1.3.4.2 Resources in the Past
There are a few other issues that are briefly mentioned in some descriptions
of efforts to use computers in education. Beyond the issues surrounding the
processes needed to produce software for education are the issues of the resources
required to sustain the efforts. For example, there are a number of forces that
have converged to hinder commercial efforts to produce and market software for education.
The Office of Technology Assessment (OTA) reported in "Power On" that there are capital limitations
because "software publishers face a severely fragmented
demand that can seldom justify the level of investment necessary to create products for
a wide variety of subjects, grade levels and platforms" (OTA, 1988, p. 143).
The report also cited
property rights, the high costs of marketing and transmission costs as additional barriers
that stand in the way of educational software publishers.
Besides commercial efforts to produce and market educational software, there have
also been a number of research and development projects. These projects have also
been characterized by human and technical resource problems, in addition to financial
challenges. The OTA also found the following were some barriers to successful
implementation and transfer of R & D efforts in the past:
- The lack of consistent stable funding means that ideas rarely can be sustained through
experimental and applied development with appropriate classroom testing and evaluation.
Prototype development is not enough to bring the results of basic research into classrooms.
- There is a shortage of research scientists to do the kind of interdisciplinary research needed.
- Differing design features in the technology bedevil the education R & D community and practitioners.
Many argue for standards in interface design so research can translate across machines,
to ensure compatibility, to reduce learning time for users, and to make finding and storing data easy.
(OTA, 1988, p. 180)
A number of well known research and development projects have been centered in higher education,
and funded by government agencies such as DARPA (
OTA, 1988, p. 156). In order to gain the financial,
technical and human resources to support their efforts, project leaders in academia have
written proposals based upon early prototype projects illustrating the value of the approach.
There is usually an effort to insure support from either internal or external funds through
a grant writing process to broaden other people's use of the approach. It is probably no
coincidence that the claims for added value, as well as production, implementation and
validation advice correspond highly to the usual sections of grant proposals : Rationale,
Methods, Implementation and Evaluation. Then with the aid of external funding from
government agencies like the National Science Foundation (NSF) or industry, administered
through a grant to a well known academic institution, the leaders construct a more developed
illustration of how to apply the technology to the need they have perceived.