of course, the opposite will happen more frequently; the stern parent will find justification on the network for more disciplined learning, as will the creationist, white supremacist, and every other crazy faction. Communities without the resources to have discriminating educators and parents will transfer to these plentiful but inadequate network resources, thereby trading one poor educational strategy for another.”
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