Challenges and a few Cautions
Willard Ticknor Daetsch
Ithaca College
Luncheon Address, CALICO '90 at the BWI Holiday Inn Airport in Baltimore
When I received Frank Otto's call asking me to speak at this luncheon I
confess to amusement, apprehension and some incredulity. These reactions were
instantaneous as I thought of the highly knowledgeable audience. Several of my
mentors sit now before me and they know how I am struggling with some very
basic aspects of computer use. When I chatted about this event with a close
friend who is a leader in the use of computer programs in the world of financial
analysis, and who knows my computer limitations quite well, he told me to stop
worrying and to share my enthusiasms. But he also told me to remember not to
say what I had said to him a few short years ago. I was happily relating my
newly learned skill on the computer and told him that I found things to go so
much better now that I had learned to use the rat.
Even though it's midday and we have serious, exciting business at hand in
the days ahead, let's dream a bit. I'm going to share my dreams in the form of a
list of challenges, combined perhaps with a few cautions. These are dreams
which have been stimulated by what is already going on, or which may already
be on someone's drawing board. I expect to hear from you if any of these
comments strike a responsive note, or a raw nerve.
CHALLENGES
TO FOUNDATIONS
- to provide for repurposing good general materials which are not
encumbered by copyrights;
- to provide opportunities for faculty to spend a semester or a year at
another institution where they can hone their skills in using computers in the
teaching/learning/research process. When such opportunities are provided, get
a commitment from the home institution in advance that the skills learned will
be utilized and that a plan for the utilization of such skills be a part of the
application;
- to develop a mechanism through which faculty exchange between
institutions could be accomplished much more smoothly and regularly than is
now the case;
- to assist with the development of standards/guidelines for evaluating
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software;
- to fund traveling "dog and pony shows" to visit institutions which are
interested in exploring the development of software use in the humanities;
- to provide, in conjunction with some institution well-supplied with
hardware, summer possibilities for faculty advanced in the development and use
of software to come together;
- to continue bellwether projects such as Project Athena which are beacons
as well as flight plans;
- to facilitate the development of many software shells which faculty can
use to develop their own software even though they have minimal knowledge of
computers;
- to further research which will prove or disprove the largely anecdotal
information we now have about the effectiveness of computer use in
language/literature/culture learning. We need to know far more about the
when, where, and how of computer use in what we are undertaking. We need to
know how computer use can most effectively enhance the irreplaceable
experience of teachers and students working together in face to face contact.
TO COLLEGES and UNIVERSITIES (I don't mean to short change the elementary
and secondary levels; they are an essential part of the picture, but I just don't
know enough about them.)
- to recognize the validity of computer-generated
research/study/learning materials, and to establish criteria for evaluation with a
view towards retention, tenure, promotion, and
salary increments;
- to seek opportunities for faculty to obtain computer use skills
(workshops on campus or at nearby institutions, summer in-depth training
sessions, semester or year-long "internships" funded by foundations or arranged
as some type of faculty exchange);
- to understand that the development of good software, utilizing the
interactive major, long-range effect on learning and teaching;
- to follow the lead of those institutions which are using the computer to
determine the linguistic ability of students, thereby greatly enhancing the
appropriate placement of the learner;
- to recognize that academic computer services with highly trained
programmers and other support staff are a necessary part of the use of
computers. Ways will have to be found for small institutions to share/have
access to such services;
- to be sure that all graduate students and any undergraduates heading for
a teaching career have formal course work on the intelligent use of
technology—the fact that most methods-course teachers have themselves no
training in this area is no excuse for shortchanging the next generation;
- to be sure that one of the criteria for hiring new faculty is an awareness
of the important role, nay, essential role of technology in teaching and learning
languages;
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- not only to be aware of but to use well the interinstitutional possibilities
that the computer, BITNET, EDUCOM, etc., present. For many years I have
taught a spring semester course designed for seniors who find they will need
German in graduate school. It's an intensive course with the narrow purpose of
teaching to read German. This semester for the first time a sizable portion of the
work to be done is in computer programs. I mention this only because I hope
next year--when I am back at Carnegie Mellon--to teach the course at Ithaca
College (my home institution) via computer and BITNET.
TO CALICO (should that acronym stand for "Culture and Literature-Language
Instruction Computer Consortium")
- to take the lead in developing criteria which will enable institutions to
evaluate confidently the accomplishments of faculty in the development and use
of software in the learning/research/teaching process;
- to continue to provide opportunities for us to share and learn, and to
look to new ways such as the teleconference introduced in 1988;
- to look into the possibility of sponsoring a funded program which would
allow scholars advanced in the use of computers to have several weeks of
collegial association in a nonpressured milieu; but where excellent hardware, a
full range of software and highly trained programmers would be available. The
model I have in mind is the MacDowell Colony in Peterborough, New
Hampshire. Do you suppose some of our hardware providers might be
interested in the idea?
TO UMBRELLA ORGANIZATIONS IN OUR PROFESSION - THE AAT'S,
ACTFL, MLA, and CERTAINLY IALL, as well as others.
- to use annual meetings and publications to enable faculty to have easy
access to information on what software is available and how it is (can be) used.
Most of us have had to dig for information. Only recently the MLA established a
standing advisory committee on Computers and Emerging Technology which is
to advise both the headquarters staff and the membership on issues of teaching,
research and communications. We should make our ideas known.
TO PROGRAMMERS
- to develop the software which will enable serious users of software to do
research into the learning process to see how students are using the software;
- to assist language/literature in the development of software shells which
will enable the teacher inexperienced in the use of the computer to develop
materials appropriate to her/his own classes.
TO THE MAKERS AND DEVELOPERS OF HARDWARE
- to continue as much as possible the excellent support already given to
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many schools and colleges, seeking out the bellwether projects and giving them
support and publicity;
- to speed us on the way to having decks of CD's which we can pack with
information to be accessed by our computer programs;
- to speed us on the way to the smooth use of what is now perhaps best
done with laser disc;
- to continue to give us machines which are faster, more powerful and less
expensive.
TO PUBLISHERS
- to take the risks of new approaches, recognizing that while CAI for a
more or less traditional text has been an important step forward, it may not be
the wave of the future. We may well already be at the spot when we will want
TAI (Text Assisted Instruction) for superb software;
-to move rapidly towards producing individualized texts uniquely
appropriate to a particular class.
TO US AS INDIVIDUALS
- to recognize that somewhere out there the hardware already exists
which can enable us to accomplish far more than has yet been dreamed of;
- to seek opportunities to co-habit with academics/researchers in very
different disciplines who are using computers in the learning/teaching/research
process. We have much to learn from each other and the narrowly-drawn
disciplinary lines of the past have little place in our world if they limit our vision.
So much of what we need and want is out there already in one form or another,
but it is scattered across many disciplines. We need some sort of facilitator, a
non-discipline-specific entity to pull together all the resources and make them
easy to locate. The new committee established by the MLA is certainly a step in
the right direction. (I am not, as I am sure you are aware, appealing for academic
anarchy.) As a case in point, I cite a programming problem I had with retrieving
data in exactly the way I wanted. I was assured it could be done, but that it
would be complex programming and time wasn't available just then. I kept
presenting the problem and last summer it was solved quite quickly and easily,
not by a programmer, but by someone very knowledgeable about different fonts;
- to be patient with our colleagues who are terrified of computers (or any
technology beyond the overhead projector and possibly the VCR - do you know
any?). Some of our colleagues are resentful of what the computer may do to their
standards, to their human dignity;
- to encourage the use and development of software in language/
literature/ culture learning and teaching , be ready to advise and assist, but also
have the courage to criticize clearly (we all are aware of materials flawed in fact,
theory and most particularly in pedagogy);
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- to be most attentive to the pedagogical implications of what we have
students use and what we ourselves prepare. We have a marvelous opportunity
to keep the use of the computer as a flexible, information-laden, interactive ally
in our teaching. If students are given mainly uninteresting drills followed by
computer-administered and graded exams, who can blame the student who
develops an aversion to the machine? We must be particularly cautious that we
don't use the amazing possibilities of the computer to overload software with
bells, whistles, lightning flashes, fancy fonts, and cute and caustic comments. Try
a few of such programs yourself and see how soon they pall;
- to remember in our enthusiasms that important as the computer is and is
going to be, there is more to life than a keyboard, a screen and a mouse. I have
toyed with the idea of a timer in my own programs which will tell a student,
after she/he has been working for a certain length of time, that it might be well
to take a break. If a user is on the computer for a long time, I'd like to threaten to
shut down the program (but won't). I'd also like to build in some hints about
reading a book, chatting with a friend or at least going to look out a window.
TO THE LEARNER
- to take the time to learn the use of the software (good advice which I
don't follow myself);
- to be patient—learning a program does take time;
- to approach the computer with an open mind, with the expectation that
it will be very helpful;
- to insist on quality in software;
- to give teachers concrete feedback and specific suggestions;
- to let teachers, programmers, researchers, and developers of hardware
and software know what is helpful and what is not. When doing interactive
exercises how much positive and/or negative comment do you want? Do you
like to have the screen flash with happy comments every time you get something
right? Do you like "cute" comments when you make a slip?
TO THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR FINANCING
- to work closely with the faculty and staff using and wanting to use new
technology. All of us are well aware of how tremendously expensive technology
can be. We need to determine the most effective use of computers in our own
immediate area and work towards that application. Fortunately, many of the
pitfalls have already been identified so we can benefit from the mistakes of
others. We certainly don't want to repeat the mistakes made when language labs
were installed—often with little consultation with those who would supposedly
use them and with little opportunity for those users to be trained in their use.
The word "accountability" could be introduced almost anywhere in my remarks,
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but I chose to use it at this spot to highlight the importance of the long-range
implications of the endeavors we want to undertake. We, our home institutions,
and funding organizations have mutual responsibilities which must be viewed
seriously. Funding is usually (and should be) granted with a clear understanding
of the scope and duration of the funding period. We as recipients have a
responsibility to realize the conditions of the funding as far as possible. The
institutions in which we work, if they are involved in our projects, have a
responsibility to make it possible for the results of our research—our preparation
of materials—to have some effect. On occasion, I have the feeling that institutions
are more interested in funding for its initial "PR" impact and the ability to list one
more successful grant proposal than they are with providing a congenial
environment for the results of the funded project.
TO EDUCATION AS A WHOLE
- to visualize the shape of education once the computer is really an
integral part of our culture. Even though we may be seeing through the glass
darkly, this attempt to dream the future is very much needed. At every turn we
are already aware of the computer, but in most instances in teaching it is, if used
at all, still the adjunct; still the aid which makes the use of the text a bit easier;
still the tool which can turn out a better looking exam or poster. With personal
computers and possibly on-line programs available to every student and teacher,
how can we use classroom time most efficiently? May it be possible that we will
want to shape our face to face contacts with students in different ways? Will it be
possible to hone communication skills much better and much faster because
most of grammar drill and explanations really can be done with the use of the
computer? One night at Carnegie Mellon I was correcting an assignment sent to
me on the computer. The student who sent the material also was working and
we had a "conversation" via computer at about 11:30 p.m. which cleared up his
problems well. I'm not recommending that hour, but I do suggest that we can
well use the on-line programs to serve our students and ourselves in some very
productive ways.
Do you suppose that we really can greet the incoming student at that
student's level of linguistic ability and go from there? May the day of forcing
every student into 10 1, 201, 301 in the fall semester be almost past? Can we
expect such an array of appropriate reading level material that every student will
be able to have an assignment in areas of real interest? Can the teacher expect
that for the written materials which are desired, publishers will soon take it as a
matter of course that they will supply custom textbooks to the teacher; e.g., a
unique text for 17 students—a text which will have appropriate footnotes and a
vocabulary at the end for the selections in the text and it will all come from a
store of materials ready to be assembled in whatever format is desired? And may
this text be on computer discs rather than in printed form?
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Will those wonderful parsers which are being developed enable the
learner to have the computer analyze a reading passage and explain any bit of
grammar in which the student is interested?
SUMMARY
Where must out major concern lie as we speed into a new age of learning?
Excellent hardware is already available and is improving all the time; many of us
are working on software, learning to push hardware to its limits. Our greatest
concern should probably be with what I heard referred to at a previous
symposium as "warmware" or "peopleware". We have a major responsibility in
our profession as teachers of language, literature and culture. We will do a great
disservice to our students and to our successors as teachers if we don't carry the
excitement, the potential, the inevitability of CAI to our colleagues, to our home
institutions, to our professional organizations, to the publishers from whom we
buy and for whom we produce materials, and to the foundations which are
anxious to be at the forefront of educational innovations.
In the keynote address at the Eastern Small Colleges Computer
Conference held at the University of Scranton in 1986, the comment was made
that in the area of the humanities the use of the computer was rapidly
approaching the state of infancy. That may still be a very apt comment but many
areas of business, medicine, and science are far beyond that point. We can learn
from those areas and move on.
In pulling my ideas together for this talk I sought locally, via BITNET and
via FAX the advice of friends, and have incorporated most of their ideas either
by addition or deletion to my original notes. As the final challenge I cite directly
from one of the reactions I received:
I would like to add one more "challenge" to your list, perhaps "to
universities": to promote the creation of experimental learning spaces, equipped
with not only good computer hardware, but also with useful and interesting
peripherals of man types (e.g., CD-ROM, tape decks, MIDI's and synthesizers,
projectors, robots, laboratory data interfaces, network communication devices,
speech synthesizers and recognition devices, etc., etc ... ) and let groups of faculty
and student propose ideas (as opposed to projects) which they would like to
work on, with the only requirement that they be interdisciplinary in nature, and
then let them PLAY, for credit, without the requirement of production outcomes
and with the constant on-site support of technicians and programmers. People
need time to play with an idea on the equipment. When you say that we may still
be in "our infancy" with learning to use this equipment effectively in our
pedagogy, I say:
"Well, that's fine—then let's act like infants and play to learn. This comment
comes from experience: I have noticed that those who have found ways to make
the computer useful are those who at some point had their curiosity sparked to
the point of enthusiasm and absorption in the marvels of 'what might be possible'
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with this machine if only I/we master its potential." This in turn fuels the desire
to "play" with its capabilities as a means to learning what's possible. This takes a
lot of time and must necessarily come before any production outcomes. I fear
that in our "efficiency-driven educational environments (factories?), we are in
danger of relegating these marvelously capable machines to the role of a merely
elaborate typewriter or calculator, reducing the perception of their function
among students to the most mundane level, for lack of our own imagination and
by force of the pressure to produce, produce, produce! Anyone who has ever
been "turned on" by the excitement of the challenge to master something,
whether it be a machine or an idea, knows that it is not for the sake of a
production outcome, it is for the sake of the process of learning itself. Computers
are ideally suited to that process.
As we promote our enthusiasm we must remember, however, that there
are still many of our colleagues who are aware of word processing, but who
perceive dimly what the computer with all the attendant technology can do for
education. They may even be less far along than I was when I happily
announced that I had learned how to use the rat.
Friends who have proofread and offered comments:
Bob Blake
Nina Garrett
Christian Hallstein
Paul Hamill
Geryr Munchel
Uwe Reichenback
Larry Slack
Michael Taves
Charles Tilton
Holly Van Sciver
Dave Weil
Author's Biodata
Willard Ticknor Daetsch, Ph.D., Ithaca College and Carnegie Mellon
University. In the spring of 1985 he started to use the German version of Hagar
the Horrible in a German language course. With his arrival at Carnegie Mellon as
a Dana Fellow in the fall of 1987, he sought to enter the grammar information
about the Hagar cartoons in a data base, but instead scanned the cartoons into a
HyperCard program.
Author's Address
Willard T. Daetsch
Dept. of Modern Languages and Literatures
Muller 308
Ithaca College
Ithaca, NY 14850
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