British Journal of Educational Technology Vol 29 No 3 1998 271–272

© British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1998.Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JF, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA.

Colloquium

CD-ROM in the classroom: on reflection

Sandra Hamilton

Loughborough University Department of Education, Leicestershire, LE11 3TU. Email: s.k.hamilton@lboro.ac.uk

Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is changing the face of theclassroom. Schools value the computer as a resource and as a teaching medium. But,what evidence is there that teachers and their pupils are getting the best experiencefrom the technology in their classroom?

Brown et al. (1996) assert that much educational multimedia is based upon technologyrather than sound educational principles. Teachers complain that the disappointingperformance of CD-ROM materials (in particular) appears to be due to the lack of teach-ing experience among those who compile them. Haven’t we been through this before?Cast your mind back to the early days of educational broadcasting for a comparison.Teachers were then pushed along with little time for reflection about the educationalvalue of the television programmes that they, and their pupils, were required to watch.Let us learn from that experience.

Schools have been the recipients of television programmes, broadcast specifically foreducational use, for many years now. The enormous amount of feedback now generatedfrom teachers, and the advice from educational consultants which informs televisionprogramme-makers today, is a testimony to the care and reflection that goes into theirproduction. Television programme-makers, today, exert a conscious effort to keep inclose touch with the changing needs of schools, and the quality and effectiveness ofschools’ broadcasts are closely monitored at several different levels, from educationalofficers in the field to representatives of the broadcasting authority. But, this has notalways been the case.

A “transmission” model of education with very little advice on using, or interpreting,television programmes is still within the memory of many teachers. But, gradually, theyhave learned better, and so have the programme-makers. Television producers havefound that programmes are more successful when they give children ownership ofideas, and also when the programme acknowledges that learning is not a linearprocess. Programmes may be used with confidence by teachers who facilitate genuineenquiry in their classrooms but can present difficulties for teachers who prefer adidactic approach to learning (Davies, 1991).

We now need the makers of educational multimedia programs to be as reflective andperceptive about children’s needs as television producers have become, so that apotentially valuable medium can be used effectively, by teachers, to promote, encourageand develop the learning process.

Technology, whether television or computer, should enable a different teacher approachto be adopted and the content range of lessons to be extended. If the computer is seenmerely as a teaching machine, this is to deny the range of its capability for teachersupport: it will not extend the range of classroom experience but will simply duplicateit. As with television, the benefits of CD-ROM, in particular, will surely depend, to alarge extent, upon the teacher’s model of children’s learning. If teachers use CD-ROMin the context of the transmission model of learning it will do little more than entertaina passive audience, where knowledge and ideas are not developed.

If, on the other hand, they and CD-ROM producers can learn from the experience of tele-vision programme-makers, we might ensure that children become more active in thelearning process. Children should be able to take away ideas and information, gainedthrough reading with CD-ROM, and work with them—developing knowledge fromwhat is presented on the screen, across subject boundaries, in order to feed curiosityand, in the case of reading per se, become involved in a process that has a real pay-offin terms of enjoyment and measurable progress.

Teachers will not use television programmes that they cannot endorse: they must,therefore, be equally selective in the use of CD-ROM, in order to achieve clear and spe-cific teaching and learning objectives. Only through reflective teaching can technology,and CD-ROM in particular, achieve its full potential, and only through informed com-pilation can the materials meet the expectations of reflective teachers.

ReferencesBrown T, Allen Knight B and Durrant C B (1996) Strategic Teaching Frameworks: an Australian

perspective Journal of Information Technology for Teacher Education 5 (3) 219–232.Davies Y (1991) Working with Television: the school audience Paper presented to the Fourth

International Television Studies Conference.

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© British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, 1998.