Mike: Thanks for your response. The project is just getting to the point
where we really have something to say now about what we are learning. It's
helpful to begin talking to others about it and getting feedback.
In re: your #1: the leaking and change across the school can only be
attributed in part to the WWW I think. Equally, and perhaps more important
was that everyone was trying to figure out at the same time how to make the
darn machines work. Technical issues (like what a particular icon meant, how
to get the printer to work, what happens when a software program freezes,
etc. or management issues like how to organize kids to use the computers),
while they complained bitterly about these problems and their need for
support--these issues forced teachers to talk to each other because they
simply couldn't figure it out on their own. As far as I can tell there is
nothing else in daily curriculum issues that a teacher really couldn't figure
out on their own--nothing else forced people to talk to each other, go into
the rooms of other teachers, and work with another teacher to solve a
problem. In that sense, technology installation may have been an unusual
blip that, as teachers become used to technology, will never again have the
power to draw them together in the same way. It was very important that
everyone was doing it at the same time. Email then was very complementary to
these other social developments.
In re: your #2: This is a very interesting point. I am very interested in
the ways that teachers are coming to use the Internet and what are the issues
they run up against as they get deeper into it--including issues of how it
works best for different ages.
One thing I noticed early on was that the Internet research teachers were
attempting to conduct was making it sadly apparant that traditional research
approaches were highly ritualized and (I guess I'd have to say) impoverished.
In traditional research, everyone has a role--teachers give the assignment,
librarians give a lesson on library research, kids bring the books home
(parents may do the assignment) and then the research report is produced.
Internet research blew everything apart--no one's roles were yet established,
and teachers and librarians weren't familiar enough with the Internet and its
organization to know how searches would best be conducted. Teachers and
librarians are gradually learning how to teach Internet use and how to teach
the reading skills that go along with Internet use. As a reading
specialist--the Internet poses a host of literacy issues for educators that
have not yet begun to be talked about.
This brings me to another point--which is the widely held belief that
computers will somehow solve the problems of poorly achieving youth because
of their inherently interesting format. Our teachers hoped great things
would happen for their poor achievers and they've found, however, that while
a few may get excited by computers, for many, computer formats and Internet
research pose high barriers for students with limited literacy skills--and
(except for games) these students often quickly lose interest. Where poor
students make gains with computers is when computers are tools to support
challenging and interesting curriculum. What our teachers learned is that
there is nothing intrinsic about computers that draws these students in.
Indeed, our teachers are very fearful that technology is widening, not
narrowing, the gap between high and low achieving students.
Interestingly, the Internet has put a research tool in teachers hands. As
you know, few teachers have any easy access to professional materials in
their workplaces [maybe a journal in the teacher's room on the school
library--or handouts at a workshop]. As more and more of them explore
resources of interest to them and useful to their teaching--I'm wondering if
they will begin to apply some of that learning and excitement back to the
classroom.
Thanks for your response. I look forward to reading the chapter at some
future point. Judy
--------------------------------------
Date: 8/31/97 7:02 PM
To: Judy Wasser
From: xmca who-is-at weber.ucsd.edu
Hi Judy D.W.--
A belated thanks for your very interesting note on computers
and classroom cultures. Aside from the neat additional refs, two points
stood out for me:
1: When the WWW is the medium, the whole school may be the unit. At least
there is a lot more "leaking" across intra-school borders. Sounds very
plausible.
2. High schools may change faster. I think this is related to #1. In our
afterschool work, it is the older kids who get more into the WWW in
general. Younger kids get involved when we scan art or post photos so that
they are real producers whose work is responded to from the outside, but
they are not ready for some of the expansive potentials that classroom
teachers want them to get in to. I surmise.
mike
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