Computers and the History of Classroom Technology

Introduction: Questioning the relationship between technology and education

Since the 1980s there has been a great deal of discussion about what role computers should play in American education, and what might be reasonably expected from technology-driven reforms in teaching, learning and schooling. A first question that might be asked, in light of the history of classroom technology discussed by Larry Cuban, is why we assume any technology (be it radio, television, film or the computer) is the sort of thing to which teaching, learning or schooling could/should respond; and, more generally, to what extent teaching, learning and schooling are "technical" phenomena (i.e. phenomena characterized by "technique"). We'll spend the first part of class today on introductions, and ask everyone to speak to this question a bit.

Larry Cuban's Teachers and Machines

We'll discuss the Cuban book with the help of the set of quotations I've prepared, and consider the following questions:

• What data/result/fact in the book did you find most surprising?
• What data/result/fact in the book do you imagine reflected in the use of computers in schools since 1986?
• What data/result/fact in the book do you imagine not reflected in the use of computers in schools since 1986?
• If you were to study the use of computers in US schools since 1986, what would you look at, measure and/or survey?

For next time: Read the 4th chapter, "The Promise of the Computer," in Cuban, as well as the 1998 debate between Cuban and Roy Pea at tappedin.org (http://www.tappedin.org/info/teachers/debate.html).