THE LEARNING REVOLUTION

When the personal computer first entered the classroom three decades ago, prophets of the information age foretold a marvelous revolution. The world's storehouses of knowledge would become instantly available to young minds. Captivating digital landscapes would bring history, geography and science alive on a screen. Not since Gutenberg, they exulted, had there been such a powerful new tool for learning. Their bold predictions were not wrong, just premature. Computers are indeed everywhere in American schools, but they are generally used as little more than electronic workbooks for drill, or as places for kids to play games during ``free choice'' periods. The promised revolution has failed to materialize. But here and there, in cutting-edge schools around the nation, there are glimmers of what could be. Nowhere is the use of technology more advanced and pervasive than at the Dalton School, an elite private academy in New York City. The 1,300 students at Dalton, situated on Manhattan's posh Upper East Side, enjoy resources that any school would envy: a teaching staff studded with Ph.D.s, a 62,000-volume library and specialized studios for instruction in subjects such as architecture and dance. But what really distinguishes the school is the way it is using technology to change the traditional roles of the teacher as oracle and the student as passive receptacle for hand-me-down knowledge. A visit to some of Dalton's classrooms provides a glimpse of what many believe is the future of education: