| Computers have caused a revolution in education, but | | | | other privately, or publicly as members of large |
| the tremendous changes seen in the last decade may | | | | discussion groups. Computer conferences are |
| be surpassed in the next as those computers are | | | | organized much like those where people meet |
| connected in a global education network. | | | | face-to-face, except that the meeting rooms are inside |
| Teachers and high school students sample the water | | | | each participant's computer. Computer conferences |
| in Lake Baikal in Siberia while at other lakes around the | | | | transcend time zones, since participants review and |
| world, other teachers and students take similar | | | | comment on each others' written postings as their time |
| samples from local lakes and subject them to the | | | | and interest allows. Everyone gets to read and think |
| same simple water-quality tests. Via their school | | | | about questions or statements posed in a conference, |
| computers, they exchange their results and their | | | | and everyone has a co-equal opportunity to reply. |
| observations about how water pollution problems are | | | | Computer networking is making classroom walls |
| the same around the world. They are part of a "global | | | | disappear. Real environmental problems are entering |
| laboratory" project that includes scientists specializing in | | | | the classroom with immediacy via computer nets, and |
| water pollution. | | | | students are jointly seeking understanding and solutions |
| A similar computer network pins citizen activists, joined | | | | with scientists, citizen activists, journalists, government |
| with students, teachers and scientists, in "sister | | | | officials and community leaders of all kinds. While |
| watershed" groups throughout the world. | | | | access to computer networks is still remote for most |
| Amateur birdwatchers and biologists pool their rare | | | | people on the planet, it is becoming more and more |
| bird sightings in a North American computer network | | | | available to the gatekeepers and opinion-leaders who |
| that is linked with bird researchers in Central America | | | | help shape common understanding of the global |
| and South America. | | | | situation. The increasing abundance of the multiple |
| The differences between classroom and community | | | | information sources available via computer networks, if |
| education are blurred on the global computer networks. | | | | viewed as a well-stocked marketplace, may also |
| Voluntary organizations, government agencies, | | | | stimulate demand for more and better goods by the |
| students and teachers are all involved in a real that | | | | world's information consumers. |
| has become, for many, a virtual classroom, without | | | | Citizen participation in the 1992 United Nations |
| walls, and increasingly without borders. | | | | Conference on Environment and Development |
| Already, pilot projects have high school students | | | | (UNCED), for example, has been ccoordinated via |
| sharing the methods and results from field studies of | | | | computer networks on seven continents, giving NGOs |
| environmental quality, using computer | | | | access to complete text of the preparatory |
| telecommunication to leap national boundaries. | | | | committee documents, and providing public forums for |
| Elementary school children share their life experiences | | | | news and issue discussion. This availability of |
| end visions of the future the same way. Their | | | | information has a dramatic effect on how an event |
| messages to one another, passed with tremendous | | | | such as UNCED permeates the mass media |
| speed and shared simultaneously among many | | | | everywhere. |
| classrooms, provide strong, personal lessons in science, | | | | Underlying the often chaotic view presented by the |
| geography and human relations. | | | | mass media, structures are developing to channel the |
| Environmental education curriculum development, | | | | new rivers of information to empower this and coming |
| pursued independently and often in isolation by | | | | generations to deal with the issues it describes. A |
| teachers, school districts and universities over the past | | | | variety of efforts at computer networking for |
| two decades, is now linked in a global forum that can | | | | environmental education provide some great models. |
| respond immediately to the ever more complex and | | | | At the root, these efforts are all based on the same |
| urgent environmental problems the world faces. | | | | notion: that environmental problems must be viewed |
| Teachers the world over are connecting with their | | | | with a global perspective, but responded to by |
| counterparts to discuss how they can do their jobs | | | | individuals acting locally, in their own communities or |
| better. Co-ordination of international education projects | | | | homes. |
| is less burdened by the constraints of time and travel | | | | All of this new technology is not without cost, and the |
| budgets as computer networks provide forums for | | | | developed countries are clearly ahead in providing |
| collaboration. | | | | computer access for education. But even in the United |
| The technology for this exchange takes advantage of | | | | States, where computer telecommunication is |
| the personal computer's ability to communicate over | | | | becoming commonplace, profit rather than educational |
| standard phone lines using a modem. The simplest | | | | reform is a dominant force in determining who gets |
| networks connect personal computers in a | | | | access. |
| "store-and-forward" system that echoes messages | | | | The harsh reality has motivated citizen computer |
| from one to the next, until all have copies. These | | | | networks to band together in the international |
| least-cost networks are linked to larger, faster | | | | Association for Progressive Communications (APC) to |
| computers that act as central information storage | | | | make computer network access broadly available. |
| banks and relay stations. They in turn exchange | | | | The APC hosts several promising educational efforts |
| information with one another and tap the power and | | | | on its partner computer networks that now extend to |
| data in computer systems at major research and | | | | more than 90 countries around the globe. These |
| educational institutions. | | | | services may be tapped by anyone with a personal |
| In many ways this vast new sea of information | | | | computer and modem, often via a local call, at costs |
| presents its own challenges, often akin to "drinking | | | | roughly equivalent to a newspaper subscription or |
| water from a fire hose." The enormous glut of fact | | | | monthly telephone bill. |
| and opinion is impossible to take in, and has forced | | | | The education projects offered on the APC networks |
| those who would taste its power to devise new ways | | | | are examples of how low-budget computer |
| for organizing and sampling the information flow. | | | | communication can fit into community programs and |
| Electronic mail services and computer "conferencing" | | | | classrooms. |
| let students and teachers communicate with each | | | | |