The Article

With technology an increasing presence in schools throughout the country, Associate Professor Young Zhao, Assistant Professor Punya Mishra, and doctoral student Sophia Tan describe in this article a project known as KLICK! that seeks to make computers tools students can use to solve problems and work more effectively.

Discussion

KLICK!, which stands for Kids Learning in Computer Klubhouses, was begun in 1998 after a group of technology researchers and middle school teachers and administrators in Michigan received a federal grant to establish an after-school program in 10 middle schools. KLICK! estblished 10 “clubhouses” operated within the urban and rural schools and supported by the MSU College of Education. The central idea was that while operated by local schools, the clubhouses would work together as a consortium. “Students within the clubhouses would be involved in voluntary, authentic, and engaging activities.” The researchers note that one of key features of the clubhouses is the freedom to choose what to do and when and how to do it. The designers of KLICK! did not want the program to be an extension of the school day. Another feature focuses on encouraging students to produce both personally meaningful works as well as products that are useful for their community. The final feature of KLICK! involves collaboration. In the various projects KLICK students get involved in, they always work together to achieve their goals. The researchers then describe some of the projects the students have undertaken as examples of the empowering nature of teaching when computers are made student tools – not teacher or adult tools. Among these activities include developing Web sites for community groups, offering technical help to their teachers through an “adopt-a-teacher” program, expressing themselves through a number of formats such as e-mail, 3D animation, digital movies, and the Web. The ability to “muck around” with computers, the authors write, has resulted in dramatic changes in attitudes toward school, impressive gains in technology proficiency, and meaningful and practical works. “Children, through active use of technology to solve problems, are in a sense practicing and learning the new literacy brought upon them by new technologies. Their mucking around with new technology is actually a way to participate in the future. Unfortunately, due to the prevalent view of the computer as the teacher’s machine, any computer use that does not directly lead to improved learning of the traditional subject matters is considered irrelevant. As a result, adults often ignore or trivialize children’s interaction with computers, viewing it as mindless or fruitless mucking around… We hope that KLICK! and other similar projects … provide a counter argument – playing with computers is necessary and can lead to good things.”

What It Means To You

The authors argue that computers should be allowed to be students’ machines by allowing them to use them to create authentic and meaningful products. Are computers in your district used for drill-and-practice tasks, and involve mostly presentation software? If so, then computers in your district are clearly teacher machines. Student machines would allow a variety of software in an effort to create meaningful artifacts (world documents, graphics, music, art).

For More Information

Zhao, Y., Tan, S.H. & Mishra, P. (2000). Teaching and learning: Whose computer is it? Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 44(4), 348-354.

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