Techno-promoter dreams, student realities

Phi Delta Kappan

Volumn 83, Issue 6, 2002, Pages 472-480

  Peck, Craig ^a   Cuban, Larry ^a   Kirkpatrick, Heather ^a  

^a STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

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Indexed keywords

EID: 0039700341     PISSN: 00317217     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/003172170208300614     Document Type: Review

References (16)

1. All school, teacher, student, and administrator names used in this article are pseudonyms meant to ensure individual privacy.
2. For a sample of this curriculum, see Cisco Systems, Cisco Networking Academy Curriculum, available on the company's website at www.cis-co.com. Search for "networking academy curriculum."
3. For student/computer ratios, see "Technology Counts 1997," Education Week, 10 November 1997, p. 8;
4. "Technology Counts 1998," Education Week, 1 October 1998, p. 103;
5. and "Technology Counts 1999," Education Week, 23 September 1999, p. 64.
6. For Internet connections, see "Technology Counts 1999," p. 64. The value of both hardwareand software varies.The cost of the hardware and software in schools today runs into several billion dollars.
7. Few previous investigations have undertaken such a case study approach. Existing case studies have most often offered celebratory glimpses of technologically enthusiastic teachers who generated increased student interest, more collaborative learning, or improved educational results.
8. See Andrea R. Gooden, Computers in the Classroom (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass and Apple Press, 1996);
9. and Judith Sandholtz, Cathy Ringstaff, and David C. Dwyer, Teaching with Technology: Creating Student-Centered Classrooms (NewYork:Teachers College Press, 1997).
10. For an overview of Silicon Valley, see David Kaplan, The Silicon Boys (New York: William Morrow, 1999).
11. We determined this figure by combining the handful of students whom teachers identified as "tech gods" and "open door" students with the enrollment totals in tech-based electives and academic courses with serious technology-using teachers.
12. "Technology Counts 1999," p. 7;
13. and Henry J. Becker, Jason Ravitz, and YanTien Wong, Teacher and Teacher-Directed Student Use of Computers and Software (University of California, Irvine, and University of Minnesota, Center for Research on InformationTechnology and Organizations, 1999), pp. 47-48.
14. According to the company's website, as of December 1999, there were 3,076 academies operating in all 50 states and 52 countries. Estimates were that 21,000 students were enrolled, with 10,000 graduates expected by summer 2000. Besides high schools, Cisco also offers its academies in colleges and other nonprofit educational organizations.
15. The majority of teachers at the schools we studied hardly qualify as technological Neanderthals. Approximately 80% of teachers surveyed at the schools own a home computer, and nearly 75% use a computer to prepare lesson materials. A national survey of teachers found that 97% used a computer at home or in school for professional activities ("Technology Counts 1999"). Moreover, as we interviewed teachers and watched them use computers for various administrative tasks and the preparation of lesson materials, it became clear that the "teacher as technophobe" was little more than a myth. If nothing else, teachers possess the same mid-level technological skills as your next-door neighbor.
16. Lowell Milken, "Learning Technology: The Opportunity and Responsibility," available online at web.mff.org/publications/publications. taf? page=290.