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
PACE Center at Yale University: 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
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
>
>
>
> _____
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> xmca mailing list
> xmca@weber.ucsd.edu
> http://dss.ucsd.edu/mailman/listinfo/xmca
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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