On the MacArthur Foundation’s Spotlight on Digital Media and Learning blog in October (you can see I am trying to catch up on my RSS “read this later” pile), journalist Heather Chaplin interviewed Western Michigan University professor emeritus James Bosco for a retrospective view on ed tech. Some good nuggets from Bosco about the need for technology to transform, not just automate, school:
In the early ‘80s there was lots of talk about how the microcomputer revolution was going to transform schools. Then it was going to be the web, then one-to-one laptops. The story was fairly similar in each of these iterations, in that there were more promises made than kept…
There were changes, but computers were not generally “game changers.” They weren’t transformative for our K-12 schools. The idea was that if we put the devices in schools, they would be a catalyst and good things would happen because the computers were there. With some notable exceptions, what happened was that we put the technology in schools and schools continued doing fundamentally the same things, but using computers to do it…
[T]he only change is instead of using a broom, you’re using vacuum cleaner. Either way, you’re still just cleaning the floor…
I did irritate lots of people, but I just kept saying, “No, we want fundamental change in how we think about teaching”…
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There were times when the devil would say to me, “Jim, it ain’t gonna happen in schools. Look elsewhere.” Yet, there seems to me something profoundly wrong with that idea that digital media is going to make an impact on kids’ lives everywhere except the place where society has formally charged an institution with providing education…It is wonderful to be working with people who are taking on the challenge of rethinking and redesigning learning and teaching in our schools. This feels much better than … trying to convince people that change is needed. At this point it is more important that the lion’s share of efforts be devoted not to missionary proselytizing but to providing support to those trying to get the job done…
Nevertheless, I am convinced that in the next few years we will see positive developments in schools that I would have never predicated even five years ago.
Read the full interview here.