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Based
on the assumption that effective use of school computers requires “models
of good teaching,” Computers in the Classroom offers six case studies
of schools which integrated computers with updated curriculum to the benefit
of students and local communities. Each of these models exemplify
the book’s call for greater teacher involvement and teacher collaboration
(or "classroom practitioners,” as the book calls them) rather than reliance
upon “university-based scientists and educational specialists” (x).
All six models also tend to share other traits: high unemployment, a significant
minority enrollment, and substandard academic scores. All were also
recipients of Apple Computer Education Grants in the early 1990’s.
While author Andrea Gooden suggests her audience is anyone interested in
educational change facilitated by computers, she obviously targets educators
and school administrators with a clear claim that if dynamic and successful
curriculum change can be instituted by computer novices in “some of the
most underserved and neediest American communities," such change can be
duplicated almost anywhere (xv).
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The
six models include an all-male high school in Newark, New Jersey which
integrated an interdisciplinary social studies course on local issues with
use of computers to develop a desktop published local magazine; a Louisiana
elementary school which used computers to create multimedia presentations
and a CD-ROM encyclopedia of local folklore; an inner city Philadelphia
high school that utilized online computer databases to facilitate analysis
of an in-class greenhouse; a rural California high school which infused
technology into all curriculum areas in order to enhance students' job
skills and prospects in an isolated San Joaquin Valley region; a Harlem
elementary school which used computers to study weather phenomena and to
communicate with other schools throughout the world doing the same; and
a Native American reservation school in South Dakota where students created
computer-based projects exploring their own legends and myths.
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One
of more impressive models in the book is that of the Dos Palos High School,
which transformed itself into a career-education center for the local community
and a career-training school for its students in order to address a high
local unemployment rate. The school's library became a home for community
college satellite extension courses, its drafting shop integrated computers
into its print and design courses, and its welding and woodshop facility
began using computers in inventory control, farm management, and computer-aided
design (CAD) classes. In the initial years following the infusion
of computers into the curriculum at Dos Palos, academic performance improved
significantly, vocational training improved, and the number of college-bound
students rose substantially.
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In
sum, Computers in the Classroom offers dynamic models for using
computers to enhance education and provides a convincing argument for doing
so. That model primarily emphasizes teacher collaboration and an
interdisciplinary approach to studies which asks students to become problem
solvers and critical thinkers rather than just receptacles of imparted
knowledge. In this model, the computer works as a tool to facilitate
an educational environment in which students likewise collaborate, collect
and create knowledge, and produce publications and projects stemming from
a two-way interaction with the community. The community serves as
both a source of local knowledge and a benefactor of the projects created
at the school. Teachers are also important; while the educators involved
in these examples initially had limited computer experience, Gooden emphasizes
that they were creative and committed. Finally, while the use of computers
in each of the six models was generally limited to email communications,
desktop publishing, and creation of HyperCard Stacks (amazing for their
time but now, more than five years later, quite outdated), the models themselves
are not outdated; rather, they could only be enhanced with more modern
computers.
Roger
Rouland
The
University of Texas at Austin
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