Oregon Technology in
Education Network
Teacher Quality Enhancement
Partnership Grant
• Evaluation form.
• All but one of the sessions are in Franz
Hall where you registered.
– Sandra’s Smartboard session is in the
basement of the library
• Lunch
• Resources
Connecting to the internet
during the conference
• Access to the University system is based
on a master list.
• Your computer must be known.
• Your computer must have login software.
• Registering guests takes a week.
• Registering lots of guests takes longer.
Connecting to the internet
during the conference
• As a teacher my instructional strategies
must be selected based on the available
resources and infrastructure.
• In this case, my selection of instructional
strategies must be made based on
decisions that Information Services made.
Connecting to the internet
during the conference
• IS made their decisions about the system
we use in part because of two things:
– Hackers
– Cisco Systems
• The decision to do this was made mostly
by one man whose background was
military intelligence.
Connecting to the internet
during the conference
• And, of course all of this had to work with
the budget constraints of an institution that
is trying to do a lot of other things in
addition to protecting us from terrorists.
Connecting to the internet
during the conference
Budget
Security
Cisco Systems
The Master List
Selection of Instructional
Strategies
No Internet Access
Connecting to the internet
during the conference
• In the ed tech literature we talk about
these as affordances and constraints of
technology.
• How many of you have checked your
text messages or email in the last 15
minutes?
Technology is Just a Tool:
The Myth of the Neutral Machine
Oregon Technology in Education Network
Fall, 2008
The Argument
• Technology is a means to an end.
"Technology is just a tool to let you do what your
are interested in.” Bill Gates
The Argument
• Technology is a means to an end.
• It doesn’t teach by itself.
“Technology, like money, functions or, really, hyperfunctions
as a lubricant does for machinery: it facilitates education,
communication, etc. but is NOT a substitute for the true
acquisition of knowledge.” Anonymous Blog Response
The Argument
• Technology is a means to an end.
• It doesn’t teach by itself.
• It is inherently unbiased.
“In and of itself, technology contains neither pedagogical
philosophy nor content bias.” Barbara Means
Thinking Back
• Were automatic
looms a means
to an end?
• Did they teach
anything?
• Were they
unbiased—value
neutral?
Maybe a Bit More on This
• Prior to automatic looms weaving was
done as cottage industry.
• Automatic looms needed to be housed
in factories.
• Luddites appeared.
• Indian weaving almost disappeared.
Thinking Back
• Were automatic
looms a means
to an end?
• Did they teach
anything?
• Were they
unbiased—value
neutral?
Information Technology
•
•
•
•
Is information a means to an end?
Does information teach us?
Is information biased?
Information literacy
Access
Curriculum and Instruction
• Choosing to use technology
The Six Stages of Educational Media Innovations
Wild Enthusiasm
Utter Confusion
Deep Disappointment
Search for the Guilty
Punishment of the Loyal
Promotion of the Non-Involved
(Davis, 1987)
Curriculum and Instruction
• Choosing to use technology
• What you choose
Curriculum and Instruction
• Choosing to use technology
• What you choose
• Standards
Common Curriculum Goals
1.
Demonstrate proficiency in the use of technological tools and
devices.
2.
Select and use technology to enhance learning and problem
solving.
3.
Access, organize and analyze information to make informed
decisions, using one or more technologies.
4.
Use technology in an ethical and legal manner and understand
how technology affects society.
5.
Design, prepare and present unique works using technology to
communicate information and ideas.
6.
Extend communication and collaboration with peers, experts
and other audiences using telecommunications.
Curriculum and Instruction
•
•
•
•
Choosing to use technology
What you choose
Standards
ISTE
Corporate Cultures
• Apple II
Corporate Cultures
• Instructional
Software
Doing the Old Better
• Teachers tend to adopt technology
incrementally. They use it to do what they
already do more easily, effectively or
efficiently. (Mumtaz, 2000)
• Technologies have always been adopted
this way. Judging against the known.
• Modifying aspects of existing practice.
(Goodman, 2002)
Student Digital Experiences
• Differences in experience inside and outside
of classrooms
• Digital immigrants and digital natives
(Prensky, 2006)
• Insider knowledge (Sefton-Green, 2003)
• The long list of the impact of the net:
communication, playful learning, new
literacies, forming identities, new politics
(Tapscott, 1998)
Another Digital Divide
• Access and filtering
• Decontextualized skills
• Restricted audiences
Reducing the Divide
•
•
•
•
Informed intervention (Buckingham, 2007)
Media literacy
Audience
The nature of working together
Wikipedia
Social Constructed Knowledge
•
•
•
•
Isn’t all knowledge social constructed?
It is a question of the authority
The Britannica study
Tagging
– Social Software
Tagging
Unintended Consequences
Driving and Cell Phones
• MIT simulation (Devereaux, 2002)
• Normal drivers miss about 3% of potential
hazards.
• When experienced drivers dialed the
phone missed hazards went up to 12%.
• Young drivers dialed the phone while
driving twice as fast as older adults on
average.
• When young drivers dialed the phone
missed hazards went up to 50%.
• Levels of impairment using phones are
worse than alcohol (Strayer, Crouch & Drews, 2004)
Libraries
• School libraries are full of
developmentally appropriate materials.
• The internet is the antithesis of that.
• The nature of school libraries and
school librarians had to change as they
moved toward the internet.
… and Books
• Books last a long time
• Half life of a webpage is a bit less than
2.5 years (Koehler, 1999)
PDAs
• Elliot Soloway, University of Michigan
• PDAs in the classroom
• Kids were taught to search for and
download applications
Speaking of Technology
• Technology demands literacy
• As if I’m a prisoner in Andy’s jail in Mayberry
• Filling up a whole in the ground with water
• I feels like we are caged mice
• Demi-techno-god-monster
• I think computers are awesome but way
overwhelming
• Technology makes life simpler
• It sucks my energy
So, Now What?
• The the single solution approach
• Media literacy
• Whatever you choose be aware
– A means to what end?
– A pedagogy of its own?
– The bias of every tool?
Considering the Adventure
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Information technology
Your school culture
Your students’ lives
The impact of the for-profit sector
The nature of authority
Unintended consequences
The language of technology use
Just
• Usually the second definition of the
adverbial form of the word:
merely or simply;
and nothing more;
he was just a child