Technology Literacy Challenge

Just finished reading C. Selfe's Technology and Literacy in the Twenty-First Century (1999) which reviews the goals of Clinton Administrations' Technology and Literacy Challenge. A fascinating book about this ambitious project; it's intended outcomes and potentially unintended outcomes. This book really helped me see how technology and literacy have become joined through many different twists and turns. I think this helps me see where the rise of new media and new literacies has come from.

In the book she calls for teachers of English, language arts and composition to be aware and pay attention to initiatives such as this because while this began about students learning to use computers, the complex definition of literacy is complicated by social constructs, and as technology has crept into the definition of being literate, we as teacher need to be aware of the power and privilege issues that are associated with being literate today.

The legislation in this case was aimed at making every student 'technologically literate' which referred to the ability to use computers for "learning, productivity and performance" (p. 10). At this time the push was not to build, or redefine literacy as including new media, but rather focused on the tools of technology. In an interesting twist the relationship between technology and literacy was further joined with the rise of the standards based educational reforms. As states began to write state wide standards and curriculum these technology and literacy became further entwined (Selfe, p. 77)

As I read this book I guess I was struck by a number of things - biggest of all how conscious the effort to bring computers and technology into schools has been as a governmental initiative to drive our global competitiveness. While I can understand this perspective, I guess I also wonder why educational initiatives have to be linked to global productivity. Even here in Maine MLTI was linked to these same goals.

I also think that because I was a student during the years of this push I guess I just saw the increasing arrival of computers in learning environments happening because they fulfilled a need. I did not see, and did not realize until reading this book how systematically deployed computers and educational technology were as a part of a federal initiative.

Her book follows this initiative to see how to it appealed to business, government, education and families. Although I think her she oversimplifies how this transformation has occurred, I do believe she helped me better understand the very complex forces that have brought technology into new definitions of literacies and how these shifts are and are not impacting practice in schools.

Her call to critical consciousness also was an important part of this work. She outlines the two camps of teachers - those that have embraced using technology and those that have ignored it. However her conclusion that these two groups both ignore the critical issues of what technology means in our culture was fascinating - since I have always thought that those that embraced technology were doing the 'right' thing. As she points outwith discussing how privilege and access and uneven resources in schools are impacting the new definition of literacy we will replicate the same patterns of literacy that are heavily aligned to patterns of race, gender and socio-economic status. She encourages us, wisely in my belief, to make technology visible in a manner which helps us think about how it impacts the learning environment and the wider world.

Teachers and Machines...20 years later

Just finished reading Chapter 4 from Larry Cuban's book Teachers and Machines. This chapter, published in 1986, looks forward to predict how computers will impact or change the educational landscape. He suggests that "In all of the enthusiasm for classroom computers, an assumption that has gone largely unchallenged is that these machines with appropriate programs, could teach student knowledge and skills efficiently and effectively" (p.84). In this instance and others throughout the chapter is seems he was suggesting that by investing in computers in the classroom we would be replacing teachers. He speaks of how these computers cannot possibly form the relationships that are at the heart of teaching. In addition he predicts that by using computers in this manner educational reformers will seek to make the art of teaching into a science. He suggests that the computer as an aid to teacher productivity and a tool to reduce the amount of skill and drill a teacher must be involved in, are good ideas.

It is fascinating now to read his ideas and see that the future in 1986 may have appeared to some as replacing teachers with computers. I guess the framework I have of understanding technology as a tool for teaching and learning is drastically opposed to this early concept of how computers might influence the classroom. Although I do believe that computers can serve productivity functions, I think the more powerful learning comes as students are able to construct meaning, manipulate knowledge, interact with others and showcase learning.

Cuban talks about the unexamined danger of collateral learning with computers, and the fact that students might learn dangerous other unintended curriculum. He goes on to explore the fact that students learning with the aid of the computer might not learn important other skills. I certainly agree that the use of technology needs to be balanced with multiple forms of learning and engagement, but hardly see the dangers he does - in fact the collateral learning of skills to me seems one of the real benefits of using technology in teaching and learning.

He predicts that computers will not fundamentally shift instructional practices and will be used in limited capacity. He predicts that teachers, administrators and school personnel will yet be accused of limiting the growth of another innovation. Now with hindsight, he is in part right - the impact of technology on the classroom is widely varied and represents a spectrum of implementation.

However this chapter was fascinating to read at the same time as I am reading Born Digital because this book, published in 2008 describes the reality of life for those people who are the digital natives. Defined as those people born after 1980, Palfrey and Gasser make a point to show that they are a population not a generation (p.14). They are a generation because not all people worldwide born in 1980 or later have the same access to the digital landscape.

In examining this population Palfrey and Gasser present the reality of these people's lives as being immersed in this digital landscape - so much so that they do not consider what it means to not live this way. Their portrait and lens to view these digital natives was informed by research and communication with these digital natives. It is strange to consider that Cuban's book was predicting the reality of these exact people, and then this book looks at the life they know.

I guess what amazes me in reading about the digital natives (oh I guess I am digital settler by definition) is the fact that the huge amount of time and skills they have with technology are not really being taught or used in schools. In this sense Cuban's prediction feels right. But as a person involved in educational technology it is such a shame that the inherent skills and knowledge and curiosity of these students is not being harnessed effectively by schools.