Oversold and UnderusedImpelled by a demand for increasing American strength in the new global economy, many educators, public officials, business leaders, and parents argue that school computers and Internet access will improve academic learning and prepare students for an information-based workplace. But just how valid is this argument? In Oversold and Underused, one of the most respected voices in American education argues that when teachers are not given a say in how the technology might reshape schools, computers are merely souped-up typewriters and classrooms continue to run much as they did a generation ago. In his studies of early childhood, high school, and university classrooms in Silicon Valley, Larry Cuban found that students and teachers use the new technologies far less in the classroom than they do at home, and that teachers who use computers for instruction do so infrequently and unimaginatively. Cuban points out that historical and organizational economic contexts influence how teachers use technical innovations. Computers can be useful when teachers sufficiently understand the technology themselves, believe it will enhance learning, and have the power to shape their own curricula. But these conditions can't be met without a broader and deeper commitment to public education beyond preparing workers. More attention, Cuban says, needs to be paid to the civic and social goals of schooling, goals that make the question of how many computers are in classrooms trivial. |
Contents
1 | |
1 The Setting | 21 |
2 Cyberteaching in Preschools and Kindergartens | 36 |
3 HighTech Schools LowTech Learning | 68 |
4 New Technologies in Old Universities | 99 |
5 Making Sense of Unexpected Outcomes | 131 |
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academic administrators American asked beliefs California campus century changes classroom computer clusters computers at home computers in schools courses curriculum daily David David Dwyer decades dents district Dorothy Shipps early childhood electronic elementary schools engineers equipment Evidence-Based Medicine explanation faculty Flatland funds Gerhard Casper goals grade graduate hardware high school Higher Education information technologies instruction integrated Internet investment Larry Cuban lecture machines math media centers ment Montañas National nology nomic outcomes overhead projectors parents percent personal computer policymakers practitioners preschools and kindergartens profes professors programs public schools puter questions Report Rodrigues San Jose Mercury school reform September 25 Silicon Valley slow-revolution social social capital Stanford studies survey taught teachers and students Teachers College Press teaching and learning teaching practices tech technical support techno technol tion TLTC U.S. Department undergraduates University Press users wiring workplace York Young Children
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Page 3 - States and the well-being of its people, the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.
Page 3 - If only to keep and improve on the slim competitive edge we still retain in world markets, we must dedicate ourselves to the reform of our educational system for the benefit of all—old and young alike, affluent and poor, majority and minority. Learning is the indispensable investment required for success in the "information age