Solutions for Techno-Shock* in Education

Posted by: Joseph Auciello – Faculty Member at LA Trade Tech College (July-6-1998)

   ‘Faculty are in great danger of losing a competitive advantage in serving their students and clients if they are not able to respond quickly to the changing landscape’ (David Diaz, Cuesta College).

   ‘We continued to do what we did best’ –Gravestone Heading for some Colleges in 6-8 years’ David Cothrun, Taft College).

   Currently enrolled students are entering Community Colleges with impressive, state-of-the-art Technical Skills: Computer and Web Literate from being on-line since junior high school, with the ability to write Home Pages, manipulate multi-media as ‘objects’, transact business on the Web, participate in sports forums, chat rooms, and research and publish.  Imagine the reaction of technology-empowered students to the traditional, lecture-discussion, take-notes, study-text classroom, when they can read textbooks on-line, do homework by email, participate globally with students in forum groups, get answers to most questions in minutes (FAQ), and enrich their studies by linking to related topics!

   Similarly, imagine the reaction of Instructors to this new generation of students who are in the 21^st Century, while the Instructors themselves may not even have e-mail or computers in their offices!

   To state this directly, Technology has advanced so quickly in such a short time that it has overwhelmed the capacity of most instructors and departments to deal with it.  Without substantial and immediate support in adapting them to new Technology, many courses will simply cease to exist!  Students and clients will find better ways to study.

   What is especially painful – in this era of ‘techno-shock’ – is that Community College courses generally are content-rich and critical thinking and problem-solving are being done in class by instructors who want to deliver quality instruction to their students.

   The ‘Technology Landscape’ has changed dramatically in the last 4 years  with the advent of personal, networked, highly-interactive, high-speed, high capacity, multimedia systems able to connect with libraries and information data bases all over the world. 

  Really, the solutions have to be “draconian” – really, more ‘revolutionary’ than ‘evolutionary’ – History is full of examples of species, ideas that could not wait for evolution to move to the next level.  Colleges, like the Cro-Magnon Man, just lack the capability to re-engineer themselves fast enough to meet the increasingly rapidly changing business landscape!   Classes soon will be filled with students, a majority of whom with better Internet and Desktop skills than their Teachers! 

Proposed Solutions:

1.  Every course offered in the Calif Comm College System should offer students Access to an online Knowledge-Base, thus giving students level-playing field access to the state-of-the-art in that discipline.       Quality teachers will work with that Online Knowledge-Base.  Students in mediocre classes will have an alternate way of  learning, and being able to achieve success!

2.   Every student in a Comm College must pass a INFO TECH course or pass a test certifying I.T. competency.   On Oct. 26,  NBC reported that students in Germany had passed the US, Norway, Denmark, with 85 out of every 1000 students having a personal Web Site.  If  you think seriously about how knowledge spreads itself, the exponential growth that can happen with Computer-and-Internet-Aided Education,  the fact that crossing the “Digital Divide” allows you to see and begin your trek to the next plateau of life.  If the gun won the West, it will be  Technology that will keep the peace!  To think and act less is to be negligent doing our jobs to transfer the culture!

3.   A Technology Certification / Recertification must be mandatory for all faculty, possibly awarded as a Stipend for those completing a Workshop, including building a Homepage.

4.    “Smart Classrooms” – ideally, students in every classroom should have access to the Internet, use of scanners, digital cameras, color printers.   Students should be able to use the Internet as a Research / Resource Tool.

Our consciences and the rapidly-paradigm-shifting-era mandate that we speak and do “The Right Stuff” for those who look to us for direction!