<br>Yes, the historical perspective sheds a great deal of light on the dynamics of technology in schools -- the interplay of morphogenesis (in this case the introduction ICT and all its affordances in schools) and morphogenesis (an institution's (schooling) tendency to resist change in form and structure).
<br><br>Today, when technology and society are changing schools and universities need to recognize that they are preparing students for jobs that don't exist today in which technologies that today aren't imagined will be integral. That indicates that teachers and schools need to learn to be much more agile with the integration of new technologies as well as teaching students to be adaptive and continuous learners, to keep up with technology, knowledge, social change, etc. Of course, learning technologies are a huge investment and public institutions need to be strategic in how the appraise and adopt technologies--but simply decrying that technologies don't fit with the institution of schools is obviously not the solution. I note that the Institute of the Future / Knowledge Works Foundations Map of the Future Force Affecting Education predicts a significant change in the institution of schooling (
e.g., unbundled education; participatory pedagogy) (<a href="http://www.kwfdn.org/map/map.asp">http://www.kwfdn.org/map/map.asp</a>). These changes are driven, of course, in part by the dominant model of 1:1 computing -- outside of schools.
<br><br>Thanks for your posts.<br>Valerie <br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 5/8/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Rory McGreal</b> <<a href="mailto:rory@athabascau.ca">rory@athabascau.ca</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div link="blue" vlink="blue" lang="EN-US">
<div>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Valerie,</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">In the 1820's in Ontario
Canada,
there was a Teacher's Association resolution condemning slates use in
schools. The teachers were concerned that the slates were expensive and that students
no longer knew how to roll birch bark for writing on. Also, I remember when in
school in the 50s, in England,
the teachers would not let us use ball point pens (biros) because they were
expensive and we would not learn how to use our wooden quill pens properly. </span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">All the best.</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Rory</span></font></p>
<p><font color="navy" face="Arial" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p>
<div>
<div style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
<hr align="center" size="2" width="100%">
</span></font></div>
<p><b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;">
<a href="mailto:discussion-bounces@g1to1.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">discussion-bounces@g1to1.org</a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:discussion-bounces@g1to1.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
discussion-bounces@g1to1.org</a>] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Yishay Mor<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Tuesday, May 08, 2007 4:31
AM<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Valerie Crawford<br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cc:</span></b> <a href="mailto:discussion@g1to1.org" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">discussion@g1to1.org</a><br>
<b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Re: NYT article: Schools
drop laptop programs</span></font></p>
</div><div><span class="e" id="q_1126c623106a36fa_1">
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Saw this last week, and couldn't resist throwing in my 2p:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/people/yish/blog/start-0_-2007-05-08_read-87" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/people/yish/blog/start-0_-2007-05-08_read-87
</a></span></font></p>
<h3><b><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><a href="http://www.noe-kaleidoscope.org/people/yish/blog/start-0_-2007-05-08_read-87" title="read message" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
Stop press: Shlepping a chunk of plastic and wires does
not improve your grades.</a> </span></font></b></h3>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Winnie Hu from the NYT writes about <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/education/04laptop.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
schools
ditching their laptop programmes for lack of results</a> . A must read.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">When the school tightened its network security, a 10th grader not only
found a way around it but also posted step-by-step instructions on the Web for
others to follow (which they did).</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Wow. Talk about problem solving. Collaborative learning. These kids are
obviously learning something. Well, the school, and the reporter, where not
that impressed</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yet school officials here and in several other places said laptops had
been abused by students, did not fit into lesson plans, and showed little, if
any, measurable effect on grades and test scores at a time of increased
pressure to meet state standards.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">That is surprising, given the reports from Maine</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Attendance is up. Detentions are down. Just six months after Maine began a
controversial program to provide laptop computers to every seventh grader in
the state, educators are impressed by how quickly students and teachers have
adapted to laptop technology."</span></font></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/nyregion/05LAPT.html?ex=1179268008&ei=1&en=469140e27abd5a63" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/05/nyregion/05LAPT.html?ex=1179268008&ei=1&en=469140e27abd5a63
</a></span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"You hear kids say: I feel smarter now", "some say it
has transformed the relationships between students and teachers"</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><a href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4660781" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4660781
</a><br>
<br>
<br>
The answer is at the end of the article. A teacher is quoted:</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Let's face it, math is for the most part still a paper-and-pencil
activity when you're learning it," she said.</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In the early 19C schools in America
and Europe <a href="http://americanhistory.si.edu/teachingmath/" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">introduced
slates and number frames</a> as means for maths instruction. Until then, the
standard method was - a teacher reading out of a text book, and students
chanting after. Exams were oral, and students were expected to recite textbook
proofs down to variable names. I can see the Winnie Hu of the day quoting a
teacher:</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">"Let's face it, learning maths is still for the most part
repeating after the teacher. A slate just gets in the way."</span></font></p>
<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br>
<br>
___________________________<br>
Yishay Mor, Researcher, London
Knowledge Lab<br>
<a href="http://www.lkl.ac.uk/people/mor.html" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.lkl.ac.uk/people/mor.html</a><br>
<a href="http://yishaym.wordpress.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://yishaym.wordpress.com</a><br>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/yishaymor" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">https://www.linkedin.com/in/yishaymor</a><br>
<a href="http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=yishaym%40gmail.com" target="_blank" onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)">http://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=yishaym%40gmail.com
</a><br>
<span class="jajahWraper"><a class="jajahLink" title="Click to call this number with JAJAH..." href="javascript:void(0)"><span class="jajahInLink"> +44-20-78378888</span></a></span> x5737 </span></font></p>
</span></div></div>
</div>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>--Valerie