Cuban Ch. 2

Cuban reveals that teacher adoption and use of media is remarkably consistent in not using it.

Teachers use technology primarily, as a supplement at best. In my opinion, most teachers become teachers to teach. They want to teach the lessons; they want to present the content. Teachers are doers. Most teachers feel they know better than the technology being used anyway. Teachers also like to teach the way they were taught and most of the time that includes using media as an accessory- a supplemental tool.

As has been stated before teachers are resistant to change- and ironically, the education field is always changing.

Media comparison studies done between televised and non-televised lessons showed no significant difference in outcomes as measured by achievement tests. With what you know about the kind of research, is this a useful finding? Why/Why not?

In the last chapter and with the research the results show no significant difference the findings would not be useful. It is hard to compare- its like apples and oranges.

We have spent over 20,000 dollars on a computer program for students to improve reading to grade level or beyond. It will give a sophomore reading level at the end. The program is guaranteed or money back. There are studies to prove it is effective. Yet, teachers are not using it. Why? The program came with instructions and recommendations for use. The teachers were trained but no one was willing to implement the program the way it was designed and intended. The program was not implemented effectively. Teachers used it as a supplemental program. There was no consistency and monitoring. Thus, there were not the results hoped for and now it is unused.

Chapter summary

In chapter two Cuban discusses the introduction of television into the classroom. In some places television was introduced to combat a student population explosion and teacher shortage. The Ford Foundation’s Fund for the Advancement of Education helps provide the resources for getting televisions and programming into some schools. There was support for classroom television in newspapers, magazines and journals. During the first decade of adoption the following patterns were established:

· Total instruction program: the television provides instruction from a teacher filmed. (Documented in Samoa-, which presently produces more NFL players than anywhere else).

· Supplemented television instruction: teachers used television lessons to supplement their instruction up to 1/3 of school day.

· Television as a teaching aid: This was the method most teachers used. Use may be once a day to once a month.

Cuban discusses Samoa and Hagerstown, Maryland. He also talked about observations that were conducted in classrooms. Cuban also provided a summary of the chapter at the end.