Thursday, December 29, 2011

Another Round of Predictions about High-tech in Schools in 2020 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Another Round of Predictions about High-tech in Schools in 2020 | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice:

Another Round of Predictions about High-tech in Schools in 2020

Image representing iPad as depicted in CrunchBase

Image via CrunchBase

For the past quarter-century, I have written about teacher and student access to, and instructional use of, computers in schools. In those articles and books, I have been skeptical of vendors’ and promoters’ claims about how these ever-changing electronic devices will transform teaching and learning.

Amid that skepticism, however, I have noted often that many teachers adopted the latest devices and software not only for home use but also to become more efficient in planning lessons, using the Internet, grading students, communicating with parents and other educators, and dozens of other classroom and non-classroom tasks. Nor have my criticisms of policymakers’ decisions to purchase extensive hardware (far too often without teacher advice) prevented me from identifying (and celebrating) teachers leading classes in computer graphics,