RE: [xmca] NYTimes.com article: Seeing No Progress, Some Schools Drop Laptops

From: White, Phillip <Phillip.White who-is-at cudenver.edu>
Date: Sat May 05 2007 - 16:46:50 PDT

Clearly these teachers are unable to adapt to 21st century tools. It's
not the kids or the laptops, it's the educators and they view the
process and the tools.

What do you think?
_____________________________________________
 
      i think that it would help, Teresa, to look at this from a CHAT perspective rather than deficit theory ("teachers are unable ...")
 
     afterall, we recognize that it doesn't help teachers to deal with their own students when they use deficit theory - "kids don't have the background knowledge" - "the parents don't care" - "the teachers before me didn't do their job" etc.
 
     and it doesn't serve us as CHAT practitioners to explain social activities through deficit theory - we need to begin with the assumption, which i happen to think is correct, that for the most part teachers are doing what they think they should be doing, and are attempting to both meet the needs of their students as well as the laws in NCLB - which, similarly problematizes teachers has replete with multiple deficits - "lazy", "ignorant", "uncaring", "hiding behind corrupt unions", etc.
 
     one of the great tragedies of the 20th century in education is that teachers has been demonized by the political left just as much as they have been demonized by the political right - and this has done none of us any good - clearly from a CHAT perspective teachers do not stand alone, decontextualized, as the categorical statement "teachers are unable..." suggests.
 
     i think it woud help to have a CHAT perspective -
 
phillip
 
Phillip A. White, Lecturer
University of Colorado at Denver, Health Sciences Center
School of Education, Human Development
Teacher Education

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Received on Sat May 5 17:47 PDT 2007

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