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

Good point -- thank you for the eloquent answer - when I said "these
teachers are unable to adapt" I did not mean to "demonize"teachers but
to point out how crucial teacher beliefs and attitudes are in the
success of educational technology.

-----Original Message-----
From: xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu [mailto:xmca-bounces@weber.ucsd.edu]
On Behalf Of White, Phillip
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 7:47 PM
To: eXtended Mind, Culture, Activity
Subject: RE: [xmca] NYTimes.com article: Seeing No Progress,Some Schools
Drop Laptops

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 21:35 PDT 2007