EDC&I 585 4/6/11 What’d We Talk About Last Week? Organizing Our Discussions for This Week Setting the Stage for Next Week

How We Described Culture Beliefs, values, practices, worldviews; tools Norms, behaviors – People can have, belong to, multiple cultures Customs, moral standards – Knowledge shared by a community

How We Described Culture of Education School/teacher – Order and hierarchy; learner/teacher roles – Informal learning, apprenticeships, asssessment Assessment, authority/hierarchy – Knowledge transfer, budget Socialization, adoption into society – Knowledge that’s deemed culturally important

How Technology Interacts with Educational Culture More computer use could enhance hierarchy – via monitoring and assessment, but could also liberate teacher (variety of info available) Technology = transformative – Info on demand, but maybe co-opted to support status quo Technology = effective if adopted – How to create a culture that supports creative adoption?

What Interesting Questions Did We Suggest? Match systems and methods, approaches – Low-tech solutions for teaching writing What doies technology afford” – Is “transformative” relative or ultimate? How does technology interact with the power structure in the classroom? – Does it enable students to have more power?

Preparatory Perspectives for our Discussions this Week (thoughts on re-reading J.S. Brown) Much education is a mass enterprise – Probably K-12, maybe undergrad HE as well – Many non-ed functions in schools: socialization, health, day care, labor market control, etc. Ed institutions not brittle – They do adapt and change, but amoeba-like Learning = work (and fairly hard work, at that) – Do all want to engage?

Questions for Brown (2000) Predictions from 2000: hold up after 11 years? – “Distinctive new” forms of communication? – “Entrepreneurial spirit” creating new learning environments – do we have it? Multitasking/info navigation/ ”bricolage” /action bias – Doesn’t much match current models of curriculum, education – tragedy if this changes? Narrative and Learning in Community – Can this happen for all, on a wide basis? What would be needed?

Questions for Brown & Adler (2008) Open Ed Resources – What’s gained, lost with this approach? Social interaction, participation and learning – Virtual Cmty of Practice = face-to-face? Learning environments and the “long tail” – Can curriculum really operate like a back-list? Teaching & Learning Commons (p. 28) – Why do tools like this never seem to gain traction? “Demand/Pull Learning” and the “Passion-Based Learning Community” – Can good technology create the passion, or does it have to be there first?

Connecting “Culture” and Brown Do you see the themes we discussed last week (culture as norms, beliefs, customs, practices) reflected in Brown’s approach? What one aspect of Brown’s analysis would you select to insert into current ed practice, and why? Last week, we suggested some possibly negative consequences of technology use in ed. Would Brown admit those?

Getting Ready for Cuban (next week) Think about: – Your own experiences with technology in classrooms Did it actually change how teaching was done? – Ever help make policy around tech in ed? What arguments, assumptions were used? – How do you think locale, setting, molds tech use? – What role does, should, tech play in schools with very young children (Kindergarten, etc.) – Where you have seen tech used in classrooms, does it stand alone or is it integrated? If integrated, how?