Logo in mainstream schools: the struggle over the soul of an educational innovation

Technologies do not follow some predetermined and inevitable course from their context of production to their context of use, and technologies used in schools are no exception. Rather, technologies and their use in the classroom are socially contextualised. They are often appropriated in ways unanticipated by their developers, locking into institutional arrangements and reflecting elements of the prevailing social relations in and around the particular context(s) of application. Through the discussion of a particular technology (the Logo programming language) as a case study in educational innovation, this article demonstrates how the use of technologies in schools is socially shaped. The paper looks into the place that Logo occupied within the institutional and organisational cultures of US and UK mainstream schools after its introduction in the early 1980s. It discusses the ways in which Logo was received in the educational arena and was implicated in the politics of educational innovation at a time of conservative restoration

Civic Identities, Online Technologies: From Designing Civics Curriculum to Supporting Civic Experiences

Part of the Volume on Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth.Youth today are often criticized for their lack of civic participation and involvement in political life. Technology has been blamed, amongst many other causes, for fostering social isolation and youth's retreat into a private world disconnected from their communities. However, current research is beginning to indicate that these might be inaccurate perceptions. The Internet has provided new opportunities to create communities that extend beyond geographic boundaries, to engage in civic and volunteering activities across local and national frontiers, to learn about political life, and to experience the challenges of democratic participation. How do we leverage youth's interest in new technologies by developing technology-based educational programs to promote civic engagement? This chapter explores this question by proposing socio-technical design elements to be considered when developing technology-rich experiences. It presents a typology to guide the design of Internet-based interventions, taking into account both the affordances of the technology and the educational approach to the use of the technology. It also presents a pilot experience in a northeastern university that offered a pre-orientation program in which incoming freshman designed a three-dimensional virtual campus of the future and developed new policies and programs to strengthen the relationship between college campus and neighbor communities

The role of ICT in teacher education. The development of web pages by project method

This paper is a description of an in-service teacher training experience that used ICT to develop a project that involved teachers (nursery and primary) and also children, parents and other members of the educational community. Its aim was to build an Internet site that would give information about school life. It's an open web space where teachers, parents and students can express and share their ideals and activities. This project is still in progress and is being developed in three interconnected phases: conception, development and evaluation. The most important issue to relate is that the technical or instrumental learning is dependent on the ideas and purposes of teachers, students and parents. We believe that when we talk about ICT in schools and also in teacher education we shouldn't only be concerned with the 'means', that is to say, how to introduce computers or how to use a word processor and Internet resources, but also with the 'ends'. Only when we question the ends do we begin to pay attention to what we do, that is, to construct a story that is worth telling " ... to tell that we are merely tools makers (and tools users) is to miss the entire narrative aim? We are world's makers and world's weavers" (Postman, 2002, p. 108)

Research questions and approaches for computational thinking curricula design

Teaching computational thinking (CT) is argued to be necessary but also admitted to be a very challenging task. The reasons for this, are: i) no general agreement on what computational thinking is; ii) no clear idea nor evidential support on how to teach CT in an effective way. Hence, there is a need to develop a common approach and a shared understanding of the scope of computational thinking and of effective means of teaching CT. Thus, the consequent ambition is to utilize the preliminary and further research outcomes on CT for the education of the prospective teachers of secondary, further and higher/adult education curricula

How to teach 'Smart Fashion' within the D&T curriculum: have we got it right?

The English design and technology (D&T) curriculum places a greater emphasis on the teaching of electronic systems within a fashion context. E-textiles, are fabrics with embedded electronic circuits that create Smart Fashion products, which interact with the body and environment. Previous research by Davies and Rutland (2014) identified that teachers perceived this kind of curriculum as difficult to design and resource, within the classroom. In this paper we report on some of the initial results from the evaluation of a set of teaching resources, that have been created and tested with teachers, as part of a larger study into how Smart Fashion curriculum can be supported in the classroom. Data collected from the teaching resources and teacher interviews was analysed against current theories of 'best practice'. The findings describe the potential of the resources to support learners in developing an understanding of what e-textiles are and how they can be made. This understanding can then be applied to the designing and making of Smart Fashion products

K12 Engineering Education Field Experience

Engineering faculty have offered an engineering literacy course entitled Toying With TechnologySM to elementary and secondary education majors for eight years. Studies have shown that students form many of their overall career and educational attitudes as early as elementary school. Schoolteachers who have an appreciation for technology will likely convey that appreciation to their students. This will, in turn, broaden the horizons of their students regarding the opportunities they may have regarding careers in scientific and engineering disciplines. This appreciation is achieved through various engineering activities, many of which involve LEGO© robotics. Providing field experiences for future teachers so they can practice teaching the engineering-based activities they’ve learned is crucial in their development as confident teachers. This paper will describe one semester’s extended field experience with a local 6th grade classroom and the companion 6th grade extended learning program (ELP) students. Hands-on, problem solving experiences are necessary in order to develop skills such as troubleshooting, innovation, and experimentation, which are national science, mathematics, and technology standards for 6th graders. Constructivist-based methodology is employed to create goals, expected outcomes, and the logistics for the field experience. The 6th graders use computers to follow step-by-step instructions, program their creations, and operate their systems. The students in the Toying With TechnologySM course serve as classroom facilitators for the engineering activities used to attain the goals and achieve the outcomes desired. Assessment of the success of the program is through multiple measures. These include: a written feedback from the 6th graders with answers to specific questions as well as any comments, observations and feedback by the TWT student facilitators during problem solving and design projects, interpretations of the results by the TWT class facilitator, and interviews with the collaborating in-service teachers

Charismatic Technology

To explain the uncanny holding power that some technologies seem to have, this paper presents a theory of charisma as attached to technology. It uses the One Laptop per Child project as a case study for exploring the features, benefits, and pitfalls of charisma. It then contextualizes OLPC’s charismatic power in the historical arc of other charismatic technologies, highlighting the enduring nature of charisma and the common themes on which the charisma of a century of technological progress rests. In closing, it discusses how scholars and practitioners in human-computer interaction might use the concept of charismatic technology in their own work.

Incorporating popular music and dance: A student-centered approach to middle school chorus

Middle school chorus in the United States is, from an adolescent perspective, primarily a means of socializing and making friends. Using Green’s (2008) notion of critical musicality, I designed a constructionist learning environment. Using critical participatory action research, conducted with my students rather than on them, we explored alternative pedagogical approaches to choral teaching and learning. We learned that collaborative learning fostered musical and social development in a heterarchical classroom environment that contributed to intersubjective understandings. It became possible for students to apply prior knowledge from outside of school to holistic, contextual, self-generated learning goals in the choral classroom. Incorporating popular music, technology and dance into the curriculum made learning relevant for these students. Choral educators may be able to implement student-centred curricula in choral settings more easily than is on occasion assumed.Accepted manuscrip