"The computer people, who envisaged a computer "revolution" based on the widespread availability of small, inexpensive machines, failed to recognize either the demands posed by new uses or the needs and nature of new users. Involved with the technology of the new machines, they forgot that the real revolution involves people." --Siegel, M. and Davis, D. (1986). Understanding Computer-Based Education. New York: Random House. p. 6.
"[Unnamed] County Nevada schools have used filters for years. They provde a false sense of security. Parents wrongly believe their kids can't get into anything unwanted. Teachers wrongly believe they don't have to monitor computer usage. Kids wrongly believe that [if] it gets past the filters it's ok for them to access it. The best filters are adults closely monitoring kids using computers." --Middle School Teacher in [Unnamed] County, Nevada
"In addition, the workshops occurred out of context, even though the workshop leaders shared how they incorporated applications in the curiculum. Given the amount of effort that went into preparing the workships, there was little direct or indirect yield, other than a feeling of inadequacy among many of the teachers." Levinson, From Fear to Facebook, p. 107, describing why the first attempt at staff development failed
"One effective way to transform teachers with technology is to
devise and implement a comprehensive teacher evaluation system with
multiple visits to classrooms by a team of colleagues and prinicipals.
The teams observe the teacher at work but also gauge the level of
student engagement and learning through the course of a lesson or unit
of study. The teacher's ability to motivate and construct meaningful
learning through careful questioning instead becomes the metric by
which teachers are judged in their ability to bolster student
achievement."Levinson, From Fear to Facebook, p. 111
This page was prepared by Dr. David M. Marcovitz.
Last Updated: March 28, 2011