Since 1990, educational technology has undergone rapid changes, with a significant impact on historical research and learning. For example, CD-ROM (compact disc-read only memory) systems and historical databases have altered the storage and use of information in classrooms. CD-ROM technology allows the compilation of immense amounts of text, illustrations, audio, and video on interactive videodiscs. The centerpiece is a laser-based device similar to a compact disc player that plays back information stored on the videodiscs, which look just like the music CDs that have been popular for years. The videodiscs themselves can record sound and store texts, still photographs, and video programs. Each disc holds as many as 108,000 distinct pictures, half an hour of film, or literally hundreds of thousands of pages of text. The content of these videodiscs, which may include an encyclopedia or audiovisual display, are displayed on a television monitor or computer screen. Users can move in almost infinite ways through menus, tables of contents, and detailed, cross-referenced indexes. CD-ROM technology has profound implications for data storage and general use as a reference tool for scholars and students.
With equally important implications for education and research, computers now provide access to complex linkages that broaden the reach for information and library resources. Indeed, between 1994 and 2000, the percentage of public schools in the United States connected to the Internet rose from 35 percent to 98 percent. On-line services, specialized databases with sophisticated search capacities, and electronic transfers (including Electronic Mail, or e-mail), provide new reference tools and capabilities. News and media file libraries, pictorial and documentary sources, and study statistics are now available through computer networks that again can be displayed on computer screens or television monitors, thus radically changing and enlarging research horizons.
Nevertheless, new technology such as CD-ROM and on-line services will not prove a panacea for all that ails American education. For instance, like all information systems, the quality of data input on a CD-ROM determines the quality of the disc. Critics argue that it is difficult for a CD-ROM, even if well-constructed, to act as a textbook. They maintain that the medium cannot present sequential text, study exercises, and comprehensive lesson plans in portable form (the spread of laptop computers and small personal data assistants in the early 2000s may solve the portability dilemma). Furthermore, the educational value of any new technology hinges on the ability of teachers to use it effectively. At present, many teachers still lack necessary training. Student use of the Internet also raises questions about how to prevent access to inappropriate materials. The United States Department of Education's Office of Educational Technology (OET) creates and carries out policies to counter such difficulties and, more generally, to promote the overall use of new technology in the classroom.
Bibliography
Baier, John L., and Thomas S. Strong, eds. Technology in Student Affairs: Issues, Applications, and Trends. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1994.
Cummins, Jim, and Dennis Sayers. Brave New Schools: Challenging Cultural Illiteracy Through Global Learning Networks. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995.
De Vaney, Ann, ed. Watching Channel One: The Convergence of Students, Technology, and Private Business. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994.
Jones, Byrd L., and Robert W. Maloy. Schools for an Information Age: Reconstructing Foundations for Learning and Teaching. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 1996.
—Gilbert T. Sewall/A. E.
Encyclopedia of American History Copyright © 2006 by The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
