Posted 8:35 PM by Steve
From Steve's Head

I'm more than half-way through my summer session course. I can honestly say that I cannot remember the last time I did so much reading and writing. Since I still have a week left and 3 assignments to complete, I'm going to be even more terse than a week ago! Instead, I'll provide you with an opportunity to read some of the articles that I've been poking through in this course. Enjoy!

Pencils Across the Curriculum: A Fairy Story

Quote: "Once upon a time, the Ministry of Education, after appointing a special task force and inviting tenders from all the major pencil manufacturers, gave 16 Pencils to each High School as part of a special Pencil initiative (and one Pencil to each Primary School but that's another story). This is the story of two of those schools."

Comment: I think this humourous story speaks for itself.

Images of School Prinicpals' Information and Communication Technology Leadership

Quote: "Principals who advocate that information and communication technology (ICT) be used as a tool to enhance learning and teaching in their schools face a myriad of leadership challenges. Yet, the ICT leadership of principals remains a topic that is not frequently considered when theorists or practitioners discuss the unfulfilled promise of ICT in education."

Comment: This article summarizes the findings from a study of 10 schools in Canada, The United States, and New Zealand where the principals are considered to be successful ICT leaders. Interviews were conducted with the principals, school staff, students, and parents. The findings were organized into 8 leadership traits that helped these individuals to successfully introduce and cultivate ICT projects in their schools. Dr. Dianne Yee compares these traits with those of transformational leadership (I don't know why, but I keep wanting to type transcendental...perhaps I've been watching too many Doug Henning reruns?!?!?) I really enjoyed reading this article, but the only question that consistently kept coming to my mind is "if ICT is seen as such a valuable addition to schools, why is transformational leadership needed in order to make these types of projects succeed?"

Findings from the Teaching, Learning, and Computing Survey: Is Larry Cuban Right?

Quote: "Although computers in schools by now number over 10 million, frequently student experiences with school computers occur primarily in four contexts - separate courses in computer education, pre-occupational preparation in business and vocational courses, various exploratory uses in elementary school classes, and the use of word processing software for students to present work to their teachers. The one area where one might imagine learning to be most impacted by technology - students acquiring information, analyzing ideas, and demonstrating and communicating content understanding i secondary school science, social studies, mathematics, and other academic work - involves computers significantly in only a small minority of secondary school academic classes."

Comment: This article is fascinating, depressing, and yet contains a glimmer of hope...there are teachers out there who are beginning to "get it". This article presents the summary of the 1998 Teaching, Learning, and Computing Survey of over 4,000 teachers in 1,100 American schools. I was always baffled by comments by our instructors that our students did not know how to use e-mail...based on the results of this survey, 3% of academic subject teachers get their students to use e-mail...13% allow them to use the Internet for work on a regular basis! So what do teachers use this technology for (if and when they use it)? According to the TLC findings, it's "preparing handouts, writing lesson plans, and recording and calculating grades". One of my colleagues mentioned that her daughter and all her classmates mainly use computers as electronic dictionaries - they look up the meaning of words...after reading this, I'm not surprised...