EDC&I
585
Technology and the
Culture of Education
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Instructor:? Prof. Stephen T. Kerr |
Office:? 122 Miller Hall, Box 353600 |
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Course meets:? 085 Mary Gates Hall |
Telephone:? (206) 685-7562 |
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Wednesday, 4:30 - 6:50 p.m. |
E-mail:? |
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Office hours: By appointment ?
(typically Weds. pm and Thurs. am) |
http://faculty.washington.edu/stkerr/ |
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Session |
Date |
Assignment for Session |
Topic in Class |
|
1 |
|
--- |
Introductions:? Students, instructor, course Technology,
media, and the culture of educational institutions Scheduling
course events |
|
2 |
4/6 |
Paper/project descriptions;
Brown (2000; 2008)* |
Looking
critically at technology, education, and the future Discuss course projects |
|
3 |
4/13 |
Cuban,
Intro., chs. 1-3 |
What
promises were made, what assumptions were held ? about technology and
educational institutions? |
|
4 |
4/20 |
Cuban,
chs. 4-6 Find
materials for non-traditional media exercise |
[NO CLASS MEETING] Non-traditional media exercise ? see description
in syllabus. |
|
5 |
4/27 |
Lanier,
Intro., chs. 1-8 |
Discuss
non-traditional media exercise Technology
and education; Persons and economics |
|
6 |
5/4 |
Lanier,
chs. 9-14, Afterword |
Flatness and the future of education |
|
7 |
5/11 |
Kelly,
chs. 1-8 |
Technology and the evolution of education I: How
deterministic is technology? |
|
8 |
5/18 |
Kelly,
chs. 9-14 |
Technology and the evolution of education II: How
flexible is education? |
|
9 |
5/25 |
TBA |
"Schools?
Universities?? What were those things,
anyway, and why did we think we needed them?" |
|
10 |
6/1 |
Final projects due |
Conclusions;
final discussion of individual projects. |
*Texts:? Brown, John Seely.? (2008).?
Minds on fire.
and (2000).? Growing up digital.? (Both available online).
Cuban, Larry.? (2001).?
Oversold and underused: Computers in the classroom.?
Kelly, Kevin.? (2010).?
What technology wants.?
Lanier, Jaron.? (2010).?
You are not a gadget: A manifesto.?
1.? Course Rationale and Goals
Why
do we assume that technology and education naturally go together?? Educational technology, whether we think of
it as the "things" of education, as a highly controlled process for
pre-specifying results of learning, or as the design of enabling, liberating
educative environments, has always had a powerful allure.? But why do we rush so rapidly to try to use
in our schools and colleges the technological systems that entertain, direct,
help, and inform us in other spheres of life??
Why do we spend so much money on those systems, only to discover that
they frequently do not meet the promises that were made for them?? And why do so many teachers and students have
such difficulty figuring out what the new systems are good for in their
classrooms?
Or,
should the question be framed the other way round:? Why do we think we still need fixed ?bricks
and mortar? institutions ? schools, universities, corporate training centers ? when
these new e-tools can allow us to do so many good and powerful educative
things, bring about much deep learning, in ways that are so much easier to
organize and manage?
Both
problems and potential feature prominently in current discussions of educational
technology.? Some of the issues are close
to the surface ? one has only to look at recent reports to find references to
"the problem of teacher training," "the need for better
coordination in implementing technology programs," "helping the
digital immigrants deal with the digital natives," ?controlling kids? access
to smart phones during school,? or "the problem of institutional
change."? These are perceived
solutions to perceived problems.?
But
it may well be that the real issues are further beneath the surface, in the
emerging patterns of influence that media and technology have on our
consciousness, in the assumptions that young people (as opposed to those over
25) make about how they interact with others and how they gather information
about the world, and in the implications all those patterns have for
institutions that we have come to take for granted.? Newspapers disappear, book publishers no
longer print books, and states tell high school students they must take an
online course to graduate.?
Do
schools and universities have a future in this sort of era, or will they too go
the ways of the newspapers, music publishers, and video rental shops?? To answer this question, we need to become
more aware of how our educational institutions are structured, what social
roles and expectations define their activities, and how technology is used and is
coming to be used there.? Meanwhile,
technological change itself continues at an increasingly rapid pace, and this
change often suggests deeper shifts in our culture, our values, and in the
underlying shape and purposes of our institutions, shifts that we can barely
perceive as they happen, let alone manage or direct.
Why
these questions are so pressing today, and what they may portend for education
in this country and around the world are our topics in this course.? We will begin by reviewing a couple of recent
pieces from John Seely Brown, a well-regarded thinker and entrepreneur in the
fields of both business and education.?
We will move along to examine the ideas of Larry Cuban, a scholar and
educator who has wrangled thoughtfully with technology?s place in schools for
25 years.? The we?ll tackle Jaron Lanier,
sometimes referred to as the ?inventor of virtual reality,? and a thoughtful
critic of recent technological trends.?
Finally, we?ll read Kevin Kelly?s (founding editor of Wired
magazine) recent exploration of what he sees as inexorable patterns of
development for technology.
Part
of the purpose of this course is to encourage us to examine new technologies,
new systems and services, new software and games, and to examine how those may
relate to education, or how they might change it.? While this will be part of the conversation
throughout, we will feature it in two specific ways:? first, at the start of every class session, we'll
devote at least 10-15 minutes to new sites, services, software, etc., that you
have identified and that you feel might have some implication for
education.? (It might not only be
positive impact ? negative is also interesting!)? We'll have a GoPost site, and you can post
links there.? We'll also have a
non-traditional media exercise in which I invite you to locate interesting items
that have relevance to our explorations.?
These might come from YouTube, Flickr, Twitter, or from any number of
different blogs, wikis, or other "Web 2.0" tools.? You'll have the equivalent of one class session
(April 20) to work on this, and we'll discuss the following week.
2.? Requirements
??????????? There are four basic requirements for
this course:? (1) do the readings and
come to class prepared to discuss them; (2) make a brief oral presentation on
the readings for that week (concentrating on assumptions and implications,
rather than providing a summary); (3) make a brief oral presentation on your
proposed paper or project (as a separate exercise, you'll identify relevant
literature); and (4) prepare (and discuss briefly, during our final class
session) a project or paper dealing with some aspect of the interrelationship
between technology and the culture of education.
a.?
CONTRIBUTION
TO CLASS GRADE: 10%
b.
?Aspect of Culture? assignment.? Write a very brief paper (not more than three
pages!) about some aspect of the ?culture of education? that you feel may be
about to change (or have the potential to change) in some substantial way
because of the impact of technology.?
This could be some fairly large aspect of education ? how ?worthiness?
is determined, for example (grades, tests, evaluations, etc.)? Or it might be some less visible part of the
educational enterprise ? How teachers interact with parents, what a ?text? is
and how it gets used, etc.? Try out your
ideas with the class (sign-ups at the start of the quarter) in a roughly
10-minute presentation.? As you do so,
pay special attention to these parts of your ?aspect of educational culture?:
i.? Why is
this an important part of the culture of education?? What does it do, allow to happen, facilitate,
etc., in terms of preparing learners to cope with the world?
ii.? What
are some of the critical (defining, central) features of that aspect
of educational culture?? What does it
look like, up close, and how would education differ if it was not there, or was
there in a different way?
iii.? Where
do you feel that technology has the potential to alter that aspect of
educational culture?? What would have to
happen for those effects to appear?? What
would change as a result?
FORMAT:? Three-page (max.) paper defining an aspect of
the culture of education and addressing the three questions above.? Turn in via course drop box (CollectIt) on UW
Catalyst.
EVALUATION:? Graded.?
CONTRIBUTION
TO COURSE GRADE: 20% (paper [10%] and oral presentation in class [10%]).
c.
?New Technology? assignment.? Identify one specific technological
development that you feel has the potential to alter the culture of education
in some clear and definable way.? This
could be related to the aspect of education you chose in the ?aspect of
culture? assignment (above), or it could be different.? This might be a hardware device (smart phone
to deliver content via mobile apps), a software approach (highly motivating
games to engage kids more deeply in learning), or the spread of a ?business
process? in education (capturing and integrating all student assessment date
though a common web-based interface).? As
above, try out your ideas with the class (sign-ups at the start of the quarter)
in a roughly 10-minute presentation.? As
you do so, pay special attention to these aspects of your chosen technology:
i.? What
would the new technology do better that would make it attractive enough for
schools, college, educators to try it out??
ii.? What
would be the established cultural patterns in education that the technology
would change, modify, disrupt?
iii.? Why do
you feel that this technology would be powerful enough to accomplish those
changes?? (What would be the sources of
resistance and the sources of support for change?)
FORMAT:? Three-page (max.) paper defining a new
technology and addressing the three questions above.? Turn in via course drop box (CollectIt) on UW
Catalyst.
EVALUATION:? Graded.?
CONTRIBUTION
TO COURSE GRADE: 20% (paper [10%] and oral presentation in class [10%]).
Do
Assignment b, ?Aspect of Culture,? before you do Assignment c, ?New
Technology?!
d.?
Individual course paper/project.? Choose a topic of interest to you and related
to the influence of technology on the culture of education.? Many topics are possible:? mini-studies, surveys of literature,
proposals, evaluations, or development projects that examine in a thoughtful
way technology's role.? Check with me if
you have any questions about the appropriateness of topics.? We will discuss your progress in defining and
working on the projects as we proceed through the quarter.
FORMAT:? Double-spaced, and submitted via the course
drop box (CollectIt) on UW Catalyst (other non-traditional formats are also
welcome, as dictated by the medium chosen, but check with me first).? All papers should be prepared in accordance
with the guidelines contained in the Publication
manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.), or a comparable
authoritative model.? Pay special
attention to the way you use headings to clarify the organization of your
paper.? Length: no more than 15 pages.?
CONTRIBUTION
TO CLASS GRADE:? 50%.
??????????? A
word on the oral presentations and discussions.? It is important to learn how to present ideas
clearly and briefly, and how to critique others' presentations incisively and
positively.? It is easy to criticize
someone else's work; it is harder (and more important) to do so in a way that
preserves that person's self-image and dignity.?
The most respected scholars are those who manage to combine helpful
suggestions for how things might be done differently with a tone that is
constructive and collegial.? You should
strive to attain this kind of scholarly approach in your work here!
3.? Necessary Notices:
DUE DATES:? Having assignments ready by the date due is
an essential requirement and a basic expectation of graduate study.? Failure to observe this requirement can have
dire consequences!? Grades of
"incomplete" will be given only for certifiable medical reasons or in
other extraordinary circumstances.
DISABILITY ACCOMODATIONS:? To
request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disability
Resources for Students, 448 Schmitz, 206-543-8924/V, 206-543-8925/TTY, or at http://www.washington.edu/students/drs/.? If you have a letter from Disability
Resources for Students indicating you have a disability which requires academic
accommodations, please present the letter to me so we can discuss the
accommodations you might need in this class.
If you have questions or concerns about disability accommodation
do not hesitate to contact me or
PLAGIARISM:? Plagiarism,
submitting someone else's words or ideas as your own work, is a serious
academic offense. ?Cases of suspected plagiarism
will be referred to the Associate Dean for Academic Programs for adjudication. ?Possible penalties range from disciplinary
warnings to dismissal from the university. ?All students are expected to demonstrate
academic integrity at all times, and to learn what constitutes plagiarism. ?A useful definition of plagiarism can be found
at:
http://depts.washington.edu/grading/pdf/AcademicResponsibility.pdf
4.? Other Resources
I
will post a list of links and other useful resources on the class web page;
find it on my site (go to ?courses?) at:
http://faculty.washington.edu/stkerr/
There's
a Catalyst Go Post at:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/gopost/board/stkerr/21635/
Final
papers/projects should be turned in via Collect It at:
https://catalyst.uw.edu/collectit/dropbox/stkerr/15224
STK