Re: [xmca] change in education

From: Mike Cole (lchcmike@gmail.com)
Date: Wed Aug 03 2005 - 09:20:11 PDT


Hi David-- I did not write that paper, Lchc did. Which is more in the spirit
of what
Mary was pointing at, perhaps.

HER told us not to be gloomy. So we drew a picture of what COULD happen.
Well
before the www or blogs, for better and for worse.
mike

On 8/2/05, David Preiss <davidpreiss@puc.cl> wrote:
>
> This paragraph reminded me of an old paper Mike wrote for the Harvard
> Educational Review, I think, about the potential of computers for
> education. It had a very utopian view of their potential. I am using the
> notion of utopia in a positive sense, of course, Mike.
>
> David
>
> David Preiss
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -
> Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile: www.puc.cl <http://www.puc.cl>
> PACE Center at Yale University: www.yale.edu/pace<http://www.yale.edu/pace>
> Homepage: http://pantheon.yale.edu/~ddp6/
> Phone: 56-2-3544605
> Fax: 56-2-354-4844
> E-mail: david.preiss@yale.edu, davidpreiss@puc.cl
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
> On Behalf Of Ares, Nancy
> Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 6:42 PM
> To: mcole@weber.ucsd.edu; 'Peg.Griffin@worldnet.att.net'; 'eXtended
> Mind, Culture, Activity'
> Subject: RE: [xmca] change in education
>
>
> Another tiny query,
>
> I wonder how considering change at the level Donna and Mike are having
> us think about could be informed by the following:
>
> "A change in cultural tools may often be a more powerful force
> of development than the enhancement of individuals' skills" (Wertsch,
> 1998, p. 38, Mind and Action).
>
> This speaks to units of analysis issue that seem to be important, and to
> interactions among levels or spheres of activity. Some hang their hats
> on educational, digital, networked, etc. technologies as ways to
> distribute knowledge, activity, and power differently in education.
> Though the politics of education continue to operate as they have for
> generations, what do others think about the possibilities of new
> technological capabilities fostering what Peg Griffin offered,
> "interactive activation among parallel distributed processes," being
> revolutionary? Can communication channels' being multiplied and
> diversified disrupt old-school politics?
>
> Nancy
>
>
> Nancy Ares
> Assistant Professor
> Teaching & Curriculum
> The Warner Graduate School of Education
> and Human Development
> University of Rochester
> P.O. Box 270425
> Rochester, NY 14627
> 585-273-5957
> fax 585-473-7598
>
> > ----------
> > From: Peg Griffin
> > Reply To: Peg.Griffin@worldnet.att.net;eXtended Mind, Culture,
> > Activity
> > Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 2:19 PM
> > To: mcole@weber.ucsd.edu; 'eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity'
> > Subject: RE: [xmca] change in education
> >
> > <<File: ATT844592.txt>>
> > Hi Mike and Donna and others,
> >
> > Just a tiny query: Instead of top-down or bottom-up, would either or
> > both of you go for what a lot of people use in various cognitive
> > models
> > nowadays: interactive activation among parallel distributed processes?
> > It has always seemed to me to be a natural frame for models that
> address
> > the cultural-historical. Plus, it casts light on the variability all
> the
> > way down/up/and sideways that practice must face and might
> appropriate.
> >
> > Peg
> >
> > _____
> >
> > From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
>
> > On Behalf Of Mike Cole
> > Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2005 10:07 AM
> > To: Donna Russell
> > Cc: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
> >
> >
> >
> > Dear Dr. Russell
> >
> >
> >
> > I hope it is clear that I, too believe that there are teachers out
> > there who care deeply about their student, will do anything they
> >
> > can (including working a lot of overtime and spending their own money)
>
> > to make their students lives potentially more
> >
> > productive........ Where, perhaps, we differ, is about whether the
> > sorts of changes we are discussing, changes that
> >
> > might be called "developmenal" in that they involve qualitative shifts
>
> > in the system of education, can be achieved entirely
> >
> > through bottom up processes operating in a part of the social order.
> > With respects to all sorts of developmental phenomena
> >
> > (I take learning to read to be one), it seems like a combination of
> > top down and bottom up processes (a dialectical process,
> >
> > perhaps)? are needed.
> >
> >
> >
> > That said, might you consider having your article, "A paradigm shift:
> > A case study of innovation in an educational setting" be
> >
> > linked to the xma "papers for discussion" page for discussion when
> > the LCA discussion has run its course (we have still
> >
> > not fully incorporated Bernstein, whose work strikes me as very
> > important to the discussion). The paper is relevant in lots of
> >
> > ways to XMCA, I think. What do you think?
> >
> >
> >
> > On another matter, if you would not mind, I would find it easier to
> > refer to you as Donna since you sign your name that way. The
> >
> > use of honorific titles in this medium exacerbates the tendencies to
> > create hierarchies where they need not exist. There are certainly
> >
> > wide variations in expertise, but they are multi-dimensional in the
> > highest degree. For example, you have expertise as a classroom
> >
> > teacher while I have never been one and do not believe that I have any
>
> > right to give advice to teachers about how to teach under the
> >
> > conditions of their work, which I find far too difficult to deal with.
>
> > So let me consider you an expert from whom I can learn, especially
> >
> > when, as you have done, you make your voice heard to the benefit of
> > this community of learners.
> >
> > mike
> >
> >
> >
> > On 7/30/05, Donna Russell < donnar@yhti.net> wrote:
> >
> > hi dr cole
> >
> >
> >
> > i believe there are teachers out there- i was one and i work with
> > them- who care very deeply about their students- they will do anything
>
> > that works to make their students' lifes potentially more productive
> > including fighting against the political climate, understanding the
> > changing dynamics of their classrooms and the financial constraints- i
>
> > work to help them - change in education will happen- i believe- in
> > classrooms- as a bottom-up process- in the types and qualities of the
> > interactions of teachers and their students- that is the engine that
> > drives a program of
> > change-
> >
> >
> >
> > i use chat to understand classrooms because when i became a doc
> > student in ed psych it was the only research methodology that made
> > sense to me as a
> > teacher- i had an ephiphany when i read engestrom's book- i knew it
> would
> > allow me to make sense of the interactions of the dynamics of a
> classrooms
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > i have published several times-i did publish a short case study
> > analysis of a real change in beliefs an urban classroom- i have
> > attached this article to an email to you- i was published in the
> > online internation journal of instructional technology
> > http://www.itdl.org/Journal/Dec_04/index.htm
> >
> >
> >
> > i really do not feel qualified to post it to xmca i have only had my
> > phd for 2 years- i have presented many times (including computer
> > supported collaborative learning and i will present a paper at iscar)
> > but i have only published 5 times in the past 2 years since i started
> > at umkc.
> >
> >
> >
> > if you feel that this article or another would be of interest please
> > let me know -i have sent a much more in-depth article in regards to
> > my research design to mca last september- but i am not sure of its
> > status- perhaps it would be of more interest -
> >
> >
> >
> > thanks so much for your response
> >
> >
> >
> > donna
> >
> >
> >
> > Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor
> > Instructional Technology
> > Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
> > Suite 309
> > School of Education
> > University of Missouri-Kansas City
> > Kansas City, MO 64110
> > (cell) 314.210.6996
> > (office) 816.235.5871
> > russelldl@umkc.edu
> > http://r.web.umkc.edu/russelldl/
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> > From: Mike Cole
> >
> > To: xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2005 10:23 AM
> >
> > Subject: Re: [xmca] change in education
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Hi Donna--
> >
> >
> >
> > I totally agree concerning the POTENTIAL of using CHAT for
> design of
> > educational
> >
> > activities, but its a hard look at the barriers that the Kozulin
>
> > (sorry for the mis-spelling of the file name)
> >
> > discussion of Davydov's curriculum made me think about in light
> of
> > the discussion about barriers to
> >
> > changes in adult behaviors needed to produce the kinds of
> > interactions that, theoretically, could be
> >
> > developmentally generative.
> >
> >
> >
> > For example: "To put it bluntly, if a student in the 1970's
> were to
> > take a strictly conceptual-theoretical
> >
> > attitude toward the study of Soviet history (history is one
> domain
> > that davydov's ideas were and are
> >
> > being applied to), he or she would most probably be purged from
> the
> > school as a dissident and if old
> >
> > enough could end up in Siberian exile."
> >
> >
> >
> > Now apply this statement to the CURRENT situation in the US. We
> do
> > not have the Russian tradition
> >
> > of sending people to far-off dangerous environments to rid
> society of
> > them, but we certainly have our
> >
> > ways of disciplining dissidents. That currently includes people
> who
> > believe in evolution in many parts
> >
> > of the country and very specifically, it applies to the writing
> of
> > textbooks about American history. At
> >
> > present the wife of the vice-president, who has a say in such
> > matters, amazingly, has decreed that
> >
> > only textbooks that teach the "traditonal history of the US"
> should
> > be allowed. That traditional history
> >
> > tells us that Davy Crockett was a hero, forgets that in WWII it
> was
> > the US and Britain who created a
> >
> > deliberate policy of targeting civilians as legitimate targets
> for
> > destruction, which our massive
> >
> > airforces carried out in places like Dresden and, famously,
> Hiroshima
> > and Nagasaki (anniversaries
> >
> > coming up).
> >
> >
> >
> > I am awaiting with great interest the insights of people in the
> > discussion who have, correctly, linked real
> >
> > changes in education to the need for teachers to change. But if
> the
> > effort stops there, history has some
> >
> > very clear lessons for us about how far the well intentioned
> changes
> > will go.
> >
> >
> >
> > Good luck in your work! If we want to understand history, trying
> to
> > change it is a pretty good heuristic. Where
> >
> > have you published resarch on developing AT models of innovation
> in
> > diverse settings? Perhaps we could
> >
> > post for discussion and all learn something from it.
> >
> > mike
> >
> >
> >
> > On 7/29/05, Russell, Donna L < russelldl@umkc.edu > wrote:
> >
> >
> > Hello Everyone
> >
> > In reference to the article sent my mike cole on kozlyn and
> davidoff
> > on change in education:
> >
> > I have previously taught for 14 years in a variety of classrooms
>
> > including St. Louis Public schools. I have a background in
> > instructional design and educational technology. I currently study
> > how teachers implement change in their classrooms- primarily their use
>
> > of technology - using activity theory. Here at UMKC I am implementing
>
> > research of urban classrooms in the Kansas City school districts..
> >
> > I sincerely believe that there is a potential for a paradigm
> shift in
> > education by developing constructivist-based learning environmnents
> > based on cog theory and embedding advanced learning technologies in a
> > meaningful and an authentic manner. It has been my experience that
> > these educational experiences are productive in suburban, rural, and
> > urban schools. However, there are many barriers for teachers who wish
>
> > to innovate in urban settings.
> >
> > I attempt through my SC research design to develop AT-based
> models
> > of effective innovation in diverse educational settings so these
> > models can be used to develop profesisonal development programs in
> > varied educational settings so educators can innovate successfully and
>
> > serve their increasingly diverse students productively.
> >
> > Donna
> >
> >
> > Donna L. Russell, Ph.D.
> > Assistant Professor
> > Instructional Technology
> > Curriculum and Instructional Leadership
> > 309 School of Education
> > University of Missouri-Kansas City
> > Kansas City, MO 64110
> > russelldl@umkc.edu
> > (office) 816.235.5871
> > (cell) 314.210.6996
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > xmca mailing list
> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _____
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> > xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> > http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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