Appropriate Proper Reasonable As an undergraduate science major, I came to understand quantitative data; we measured what we observed in the laboratory and in the field and we summarized and evaluated it to draw conclusions about the world as we saw it. Patterns in numbers were our window into the systems we studied. As a Read More
70: Vygotsky and the Zone of Proximal Development Lev Vygotsky was a Russia psychologist who worked in the early part of the 20th century before he died at 38. Many educators who adopt methods that are commonly called constructivist ground their pedagogy in ideas he developed. One that is particularly useful in designing all curriculum Read More
A theme that recurs in my blog and in my other writing is the importance of theory in education and educational planning. I maintain the position that theory is a vital part of teaching and learning and leadership because it helps us understand exactly what matters in what we do. We can focus on relevant Read More
“So, is my school’s technology good enough?” is a question that principals and curriculum coordinators and superintendents ask—of course they don’t usually ask it when their IT coordinators or staff are within ear shot. The reality is that most school administrators do not have the expertise to assess the IT for which they are responsible. Read More
79: Three Choices When Faced with Technology Technology is a permanent part of society and culture. For decades, scholars who study technology and society have documented the active influences of technology on individuals who experience it and on institutions that reflect it in the organizations that emerge. These effects are particularly acute for educators. The Read More
The question of just what should we educational technology professionals spend their time and energy doing and what school leaders should expect of the IT professionals they hire is one that has been raised by several within my network in the last year or so. The answer that I tend to give is this one: Read More
Ronald Gallimore and Roland Tharp (1992) educational psychologists who studied conditions in classrooms that influence learning, referred to this type of teaching as a recitation script and observed, “the predominant experience of American school children. Sitting silently, students read assigned texts, complete ‘ditto’ sheets, and take tests. On those rare occasions when they are encouraged Read More
80: Non-neutrality of Technology In the 21st century, information technology scholars have rediscovered the work of the media theorists who documented the strong and active sociocultural influences of information technology, and they are beginning to study technology as a non-neutral factor in society. Andrew Feenberg (1999), a philosopher and historian of science and technology, captured Read More
Since computers arrived in schools, much of the professional development has been designed to show teachers how to use ICT and how to adopt that ICT into instruction (with the assumption that ICT would be a neutral aspect of the classroom). As the emerging educational paradigm shift is completed, the focus of professional development to Read More
81: Why Theory Matters in Education In many educational communities, existing practice exerts strong influence on the practices deemed acceptable, so attempts to define new goals are met with strong resistance. In this situation, many educators adopt a stance that Paulo Friere, the Brazilian educational philosopher, suggested resembled Aristotle’s concept of doxa, which is practice Read More