instructional technology: on diversity in education

Instructional Technology:

On Diversity in Education

LAWRENCE P. GRAYSON

There is a growing desire and movement in this country to apply technology to the major problems of society, including those of education. 1 Yet, as noted in the Technology Assess- ment Act of 1972, "As technology continues to change and expand rapidly, its applications are . . . increasingly exten- sive, pervasive, and critical in their impact, beneficial and adverse, on the natural and social environment."

The use of technology can, in particular, clash with our need for diversity, a concept fundamental to the practice of freedom and democracy. If people are to exercise their demo- cratic rights, they must have opportunities to make choices among meaningful alternatives. Diversity is especially necessary in education, because education shapes values and, thus, has a major effect on one's future choices. While technology has often had the long-term effect of expanding the number of available options, in the initial stages of its application the need for large capital investment often leads to a centralization of control and a reduction of diversity. Thus, while technology can make educational opportunities more widely available for more people, it also can result in fewer choices.

Lawrence P. Grayson is chief, Technical Applications Division, National Institute of Education, Washington, D.C. 20208.

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EFFECTS OF

T E C H N O L O G Y

If wise decisions are to be made to develop and apply technology to education, then the potential effects of educational technology must be identified and analyzed. Only in this way can undesirable social consequences be avoided to the greatest degree possible, before decisions are made to commit major resources to support the technology. Throughout history, technological advances often have been accompanied by human and social problems which have been a consequence of the technology. The industrial revolution brought industrial pollution; the invention of the automobile has been followed by traffic congestion; agricultural im- provements have led to poisoning by agrichemicals; computer data banks have resulted in the potential threat of in- vasion of privacy, z There is no reason to believe that the application of technology to education will be exempt from similar unanticipated social problems.

Technology is not neutral in its effects, for when man and technology interact, each affects the other. Since technology is used by people, it cannot be viewed in isolation. 3 Most people and organizations make decisions to improve their own positions, and are only secondarily concerned with the welfare of others and of society. For instance, when corporations make major investment decisions, continuance, growth, and expected profits are given highest priority, rather than improvement of the general welfare.

Even more subtle and more important to realize is that a technology by its very use can modify the goals for which it was adopted, and can change the values of the people who use it. The impact of technology in education can be viewed in two ways: its effects in education, and its effects on education. 4 In the former instance, determining the use and effects of technology in education is a straightforward educational matter. A technology is usually adopted because it promises certain benefits, such as an improvement in efficiency or effectiveness in the achievement of specified objectives. Given an objective, for example, to raise pupil performance in mathematics by 1.5 years in one year of schooling, a school administrator could choose to use computer-based instructional techniques. His decision to do so, rather than to hire more teachers, utilize teacher's aides, or devote more class time to mathematics should be based

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY: DIVERSITY IN EDUCATION : 1 1 9

on cost-effectiveness considerations (Grayson, 1972). s The decision to use technology in education to achieve specified and broadly accepted objectives is an educational problem, for which professional educators, teachers, and administrators have the primary responsibility.

As a technology is adopted and widely used, however, it creates new options or makes previously unattainable opportunities feasible. Changes take place in what is done and why it is done, and technology thus begins to modify the goals on which the original objectives were based. As this happens, technology has an effect on education. This is a social issue, not an educational one, for it directly affects the ends that education is to achieve. In this case, the people who will be most directly affected must have the primary role in deciding on the new uses of technology.

The two types of effects are closely linked, so that, in general, it is not possible to determine when one or the other is becoming dominant. The effects of technology in education usually control the decisions, because they are shorter-term effects which can be anticipated with more assurance and because they result from the work of those who are developing and applying the technology. The people affected by those decisions in the long-term have very little opportunity or power to modify the decisions.

The distinction between the two types of effects may be ob- served in other areas. Computers, for example, were first developed as numerical calculators. As they became widely available and used, their speed, memory and logic capabilities prompted the extension of the range of computer applications, developing them into command, control, and decision- making devices. The role of computers changed from calcu-

lating the flight path of a projectile to that of guiding a

manned vehicle to the moon. Modification of goals also can take place in education. It is important, therefore, that potential changes be anticipated, with as much accuracy and confidence as possible, before the introduction and wide scale adoption of a technology.

Technology has had effects on education throughout the course of modern history, changing the character of education several times. Education from the time of the Greeks to the Renaissance may be thought of as the "A" stage--in-

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fluenced by the works of Aristotle and by the importance of the Aristocracy, and Apprenticeship training. Learning at that time was possible only for the privileged classes, and took place through a close association between the pupil and a master-teacher.

The technologies of the Book, the Blackboard, and then the Bus brought education into a second or "B" stage, which began in the time of Guttenberg and has continued to the present. The book made knowledge more widely available, and education became possible for most people for the first time in history. The teacher was no longer required to be the provider of all knowledge; now he had to be able to work with knowledge recorded by someone else. The amount and variety of information available to the student and teacher alike were greatly increased. And it was no longer necessary that students reside in the immediate locality of the teacher, for now they could travel longer distances on a daily basis.

The impact of these three technologies upon education was profound and, unfortunately, could not have been pre- dicted fully at the time they were introduced. Movable type eliminated the need for storytellers and balladeers. The printed book became common in spite of the fact that when printing was invented very few people could read. The blackboard changed the teaching mode from discussion to lecture and allowed the teacher to deal with more students at a time. The school bus eliminated the need for the one-room schoolhouse.

Today, education is at the threshold of a new stage, a "C" stage, which is made possible by new technologies such as the Computer, the Cassette, and advanced Communications systems. Through these modern means for information storage, processing, retrieval, and transfer, there is the promise of increased opportunities to provide education to whoever desires it, whenever they wish, wherever they are. Knowledge in the behavioral and learning sciences also has increased so that instruction, for whatever purposes and desires, can be made more effective.

Modern technology applied to education at first took the form of the use of hardware to bring students and materials together, or the use of audiovisual equipment to supple-

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FACTORS PROMOTING UNIFORMITY

ment a teacher's lecture. This, however, has changed. Educa- tional technology, as currently being developed by the profes- sionals in the field, emphasizes a systems approach to instructional development, incorporating specific measurable objectives, diagnostic testing, criteria for student performance, and the repeated redesign and re-evaluation of the curriculum materials until the criteria are achieved. It was defined by the Commission on Instructional Technology, in its report to the President and Congress, as a way of designing, carrying out, and evaluating the total process of learning and teaching in terms of specific objectives, based on research in human learning and communications, and em- ploying a combination of human and nonhuman resources to bring about more effective instruction (Commission on Instructional Technology, 1970). Educational technology, therefore, is currently viewed as a total systems approach to education, incorporating hardware, course materials, and instructional and management techniques.

The degree of success of these new technologies-the hardware, the systematic approaches, and the new techniques- in meeting present short-term educational goals can be estimated. As in the past, however, it is not possible to assess with any degree of certainty, the long-term effects of technology upon education. Of only one thing can we be sure: if new technologies are broadly applied, education tomorrow will be vastly different than it is today. Technology is most economical when large audiences are involved-when the same materials can be used by many people, when the equipment is used almost continually, when the capital expenditures and initial investments can be distributed over a large base of users. To be applied in such a manner, however, the instructional materials must be geared to meeting the common, rather than individual, needs. They must be created for the norm rather than for deviations from the norm. Since individual needs, desires, and aspirations vary widely, one must ensure that in meeting the common needs, the needs and rights of individuals and of special groups are recognized, protected, and fulfilled.

The forces promoting uniformity are many. They include: the high cost and scarcity of trained talent to produce high quality, validated materials; the reliance on centrally distri-

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buted programs with the concomitant decrease in local production; the consolidation of school districts and the centralization of decision-making; the shift in the financing of local schools from a local to a state to a national basis; and the movement toward economic efficiency and productivity.

The two children's television series, Sesame Street and The Electric Company, are prime examples of high quality, high cost productions. (Sesame Street, which consists of 130 one- hour shows, went on the air in the fall, 1969; The Electric Company, comprised of 130 30-minute shows, was first aired in October, 1971). Their success is based on a developmental procedure that incorporates needs assessment and back- ground research, the establishment of educational objectives, a combined approach of education and entertainment based on commercial television production techniques, and an in- teractive design involving formulative evaluations, validation of the programs before they are aired, and summative evaluations of their impact and effectiveness. The procedure has been shown to be effective and now is being used as a model for the creation of other educational television programs.

The procedure also is expensive. Since 1968 when the Children's Television Workshop (CTW) began work on Sesame Street, CTW has expended a total of $65.7 million for that show and The Electric Company, with $34.8 million of that sum contributed by the federal government. This magnitude of expenditure is justified through mass viewing. Audience surveys revealed that Sesame Street was viewed by an estimated 10 million two-to-eight year old children, and The Electric Company by about 6 million six- to-ten year old children in FY 1974. With a total FY 1974 budget of $9.0 million, the cost per child is about one cent per hour. 6

The same magnitude of expenditure-on the order of $1,000 to $4,000 per viewing minute--is typical for the production of high quality video, film, and other media-based materials. Even printed materials can be expensive to develop. Under support from the federal government, the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory developed printed materials for training teachers and administrators in the basics of data processing. These materials, which provide about 90 hours of training, cost about $250,000 to develop and validate; pro-

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duction and distribution costs are additional. The development cost alone, therefore, is almost $2,800 per instructional hour. This magnitude of expenditure requires that the materials be amortized over a large base of users, and even then the capital outlay is not affordable by a local school or even the average school district.

The high cost of materials development is only one aspect of the total cost of some new technologies. The same level of expenditure is required for the hardware and facilities; for the support of personnel; and for training these personnel as materials producers, media specialists, instructional design- ers and managers, and utilization specialists.

One result of these high costs is that local production is decreasing. This is very evident in the area of educational and public television. The amount of locally produced programs broadcast has decreased annually from 27.1 percent of total broadcast hours in FY 1970 to 18.8 percent in FY 1973 (Lee & Pedone, 1974).

Simultaneous with rising costs are trends toward the consolidation of school districts and the centralization of decision-making for purchases, funding, and resource allo- cation and sharing. Local support for education, as shown in Table 1 (U.S. Office of Education 1975a), has decreased during the decades of this century, and this trend promises to continue. In January 1972, Sidney P. Marland, Jr. (1972), then U. S. Commissioner of Education, stated that the federal share of the cost of education should be about 30 percent, with the states providing 60 percent, and the localities 10 percent, rather than the 8.7 percent federal, 40.0 percent state, 51.3 percent local split which existed in 1972-1973.

TABLE 1 Public Elementary

and Secondary School Revenue

Source (percent)

School Year Federal State Local

Receipts by Source, 1919-20

to 1972-73

1919-20 0.3 16.5 83.2 1929-30 0.4 16.9 82.7 1939-40 1.8 30.3 68.0 1949-50 2.9 39.8 57.3 1959-60 4.4 39.1 56.5 1969-70 8.0 39.9 52.1 1972-73 8.7 40.0 51.3

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R I G H T S A N D

V A L U E S

According to the President's Commission on School Fi- nance (1972), all education revenues now derived from state and local sources may in time be raised and distributed by the states in ways that they determine would provide equit- ably for the different educational needs of children. 7 Since the types of activities carried on are determined by the amount of budget allotment received, the state could become more influential than the local community in making decisions on educational activities in local schools. The large differences that exist in average expenditures per pupil in public elementary and secondary schools between states (ranging in 1973-74 from $790 in Alabama to $2,037 in New York and $2,102 in Alaska) (U.S. Office of Education, 1975b), are almost as large as the differences between local communities within any state. 8 The next step toward equali- zation of expenditures could be a movement to make the financing of education more uniform between states.

Centralized financing and the centralized control which generally follows from it do not necessarily imply an increase in uniformity of programs or a curtailment of individual rights. The point is that the centralization of financing and control offers more potential for abuse and for less responsiveness to local needs and desires. Numerous scenarios can and have been created describing what education could be like in the future. The difficult question, however, is what should education be like. Because of the uncertainty that exists about the potential effects of education innovations and the radical changes that are possible, it is important that as technology is introduced into education, actions are taken to ensure that the rights of the individual student and his family are protected and that the principles of human freedom are maintained.

Government in America was founded on a faith in the individual. This nation, our Constitution, and its judicial interpretations have placed a high value on the rights of the individual to personal liberty, freedom, privacy, equality of opportunity, and essential respect as a human being. Educa- tion as a means of developing human capabilities, and technology as a primary force promoting social progress, must ensure that the rights of individuals and the values they cherish are respected, preserved, and if possible, enhanced.


DIVERSITY THROUGH

TECHNOLOGY

In education, the rights of students and their parents have centered on several issues: freedom of choice as to the education of the student; freedom to make a responsible selection from a range of prescribed studies; privacy about personal matters; and immunity from activities, including courses, that are inimical to the student's welfare (Corpus ]uris Secundum, 1952). The need for the definition and preservation of these rights has led to enactment of a variety of statutes, numerous judicial decisions on specific cases, and a number of cases currently before the courts.

In education, the basic issue is the choice of goals and who sets the goals. All else follows from this. The goals include the declared goals that become public statements, and the operational goals which can be inferred from actions that are taken, programs that are initiated, and the way in which resources are committed. Goals are often a direct reflection of the person or group that sets them. Therefore, if the rights of individuals or groups are to be protected, those people--students, parents, community groups, and o thers- who are directly affected by the technology must be involved in the decision-making before the technology is applied. These groups should be approached not with the idea of changing their beliefs, values, goals, or aspirations, but rather with a desire to account for these factors. Without the involvement of the groups to be affected, resistance, hos- tility, and possibly violation of rights will ensue.

Technology is a tool to be used for mankind's betterment. We must maintain control of it at all times if we are to retain our humanity. When we lose all sense of priorities with respect to our needs and develop and apply technology simply because it is easy to do, then the technology becomes dominant and directs us. The worst of all conditions then occurs-we are dehumanized. Technology must only be a means, not an end; as an end it is dangerous and dehumaniz- ing because its internal dynamic takes over, and technology becomes its own driving force. As a means, however, the hu- mane ends of education can be the controlling factors. Many technological innovations have been introduced under the premise that they will make education more widely available, more effective, or more efficient. Mesthene (1971) has an interesting point in this regard, for he notes that the desire


of many educational technologists is to do better and faster what is now being done less well and slowly. But much of what is now being done in education could be wrong, or could be wrong if carried out on a massive scale. 9 If technology helps to carry on these errors more effectively, we may reach the point at which the errors cannot be detected or corrected. This is particularly important since technology interacts with society and its culture to change the established goals and values. Propogating an error on a national level could change the original goals to fit the existing erroneous situation. The error then becomes acceptable by default.

Freedom of choice exists only when there is a reasonable number of alternatives from which to choose. ~~ Technology, which often requires a large capital investment, may cause the number of alternatives to be reduced because of the administrator's desire for cost-efficiency, thus promoting widespread adoption and uniformity.

There are two ways, however, in which students can be aggregated in order to amortize the cost of a technological system over large numbers of users. First, they can be grouped for simultaneous participation, as in the mass viewing required for broadcast television. Second, aggregation can occur over time, with the number of persons involved during any given period being relatively small. The latter approach is particularly applicable to subjects in slowly changing disciplines. Until the introduction of the "new math," for instance, textbooks on subjects such as Euclidean geometry had a useful life of 10 to 20 years or more. If the technology can provide aggregation over time, then it is possible to afford several different options simultaneously, so that at any time a number of choices can be available to the students. Thus, technology could increase the diversity of offerings.

Efficiency in education, when viewed from a learning point of view, is usually thought of in terms of intellectual and skill achievements at minimum cost. Education, however, also has the functions of placing people in a social environment, of preparing them for citizenship, of conserving tra- ditions, and of giving them the basis for a happy and independent life. If technology improves only the cognitive area and neglects or inhibits the rest, this could be "an obstacle to a society that is trying to redress the balance of the heyday


of achievement and economic productivity in favor of a great- er pluralism in our values and our culture" (Mesthene, 1971).

Education in this country was founded on local autonomy. In the course of our nation's history, two separate school systems evolved-one public and the other private. Each was distinct from the other, yet neither was homogenous within itself. These systems included small schools and large, paro- chial and nonsectarian, military and nonmilitary, boarding and day, innovative and traditional. There were enough schools of each type to offer students and their parents a meaningful choice. Many observers termed these two highly fragmented systems as nonsystems, because the individual schools had a very wide diversity of goals, objectives, procedures and, most important, a diversity of decision- making structures.

The situation, however, has been changing rapidly. Since the mid-1960s, the number of private schools has been declining steadily, closing at the rate of one per day. The private schools, moreover, have been modifying their goals and procedures to conform to those of the public schools. Public elementary schools, on the other hand, have been undergoing a process of consolidation and centralization. While the number of pupils enrolled increased from 19,387,000 in 1949-50 to an estimated 31,844,000 in 1972- 73, the number of public elementary schools decreased from 128,225 to 64,945 and the number of school districts, the basic local administrative and decision-making units, decreased from 83,718 to 16,960 over the same period. (U.S. Office of Education, 1974, 1975c).

For the adoption of technology, centralization has advantages. It can promote efficiency, lead to lower overall operating costs, create widespread use of an innovation, and assure that certain minimum standards of education are met. Cen- tralization, however, also may promote uniformity, reduce the number of alternatives, make the system less responsive to local needs and desires, and negate the accountability of the schools to parents and to the local community. The challenge in applying technology to education, therefore, is to couple the economic advantages of centralization with a responsiveness of the schools to local needs through a re- diversification of the system.

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Technology often has had the long-range effect of expanding the number of choices available to society either by creating new options or by modifying the cost-effectiveness ratio of existing possibilities. This is very evident in the production of goods. Manufacturing evolved through the use of automation from a handicraft stage where everything was hand-produced by individual artisans, leading to great diversity in quality and choices of products, to a mass production state, which assured minimum standards of quality and reduced costs by creating a uniformity and singleness of the product. The existence of this stage in the automobile industry occurred when Henry Ford revolutionized the manu- facture of automobiles by concentrating on one car, the Model T, and making his motto "Any color, so long as it is black." The effects of mass production may still be noted in several European and Asian countries in' the lack of variety in the clothing available.

Manufacturing in this country has evolved, through the use of technology, into a third stage of differentiated production. This stage combines the quality standards and economy of mass production with the variety previously available only from the artisan. Today, one can buy almost any type of clothing according to one's taste. This mass-produced variety costs more than total uniformity, but less than custom tailoring. 11 Differentiated production is also evident in automobile manufacturing where the production lines of the major manufacturers turn out cars at the rate of one per minute, yet the number of options available is so large that the probability of producing in any one day two duplicate cars is almost zero.

The structure of education is following a similar pattern, having gone from the handicraft stage of the "little red schoolhouse" (there were almost 150,000 one-teacher schools in the 1930s, compared to less than 1,500 of them today) to the uniformity of mass production. The next step is to maintain the advantages already gained, and also to provide a wide variety of options to accommodate a spectrum of interests and to give freedom of choice to students and parents at the local level through meaningful alternatives.

Technology should be used to provide enough variety to schools to accommodate people who desire an ungraded,


highly individualized, free-wheeling approach; those who wish only that the 3 "R"s, some socializing skills, and little else be taught; and all of the people in between. Students and their parents are not a homogenous group with respect to the goals and values they hold; in fact, their goals and values may vary widely. On controversial topics, the group is most likely to be polarized into two major and opposite points of view, so that an "average" position is meaningless. It should be possible to satisfy the varying views by making the schools highly responsive and patterned to local needs. In- dustrial concerns often set requirements for the types of jobs that exist, and then seek the proper persons to fill the posts. The same type of situation could exist at the community level with regard to setting the policies of local schools and to the selection and hiring of the administrators and teachers who implement the policies.

In addition to providing a variety of options, there must be more recognition that students have a right to be omitted from an activity, just as they have a right to partake in it. There has been a great deal of legal attention recently to guaranteeing everyone an equal right of access and opportunity. More attention must now be given to the guaranteeing of the right of people not to be compelled to be included in a program whose effect is to mold their values, opinions, and beliefs. If this is not done, the entire concept of individual liberty will be meaningless.

A step in this direction was taken in 1972, when the U. S. Supreme Court in the case of W i s c o n s i n v. Yoder (1973) ruled that compulsory education beyond the eighth grade was not in the best interest of the Amish people, and that Amish children could be excused from secondary schooling at the discretion of their parents. By its action, the court recognized that the reasons for compulsory schooling as advanced by the Wisconsin State Attorney General's Office--preservation of the political system, economic survival, and socializa- tion of children-are in conflict with the goal of Amish education which is to get to heaven, rather than to get ahead in the world. In this case, the rights of the parents took prec- edence over those of the state. The basic principle of freedom from compulsory participation must be extended to activities within the classroom, especially because of the


CONCLUDING COMMENTS

technologically fostered changes that are possible and occurring. There is a growing body of literature that points out the benefits that could result from applying technology to education. The application of technology, however, particularly when it is viewed as a systems approach, to education creates problems as well as holding forth promise. ~2 In one sense, the basic difficulty is how to apply techniques that can be highly effective, but which are economical only when applied on a mass basis, to insure that there is enough flexi- bility and variety so that education can be responsive to local needs and desires.

This dichotomy is typical of many which confront Amer- ican democracy. There are dilemmas in deciding between a flexible system to meet local needs and the desire for a uniform system to recognize that all men are created equal; in providing equality of opportunity for all and in providing opportunities based on achievement; in reconciling the principle of nondiscrimination with the principle of freedom to do as one chooses. In each case, either extreme is as bad as the other. A society must create a balance between oppos- ing principles when both are necessary for the functioning of the society in freedom and democracy.

The same challenge confronts those who are making decisions about educational technology. This field must be developed and applied so that its benefits can be reaped, without creating new problems which overshadow existing ones. The task is to apply technology to education in order to improve the quality of education, reduce its cost, increase the availability of educational opportunity, and create possibilities for additional choice, yet do so wisely in order to minimize its negative consequences. The basic issues, however, do not depend on the technology, but rather on the goals that are set and the values that determine the course of development of the technology.

Today, we already possess or could soon develop means for achieving virtually any ends we wish, including the abil- ity to modify the genetic development of the human race and change the course of evolution, to control human behavior, and to alter our mental and emotional characteristics such as intellectual abilities, motivations, values, beliefs, and per-


sonalities. We can plan, create, and change, by significant amounts, the kind of world we wish to pass on to our chil-

dren. The fundamental questions relating to the application

of technology to education, and indeed to society at large, revolve not around what we can do, but rather around what

we should do. The fact that we now possess the means to

revolutionize education so that it can shape people and their behavior to preconceived norms underscores the importance

of the ends or goals of education.

Goals are not a consequence of educational theory or prac-

tice, but are based on the needs, desires, values and beliefs of

students and their parents. Education directly involves human

beings and is a primary force affecting their future lives. As

technology is introduced and educational change occurs, one

must ensure that the established educational goals and the

values and rights of the people affected are not violated.

American society was founded on a belief in the worth and dignity of the individual. This belief requires that technology,

in all of its aspects, be developed and applied in a manner

which protects the rights of the individual and which pro-

vides a choice of opportunities for self-growth and self-direc-

tion so that the person can make his own bargain with life in

accordance with his values and beliefs.

REFERENCE NOTES

1.

2.

H. E. Carter, Chairman of the National Science Board, in his letter to the President of the United States, which accompanied a report of the Board, states that "one of the most important questions of our time is: how science and engineering, through technology, may be brought to bear more effectively on so- cietal problems." See: National Science Board, The role of en- gineers and scientists in a national policy for technology. Washington, D. C. U. S. Government Printing Office, 1972, p. V.

A study of computer databanks conducted by the National Academy of Sciences, after investigating 55 governmental, commercial, and nonprofit organizations that have applied computer-based procedures extensively to their personal record system, concluded that "the increased collection, consolidation, and circulation of personal information that civil- liberties spokesmen believed to be taking place as a direct inexorable consequence of computerization are not happening as yet in the advanced computerizing organizations that we examined. Similarly, there has not been the ebbing away of procedural and substantive due process that civil-liberties


commentators assumed to be an inevitable result ot automated information handling." See: Westin, A. F., & Baker, M. A., Databanks in a free society. New York: Quadrangle Books, 1972. Pp. 268-269. Although the use of computer databanks has not prompted widespread and serious infringements of privacy in the first 15 years of automation, the potential for computers to destroy practical boundaries of privacy in record- keeping still remains.

3. A discussion of the role and interaction of technology and cur- ricula with school settings and with the roles, procedures, and relationships that exist in the institution is contained in: Hepner, M. P., Technology and the hidden curriculum (report No. 6). Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University, Program on Technological Aids to Creative Thought, August, 1972.

4. This distinction was suggested by Thomas F. Green in "Educa- tion and schooling in post-industrial America: Some directions for policy," Remarks presented to the Committee on Science and Astronautics, U. S. House of Representatives, Jan. 28, 1970. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1970.

5. The decisions are, or should be, based on cost-effectiveness considerations, within the constraints set by teacher organizations, collective bargaining, certification requirements, accredi- tation standards, etc.

6. Unpublished information from U. S. Office of Education. L. T. Rader, in private correspondence of November 3, 1974, notes that the 1r per hour cost reflects only the amortization of the production cost. The capital and operating costs for the television set in the home are extra. For instance, if the TV set draws 400 watts of power, and electricity is priced at 6r per kilowatt-hour, the cost of electricity to run the set is 2.4r per hour. If the set sells for $300, has a 5-year life, and runs for 4 hours per day, the depreciation on the set is 4.1r per hour. The cost to the viewer, therefore, is more than 1r per hour.

7. Recent litigations, which have resulted in court cases in some 31 states, have challenged current methods of collecting and dis- tributing property taxes as a basis for financing local schools. At issue is the claim that substantial disparities exist in the quality and extent of educational opportunities among school districts in a given state, because of the relative wealth of the localities and the different abilities of the districts to finance education through property taxation. The Supreme Court in San Antonio independent school district v. Rodriguez (United States reports, 411. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1974. Pp. 1-137.) ruled that inequalities in school financing based on the wealth of school districts are not violations of the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution, as claimed in many of the

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY: DIVERSITY IN EDUCATION : 133

litigations, and further stated that decisions about school financing are matters for the states to decide. The large amount of recent judicial activity indicates that proponents of uniformity in school expenditures will continue their efforts at the state level. A discussion of recent court decisions dealing with the financing of education and of their implications is contained in: Wise, A. E., "Legal challenges to public school finance." School review, 1973, 82(1), 1-25.

8. The largest difference in per pupil expenditures by school districts within a state exists in South Dakota, which varies from a minimum of $175 to $750 at the 90th percentile, for a ratio of 4.28. In most states, however, expenditures at the 90th percentile are less than twice the minimum. See: The Education Commission of the States, Understanding Education's Finan- cial Dilemma (no. 6). Denver, C O . Author, April 1972. Pp. 36- 37.

9. Daniel P. Moynihan stated that "things are far more compli- cated than we had thought. The rather simple input-output relations which-na ive ly no doubt, but hones t ly -we had assumed to obtain in education simply, on examination, do not hold up. They are not there." See: Moynihan, D. P., Testi- mony before the Select Education Subcommittee of the Com- mittee on Education and Labor, U. S. House of Representatives, Washington, D. C., Feb. 18, 1971, p. 3. Oettinger and Zapol have noted that "educational technology, even when it em- bodies new concepts from learning theory or exploits new tools, has made no significant difference in the learning achieved through formal schooling." See: Oettinger, A. G., & Zapol, N. A. "Will information technologies help learning?," in C. Kaysen (Ed.), Content and context. New York: McGraw-Hill: 1973. Based on a series of research studies, Sprigle states that the television program Sesame Street has no long-term educational effects, has not narrowed the achievement gap that exists between the poor and the middle-class child, and that those who watch the program regularly are no better prepared for the first grade than those who do not. See: Sprigle, H. A., Can poverty children live on "Sesame Street"? Young children, March 1971, pp. 202-217; Who wants to live on Sesame Street?, Childhood education, December 1972, pp. 159-165. Morris Kline points out the deficiencies in and failing of the new mathematics curriculum which was widely adopted in the elementary and secondary schools of this country during the 1960s. See: Kline, M. Why Johnny can't add. New York: Vintage Press, 1974.

10. In private correspondence of December 1974, A. A. Root makes the point that choice can take place only when there are alternatives. As the number of alternatives increases, and the characteristics of each alternative are unclear, ambiguous, or prob-


11.

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abilistic, then the choice becomes more difficult. Freedom of choice implies the lack of negative consequences attached to the alternatives, not to the number of alternatives. A discussion of the problems of moving technology, as applied to education, from a low degree of aggregation with high unit costs to a high degree of aggregation with low unit costs is contained in Oettinger, A. G., & Zapol, N. A., "Will information technologies help learning?" Op. cit., Reference Footnote 9. A discussion of a series of problems which might arise when applying satellites to education is contained in Grayson, L. P., "Educational satellites: A goal or gaol?" IEEE Transactions on Education, May 1976, E-19(2), pp. 38-45.

REFERENCES Commission on Instructional Technology, To improve learning. Report for the Committee on Education and Labor, U. S. House of Representatives. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Gov- ernment Printing Office, March 1970.

Corpus juris secundum, 79. St. Paul, Minn.: West Publishing Co., 1952.

Grayson, L. P., Costs, benefits, effectiveness: challenge to educational technology. Science, 1972, 175, 1216-1222.

Lee, S. Y., and Pedone, R. J., Summary statistics of public TV licensees 1972. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1974, p. 30. Up-dated with unpublished data from the National Center for Educational Statistics, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

Marland, S. P., Jr. 17,000 ways to be fair. Speech before the Service Bureau for Connecticut Organizations, Hartford, January 21, 1972.

Mesthene, E. G., Instructional technology and the purposes of education. In Tickton, S. G. (Ed.), To improve learning. New York: R. R. Bowker, 1971. P. 239.

President's Commission on School Finance, People, schools, & money-the need for educational reform. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1972. P. 27.

Technology assessment act of 1972, P. L. 92-484. U. S. Office of Education, Digest of educational statistics, 1974.

Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1975. (a) table 71: (b) table 77; (c) tables 29 (in 1974 edition), 34, and 63.

U. S. Office of Education, Statistics of elementary and secondary day schools, Fall, 1973. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1974, tables 2 and 9.

Wisconsin v. Yoder. In United States reports, 406. Washington, D. C.: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1973, pp. 205-249. A popular discussion of the case appears in Arons, S. Com- pulsory education: the plain people resist. Saturday Review, January 15, 1972, 52-57.

instructional technology: on diversity in education

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