Those Who Can, Teach Applications
A group of UCLA professors came to The Times recently, and they reminded me of an important truth about technology that sometimes gets lost in all the buzz: It can provide new ways to look at problems and can serve as a powerful tool for imaginative thinking.
The purpose of the visit was for the professors to show new teaching tools--CD-ROMs, computer programs, 3-D simulations--that they had developed using multimedia technologies. These instructors were passionate--about their work and about teaching--and their aim was to demonstrate how technology might enhance their efforts to reach out and grab minds.
It’s early yet in the development both of multimedia and of its role in teaching settings. But, according to Eva L. Baker, acting dean of the graduate school of Education and Information Standards, research to date from this group shows that students who use some of the emerging digital media are learning more and better than had parallel groups of students who lack such access.
The professors showed off four applications. A brief summary might help make the discussion more understandable:
* A multimedia “textbook” developed on the campus proposes to change the way physics and chemistry are taught. The typical physics textbook explanation of how a spring works is described here with interactive possibilities. The student can change each of several variables, restating the physics problem and creating new solutions on the fly. The chart of elements comes alive at the press of a button. Chemical problems or laws are shown in video clips, making it easier to see the laboratory explanation along with the words.
* Software used by UCLA physicians and medical students allowed Los Angles doctors in training to working with colleagues around the world in coordinating medical treatment for a Chinese musician with unusual symptoms. The Internet connection showed how digital-imaging files could be shared and how specific patient conditions could be monitored remotely.
* For film studies, there was an application that used computers to help analyze storyboards, and another that created three-dimensional virtual sets; such a tool could be used by students to explore alternatives to camera choices, say, or character and plot development.
* A computer simulation of a virtual Los Angeles shows how digitization can be used to place viewers in a recognizable environment in a way that stimulates thinking about the impact of changes in our physical surroundings. The program is already being used by some city council districts to assess proposed real estate developments. The work has immediate commercial application; students working with the software were hired by a Las Vegas developer before a recent construction project.
What was interesting about the session was not the tools, however. Rather, it was the idea that technology can be used to create tools that do more than entertain, that do more than allow e-mail exchanges or even facilitate online commerce. At a time when it is becoming easier to dismiss the introduction of computers into the classroom as faddish, it is interesting to note that there are ways to spark the imagination through digital means.
Maha Ashour-Abdalla, a professor of physics and co-director for UCLA’s Center for Digital Information, explained that college students have become uneven in their training. And they display a strong affinity for television, which shortens their attention spans. In part, she said, the university has found itself developing these multimedia learning tools in an attempt to capture the attention of students who expect the classroom to be entertaining.
The session with the professors highlighted the role the big universities in Southern California can and are playing in driving the local economy. Each application for the software behind virtual Los Angeles, for example, requires people who can produce the images, manipulate the data, understand the database needs behind what appears to the user, and make it apply to the specifics of a project.
At first glance, it seems like a “dumbing down” of education to have to show the chemical experiment as an entertaining video. But these professors were able to show that tools that promote the ability to visualize solutions make it possible to teach basic principles in a new way.
Consider multimedia visualization tools a starting point. The instructors themselves are able to adjust their teaching upon examination of digital tests attached to the textbooks, said Ashour-Abdalla. The idea that teachers must interact with these tools as well as students may prove a key to understanding why elementary and secondary schools are experiencing so much difficulty introducing computer learning into the classroom. The computer is not a substitute for teaching, but an aid.
The UCLA professors also argued that the students they see using multimedia tools accept them as an introduction, and then appear more eager to explore the associated literature that would move them ahead.
It sounds a lot like the idea that television and videotape could democratize information and make our lives a lot more informed. The question is one of values, not tools. If we as a society choose to make technology only the realm of entertainment and shopping, we risk establishing a new, expensive digital wasteland. But talking with this group of UCLA professors gives me hope that we’ll think a second time about the possibilities.
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Terry Schwadron is editor of Life & Style and oversees latimes.com, The Times’ Web site. He can be reached via e-mail at terry.schwadron@latimes.com
