Solutions in Search of Educational Problems: Speaking for Computers in Schools (original) (raw)
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Whose Computer is it, Anyway?: Schools Embrace Computers Without Knowing Why
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This chapter is concerned with the way schools and school systems in the over-developed world have come to terms with computers and related technologies and, particularly, recurring patterns in terms of how schools' relationships with computers are considered and evaluated. The patterns I will describe are quite remarkable in that they have repeated over the past 30 years, and, as I will argue, will likely continue into the future.
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Students who attend school today do not know a world without computers. They use them every day in different ways and with different purposes. For them, school is no longer the primary source of knowledge about computers. However, the school still remains for them an important source of knowledge about ICT, and computers in schools has become an important tool for learning. Teachers use computers in schools to enhance the educational process and to improve students' knowledge about ICT. How successful we are in it?
Two papers on the role computers play in education
1985
Many students today are learning about computers. It is not clear, though, how computers should be used in school. This paper discusses the nature of the computer as a learning tool, and suggests ways in which computer based learning activities can fit into classrooms. In fact, the paper notes, the biggest impact of computers may be in terms of the ways they contribute to the social organization of the classroom. The Role Computers Play 3 Taking Control of Educational Technology by Bertram Bruce There is no such thing as a neutral educational process. Education either functions as an instrument which is used to facilitate the integration of the younger generation into the logic of the present system and bring about conformity to it, or it becomes "the practice of freedom," the means by which men and women deal critically and creatively with reality and discover how to participate in the transformation of their world. Richard Shaull, 1970 One of the central debates in educa...
Computers in Education: Why, When, How
Excerpts from Challenging the Applications: An Alternative View on Why, When, and How Computers Should be Used in Education, where more details and a comprehensive bibliography may be found.
International journal of actor-network theory and technological innovation, 2013
As in Australia school education is the responsibility of State Governments, this article will consider two computer systems in the Australian State of Victoria. The article takes a socio-technical stance to examine two computer systems currently in use in schools in Victoria: CASES21 and the Ultranet. After describing these systems, the article makes use of actor-network theory to explore the actors involved in their creation, development, implementation and use (or in one case non-use), and the networks they established in doing so. It looks at the associations involving both the human and non-human actors and how these contributed to successful adoption and use of these systems. A comparison of two systems within the same organisational environment allows a unique perspective on the formation of networks. The ANT approach permits an understanding of the difference in adoption where very few factors differ between the cases.
2003
Many have speculated that the diffusion of computer-based technologies into schools would have a transformative effect on schooling, fundamentally changing the nature of teaching and learning. However, wide-scale qualitative changes have failed to emerge, even in technologically wealthy countries such as Australia where the average computer-to-student ratio is now at 1:4. Even the most enthusiastic educational technologists would admit that, despite the presence of computers in schools, the full realisation of the potential of computerbased (and more recently, networked) technologies has not yet occurred. In this paper, I draw on sociological and feminist accounts of interactions between technology and users to offer a critique of the assumptions that underpin dominant discourses surrounding technology and schooling. I argue that the dominant storying that constructs classroom technology use is based on a naïve conception of technology, leading to misreadings of teacher practice and the development of flawed policy. I argue that the notion of technology-as-process offers a more generative framework for investigating practice that is better attuned to what goes on in schools, and to understanding the resilience of traditional schooling, leading us to ask more useful questions about technology usage and the context of use.