 |
|
|
|
The Internet is not only democratizing education - it is also creating new possibilities of opportunity beyond the normally defined boundaries of the school and classroom. Unfortunately these opportunities often demand outside financing.
In the democratization of education, the Internet is empowering the schools and teachers themselves, while taking away from the traditional power and authority which once almost solely belonged to the Ministry of Education. This empowerment allows schools and teachers to create their own individual programs, albeit programs which are connected to the curriculum. The big difference here is that teachers are no longer wholly dependent on textbooks – textbooks approved by the Ministry - for they can now tap directly into a whole new educational experience, often much more relevant and interesting to their curriculum needs than the textbooks produced today and yesterday.
However, the Internet often does require money. We are not speaking here of participation in projects over the Net. The vast majority of projects do not require a monetary fee for participation. I have worked with my students with a vast variety of projects over the past seven years without ever paying to take part in any Internet activity.
So, where do we need this outside funding?
How do we get the funding, then, for this activity? Funding for setting up the communication infrastructure, for paying the monthly dues to the ISP, for sponsoring the students' and accompanying teachers' tickets abroad? The Ministry certainly doesn't have the money to support projects like this (even if it wanted to).
- The Ministry never did foresee the coming of the Internet. Actually, it appeared to pass them right by and they were only officially aware of its existence about five years after it was already readily present in Israeli schools. The now famously defunct "Mahar 98 (Tomorrow 98)" poured countless machines into the classroom but never took into account the need for a communications infrastructure. So simple things such as phone lines were never accounted for. Neither could administrators deter some of the money approved for the purchase of computers towards needed maintenance costs such as monthly payments to Internet Service Providers. Thus, schools having all of the hardware, but wanting to use this hardware for Internet use, might not have either the budget to set up an Internet connection in their school, or – it they had this Internet connection – not have the budget to pay the monthly costs to the ISP (Internet Service Provider).
- The majority of significant Internet use deals with the international scene (especially with EFL, although there is an increased use of the Internet on the local level when working with Hebrew). In the early years, it was thought that Internet projects and keypal communication could only deal with the virtual and leave the real "physical" world alone. This concept has changed greatly lately. Many schools find that a combination of virtual and physical meetings is very important in both keypal communication and project oriented activity. Today we find many cases of communicating schools who wish to have "student exchanges" or bring a group of students to the other country for a real f2f ("face to face") visit. Many projects now involve "International Summits", where delegates from the participating classes in the project meet together in one of the countries involved (often on a rotating basis) - usually planned as the climax of the project activity.
Times have changed from when the government bureaucracy could put together a five year plan and waddle its way through it, drumming up the necessary funds, often coming up short. I recently arrived back from "The Educational Technology and Telecommunications Markets Conference" in Toronto where most of the major, minor and key players were there – book publishers, software and hardware vendors, consultants, Internet vendors, etc. – everyone who deals with making money out of education, and since they want to do so, have to understand the needs and trends of education better than anyone else. Time and time again they mentioned the fact that once they could work on a "long term" five year plan, but today could only look months ahead and must be ready to adapt quickly to an amazingly dynamic technology which is changing everything that we do. If they are unable to work this way, they will lose money, and someone who is able to do so will take their place in the market. As such, they have set up the infrastructure and manpower to deal with this present reality.
The Ministry of Education, however, has never had to face up to present realities. It is not a money making corporation. At most, if it discovers that the realities of the day demand more than it can provide, it will simply cut back on funds. It doesn't have to sell its wares to the public. The public takes whatever is dished out. Nor does it have the means to deal with dynamic changes. Through a bureaucracy that hinders it, and manpower which is not continually trained or inspired to keep up with the changing times (due to lack of funds) – it has no choice but to approach education through the outdated approach of long-term planning. "Tomorrow 98" is a clear case of this bureaucratic concept. Its last two years of implementation were still relating to the realities of 1992, which almost had nothing to do with the technological realities of 1996-1997, at a time where a new generation of technology change came into being every few months.
So where does this leave us? This means that the responsibility for finding the funds lies with the schools themselves. And yes, this is quite a revolutionary concept – just as it was quite revolutionary to accept the fact that teachers can create their own classroom curricular materials. We have come to a point where – if it is important enough to the school - they will find the funding. Of course, this is not a completely new concept. For years we have seen school principals turn to parent committees asking them to supply the needed funding to run "grey education" – those subjects such as "Art and Music" which were considered "unneeded luxuries" by the Ministry in its effort to cut back on school funds. However, the new demands of technology go beyond the pocketbooks of the parents, and this was never really a democratic process either, for there are definitely geographical areas where parents can provide the needed funds and other geographical areas where parents have enough problems just getting through the month.
So, what is the solution? We go to the makers and developers of the technology itself. They have a vested interest in the technology and having it used in the school. We have to learn how to become partners with the corporations in thinking about how best to create a level of education which is meeting the challenges of present day realities. They have the tools which will help us do this and in turn we are making them more conscientious creators and vendors of the technologies – something which society expects more and more. We will be their showcase, receiving the newest versions of the emerging technologies. By creating educational applications for these technologies in the field, we will help them convince others to buy their wares for use in education. While doing so, we will guarantee that we are keeping abreast of the newest technologies and have the means to work successfully with our students in an ever-changing world. These companies will also "sponsor" our other activities, such as helping to send our students to international summits, paying for monthly ISP costs, etc. In this way, they will be portrayed as educational benefactors and this is in their interest. As they are already investing huge amounts in advertising themselves, they will see this as an even more effective way in getting their message across rather than traditional advertising in which countless millions are poured into a 30 second television commercial to which the masses are becoming more and more numb.
Although this whole concept is quite foreign to the Israeli scene, it is becoming more and more an accepted alternative to school funding in the United States. Companies like Microsoft, Dell Computers and Intel have their own educational divisions which work with the schools and sponsor worthy educational initiatives.
This is a new way of looking at things. Many people shudder at the thought of combining "crass commercialism" with "educational purities". But we must learn to be pragmatic. What we want is to create the most effective and significant learning environment. We must do so with our eyes open, and not with our heads in the sand.
So, where are you planning to go with your students this year?
David Lloyd
*David is the manager and founder of ETNI – the English Teachers Network in Israel on the Internet. He teaches English at the High School for Environmental Studies in Midreshet Ben Gurion in the Negev and is the Director of the Computer Communications Center there.
|
|