As the new computer science teacher at a large, urban public elementary school, my first question to the staff and administration was: "What do you want me to teach?"

The answer was: "We want the children to become computer literate, to be able to word process and to be able to make a presentation using PowerPoint."

No one asked me to teach children how to become better problem solvers, better thinkers, better collectors and analyzers of information or better pattern finders. No one asked me to teach children see how to use the power of the computer responsibly and ethically.

No one asked me to help children see how fortunate they were to have access to such incredible power and what it could mean for them. No one asked me to help children become better people by coming to my computer class. No teachers even imagined that I was going to ask them to learn the same things, too.

I smiled inside -- a kindly, compassionate smile -- because I knew that most teachers simply think of computers as skill builders, not life changers!

These earnest teachers were asking me to use powerful computers to do tasks that the children were already doing with pencils and paper and scissors and glue. The kids could "word process" with pencils and paper. The kids could "make presentations" by cutting pictures from magazines and gluing them into their written reports.

However, I admit, the children were not computer literate. They needed keyboarding and mousing skills and to learn to start programs, stop and save files and many other basic operations.

Discover The Magic

Today, children need to learn to operate computers, the main tools they will use to work, communicate and conduct daily life. Yet I wanted to do more. I was ready to get everyone, not just the kids, to think anew, take risks and see how to become computer literate in a somewhat different way.

I wanted everyone to see the word processing programs as magic word wands that free writers to think, shift ideas and experiment with dazzling, dynamic word combinations. I wanted them to see the spreadsheet programs as information cauldrons that jumble numbers to make new brews that change facts into answers for human problems.

I wanted them to see the presentation programs (slideshow) as fiery kilns of mind-changing creativity. I wanted them to see e-mails as story-traders, idea sharers, joke spreaders and nitty-gritty communication tools to learn about what it means to live in another part of the world.

My lofty goals, I discovered, were reflected in the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS), published by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). Teachers can use these standards and profiles as guidelines for planning technology-based activities in which students achieve success in learning, communication, and life skills.

According to the ISTE: "The challenge facing America's schools is the empowerment of all children to function effectively in their future, a future marked increasingly with change. Technology is a powerful tool with enormous potential for paving high-speed highways from outdated educational systems to systems capable of providing learning opportunities for all, to better serve the needs of 21st century work, communications, learning and life."

What will it take to breathe life into the standards? Here are a few keys:

  1. Right Teaching. The teacher's demeanor is crucial. Excitement and a sense that, "These machines can change your life!" must be communicated through words and body language. The teacher must also select projects or help the students self-select projects that will challenge, stretch and excite the mind, develop meaningful skills and produce some degree of change in the learner.
  2. Right Tools. The technology itself -- the software, the computer, the Internet taken together -- are the pivot point on a seesaw. They must be selected and used with an eye to creativity, not just to grind numbers and type uninspired words.
  3. Right Lessons. Carefully chosen projects and learning experiences are just as important. The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) is just one example of how technology can communicate wonder and excitement while building skills and, perhaps, a better world. With a few simple clicks on an Internet page, SETI@home, every child can be part of the search for answers to questions that humans have asked forever: Is there intelligent life out there?
  4. Right Connections. What else can those simple clicks for programs like SETI@home teach? Social studies encourages the effort to learn about other people and societies. SETI brings together thousands of serious people from around the world with a common interest. Common interests transcend cultural barriers. Communicating with other searchers is social studies at its best!
  5. Writing. Email conversations carefully written to form literate, well constructed, grammatically correct, factually accurate messages are important. Communications between searchers living in warring lands such as Pakistan and India will help them understand each other. All differences may not be resolved, but isn't it nice to think that two people might feel less inclined to kill their email buddy? This is an old argument in favor of outreach, but still true.
  6. Organizational skills. Imagine classroom productions of multimedia slide shows, filled with stunning graphics of the universe downloaded from the Hubble Space Telescope, authoritative text from NASA and interpretive paragraphs written in the children's own words describing their activities. Included, of course, would be paragraphs telling what the project meant to the children themselves, including their hopes, enthusiasm and doubts about contacting aliens.
  7. Art, Literature And Reasoning Skills. Fanciful presentations could show, in words and pictures, what the children think the aliens might look like, act like, eat and why they might be trying to contact us. Do the aliens plot evil or good for us? Do they also simply want to know if they are not alone in the universe? Students could argue that this search is dangerous or helpful, and they would use all their reasoning power and expressive power to organize, write, draw and/or present arguments to back up their ideas.
  8. Ethics. The SETI@home page informs the user that protections have been built into the software to detect false signals that might be intentionally implanted into the data by a home or school user. Why would someone want to do such a thing? How could it be done? Ethics can be learned through conversations about what is at stake here. What does it mean to be involved with the acquisition and transfer of honest, accurate data? Children will learn the millions of ways in which our society has become dependent upon accurate computer data. Cracking into computer systems is an increasing threat to our way of life. What place does integrity have in this new world dependent upon information? Who will be hurt or benefit from such activity? Has all of this become even more important since the Sept. 11 attacks?

Much of this could be done with traditional methods. The simple fact is that computers are here to stay and such work will be done less and less with pencil and paper as each day passes. Children have to learn how to use these tools today.

School Choices

Reflect on these facts: SETI@home, a simple, free program that is basically a number cruncher, can stimulate minds far beyond a routine paper and pencil assignment. The computer allows children to explore exciting sources of information, other groups of people, loads of pictures and even sound files. All of these occur faster and more accurately than they do using textbooks and regular mail.

Children could not even hope to obtain the SETI signal packets without appropriate computer technology. How could the children possibly conduct and communicate the millions of accurate calculations that are needed? How could results be transferred back to SETI without computers?

SETI@home requires the right tool for the right job and the right dream. For schools, this often means making tough budget choices. It also means ensuring that these kinds of projects occur with the classroom computer, in the computer lab and in professional development sessions for teachers. Everyone, including parents, will have to think about making the best use of our technology.

Paul R. Blundin is an experienced kindergarten teacher in the Philadelphia School District. He writes about education and technology issues for various local and national publications.