Can't afford the upgraded computers you want for your school? Maybe you
don't need them.
Don't get me wrong: Schools need more computers. When I visit classrooms,
I often find a single computer at the back of the room, containing games
that are used as reinforcement for work well done. Some teachers also use
the computer as a word processor, where students take turns at the keyboard
(while they miss what's going on with the rest of the class). Before computers
can be more fully integrated into the curriculum, there have to be more
of them. But do the computers have to be new?
Many schools and districts have storage closets full of Apple IIs, Commodore
64s, and old IBM clones--the first generation of computers that were widely
used in schools. These old machines have been abandoned as "obsolete,"
but are still quite capable of word processing, searching databases, and
accessing the Internet.
Good old-fashioned word processing
You can still compose, spell-check, format, and print out documents on
an old computer connected to a printer. There is, in fact, little that the
newest Word or WordPerfect word processor can do with text that cannot be
done by an old computer.
My Commodore 64 is attached to a color ink-jet printer with built-in
scalable fonts that allow me to vary the type size. Reading my documents,
you can't tell whether they were created on a Pentium or an older computer.
A few years ago, a colleague wrote a novel on a Commodore 64. His publisher
wanted it delivered on an MS-DOS disk. He asked for my help, and we considered
uploading the document to a local bulletin board from my modem-equipped
Commodore and downloading it to a mutual friend's MS-DOS disk. In
the end, we used special software (Big Blue Reader) that permitted transfer
of Commodore files to an MS-DOS disk.
If we had been in a classroom with an Apple II, a Commodore 64, an IBM,
and a Mac, we could have transferred files among the machines, as long as
each computer had a null-modem cable and communications software. So you
(or a student) can compose on any computer, then transfer the document to
another computer if special formatting and printing functions are needed.
If word processing is the most common and obvious way your students use
computers, you needn't go shopping for new high-powered computers. Instead,
you should be looking for ways to increase the number of keyboards and monitors
so every child can have hands-on experience.
In fact, if the primary reason you want computers is for word processing,
you might not need computers at all: Sometimes simple word processors work
just fine. A few years ago I placed 13 Tandy WP2 dedicated word processors
in a kindergarten for a semester. These sturdy laptops had full-sized keyboards
and easily connected to any printer. They gave highly readable printouts
and could be turned off without losing on-screen documents.
Together, the 13 Tandys retailed for about $2,600--about the price of
a single personal computer. But instead of placing one computer in the back
of the room where a lone typist could work, we were able to provide one
keyboard for every two students, so kids had easy access for any text-based
task. The teacher said they progressed much more quickly than normal in
language skills. (For the record: I am not promoting Tandy products. The
Tandy WP2 isn't even made anymore, but at least three companies in North
America sell similar word processors.)
Searching databases
You might want more than word-processing functions, though. A fifth-grade
teacher told me about visiting her husband's office and seeing only one
person designated as the word processor. Everyone else was using databases,
either from a hard drive, online, or on a CD-ROM. She went back to school
and started her students on database searches in a CD-ROM encyclopedia
and in single-topic CD-ROMs such as Animals, the fine CD-ROM about animals
in the San Diego Zoo. The kids hand-wrote notes on the information they'd
found and printed out selected text or images. By the end of the school
year, they were also word processing their notes.
But you don't need a high-powered CD-ROM to conduct such searches. In
my work with media education, I discovered that the Nova Scotia provincial
newspaper, The Chronicle Herald, has created single-topic databases
on floppy disks that contain articles published in the paper during the
past 25 years or so. These disks each contain a search engine and between
100 and 1,000 articles on topics ranging from the Brazilian rain forest
to Captain Kidd's buried treasure on Oak Island. When we installed the contents
of several of these floppies on the hard drive of a computer in a sixth-grade
classroom, students found the text-only newspaper database was less flashy
but provided more information than the CD-ROM encyclopedias, which were
also available.
CD-ROM encyclopedias provide wonderful sound, color, and action, but
space limitations mean they cannot provide as much information as other
media. This raises the question: Do you want to sacrifice substance for
glitz?
This is probably a good time to mention that the most appropriate technology
is not always computer-based. We provided that same sixth-grade classroom
with a CD-ROM, a database, and a book on Nova Scotia's native people. When
we added filmstrip/cassette packages, we found this ancient form of technology
drew the most attention and the most citations in student reports.
Getting on the net
Many schools think they need new computers so their students can access
the Internet. But most old computers are already "Internet-ready."
If a computer has a communications program and a modem, it's ready for the
Internet. Even extremely slow modems can access most "freenets."
For many commercial Internet providers, however, you'll need a modem
speed of at least 9,600 bits per second.
But that's not a problem, either: With a SwiftLink adapter, I have connected
my Commodore to the net at 28,800 bps. I'll admit that just gets me text-only
mode, but that's exactly how many World Wide Web users access the web. (Many
serious web browsers find images more decorative--and time-consuming--than
useful.)
If new equipment isn't needed for word processing, searching databases,
or accessing the Internet, why are so many districts driven to replace their
old computers? A few computers are truly obsolete or beyond repair. (If
you use old machines, you'll have to search out someone who can handle the
repairs.) But, with the exception of certain specialized functions used
mainly by professionals, there's not much new in computer applications these
days. Someday, no doubt, productive use of the Internet will require sound,
moving pictures, and video interaction. But that day is not yet here, and
most of these functions are novelties.
Then why the rush to replace computers that are perfectly adequate?
The power of advertising
I suspect schools are being convinced they need new equipment by advertisers
who want to sell products. Advertisers don't want us to think about how
to use last year's model better; they want us to buy a new machine with
new (and maybe unnecessary) bells and whistles. My personal, biased, unsubstantiated
suspicion: This article could not appear in a computer (or computers-in-education)
magazine where advertisers drive the editorial content.
But we shouldn't be duped. In these days of financial restraints, schools
need to start thinking, as advisers in Third World countries do, about "appropriate
technology." How powerful does equipment need to be in order to accomplish
what's needed? Just as Third World advisers often prefer steel plows to
tractors because they're less expensive and more practical, your school
might find older computers and word processors provide all the technology
you need.
So before you plan another fund drive aimed at buying the newest and
most powerful Windows or Mac platform, ask yourself: Do your classrooms
need the additional power? Or could you get what you need--and increase
the number of computers available to students--by opening the school's storage
closet and bringing out the old computers?
John Elliott is a professor of curriculum at Nova Scotia Teachers College in
Truro, N.S. | 
