Synthesis of Cuban’s Teacher and Machines

Let me begin by saying these last three weeks have been a blur. It is hard to believe that in one week this class will be finished and I will going back to work starting a new school year. Geez, where did summer go? It has been a whirlwind learning experience that I have enjoyed with each of you and thanks for sharing your experiences making for some interesting blog reading. :)

Larry Cuban’s book, Teachers and Machines: The Classroom Use of Technology Since 1920 (1986) is intended to provide insights into what tools teachers have used and why teachers have used them.

Introduction.

Cuban introduces the paradox of constancy amidst change that has faced public schools. Public schools have undergone changes in their governance, programs, curricula, organization and instruction to a various measures over the years. Cuban proposes the interplay between the classroom teacher and technology as an example that exhibits the paradox most clearly.

Cuban explains that teachers have been viewed as inflexible and resistant to technologies. He also introduces the strains and contradictions that teachers must cope with on a routine basis. Cuban talks about the contradictory social messages that teachers are faced with and lists the following four ideas that still rang true today:

· Socialize all children, yet nourish each child’s individual creativity.

· Teach the best that the past has to offer, but insure that each child possesses practical skills marketable in the community.

· Demand obedience to authority, but encourage individual children to think and question.

· Cultivate cooperation, but prepare children to compete. (pg. 2)

Teachers cope with these messages to the best of their knowledge and ability. However, teachers are held to unrealistic expectations and are left open to attacks by the public and even administration.

Cuban establishes the chalk, slate, books and pictures in the nineteenth-century to films, radio, tape recorders, television, and computers as the instruction medium for helping teachers. Reformers have given promises of solutions for increasing learning and solving problems with technological advances. When teachers failed to come aboard the “teacher-bashing” ensued.

Cuban’s discusses of a few of the themes that are familiar to current education practice. As discussed above, Cuban says the paradox in education is constancy amidst change. I believe the only constancy is that there has been an educational system and that system is constantly going through change. Cuban discusses some of the changes that schools have undergone. One thing is for certain education is in constant change.

Second, Cuban discusses the teacher-technology relationship or lack of relationship. He tells us historically teachers and has been “inflexibly resistant” to new technology and this continues into the current classrooms of today’s schools. As discussed in previous blogs there are several reasons why teachers are so unwilling to use the technologies available, the most relevant of which is lack of training. Teachers feel as though their instruction is hindered or “wasted” in trying to use the technology because they can’t get it to “work”.

In my opinion, teachers are continually asked to perform tasks that are above the realm of human possibility. I didn’t get the memo that along with my certification came superpowers (and I didn’t get the superpowers either- sad face, pouty lip). I feel that administration has added so many extra duties, paper work and documentation that instruction is suffering.

Cuban Ch. 1

Chapter one focuses on the introduction of film and radio into the classroom. Cuban discusses a research from the 1920s and 1930s that implied films motivated students to learn. These findings resulted in researchers, policy makers, and practitioners believing that film was superior as a teaching tool. This was just one example of a media comparison study. I performed a Google search with the keywords of “media comparison study”. A media study is “Media studies is an academic discipline and field of study that deals with the content, history and effects of various media” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_studies). “No significant difference research” was the parameters of another Google search and yielded the following website: no significant difference research. It is a website devoted to research study outcomes between alternate forms of delivery.

In statistics, I learned that “no significant difference” meant that the results were not significant. The results could be attributed to other factors and therefore the hypothesis could not be proven true. So in these media comparison studies results are inconclusive and cannot be held as truth.

In chapter one Cuban does give four reasons that hindered teacher adoption of technology:

· Teachers’ lack of skills in using equipment and film

· Cost of films, equipment and upkeep

· Inaccessibility of equipment when it is needed

· Finding and fitting the right film to the class

These reasons would continue to ring true with other technological advances.

Cuban Ch. 2

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 reveals that teacher adoption and use of media is remarkably consistent. At best teachers use technology primarily, as a supplement to instruction. In my opinion, most teachers become teachers to teach. They want to teach the lessons, 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.

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. Cuban discusses another media comparison study using television.

Cuban Ch. 3

Cuban offers a collection of reasons why teachers adopt or fail to adopt innovation. The first is accessibility of hardware and software. Cuban stated, “If breakdowns and obsolescence of equipment are one issue, another is the number of radio and television sets and movie projectors that are available” (pg. 53). Cuban gives the following reason for non-use: 1) broadcast time inconvenient, 2) no equipment or facilities, 3) no time and 4) facilities inconvenient (pg. 53).

Cuban discussed implementation of the innovation. He proposes the most common direction of school change is from the top-down. This produces a token compliance response. Cuban discusses the two beliefs of those who push the technological innovations. First, they view education as a military structured unit in which orders are given and executed where teaching is delivered in a decentralized form. Second, adopting technological advances brings efficiency and teaching as a mechanical process in the delivering knowledge, skills and tools to students.

I will like to discuss the accessibility of implementation of innovation from a personal perspective. My personal experience in this area, I am afraid, would be more related to the next chapter on computers but I will discuss it here. A few years ago, our district invested in technology resources to make for 21^st century classrooms. Each teacher in the district was given a Smart Airliner wireless slate and a LCD projector mounted on ceiling and a screen. I was given the job of technology integration specialist for 9 schools in our district. I went to all the teachers in the school and installed the software and connected the wireless slate. I also provided professional development and resources for teachers on how to use the technology in their classroom. Some teachers used the tools immediately and loved them. They integrated them into almost all their daily activities. Some never touched them. All embraced the LCD projectors. The younger teachers implemented the Airlines (wireless smart boards) and the software, and older teachers were much more resistant. I followed-up with teachers throughout the year and found that some teachers could barely check their email. One teacher was still using overhead transparencies! Teachers did not take the time to learn the new technologies. This was a prime example of token compliance.

The board and superintendent decided on the technology and the decision had been a top-down one. Teachers were not invested in this. I would talk to them about new teacher standards and they were expected to know how to use technology. I took the approach of ‘I could get more bees with honey’ approach. I attempted to teach teachers how to trouble shoot problems- I would teach them as I fixed it and I made trouble-shooting guides. I asked what would they like to know and addressed those concerns. Many teachers would cite reasons for example, they tried and it didn’t work and time was wasted or they were afraid and would be glad to try to use it if I was around if there was a problem. I felt like I was making a difference however I was moved back into the classroom because I was not tenured and an assistant principal lost her position and was placed in mine. She got another job and they left the position unfilled and now our district now has done away with it.

Cuban also discusses the classroom and school as work settings and the nature of the teaching profession. He also analyzes teacher use of machines.

Cuban Ch. 4

Cuban predicted that computers would be used the same way radio, TV, and film are used. His prediction was both right and wrong in my opinion. First how was he right. Today, I think teachers have more access to classroom computers. Classroom computers are largely limited to a few workstations and sometimes they don’t’ work. There is also limited access to school labs or mobile carts. I think computers offer more flexibility as far as scheduling and software as opposed to film, radio or television.

Cuban did not anticipate the current shift of on-line and distance learning courses, and this was where he was wrong. Computers have now offered a new educational classroom- a student’s own home. The dynamic changes when the computer is the classroom, such as this on-line class. In this class, all work is composed and presented with the computer. The computer provides access to course assignments and podcasts. However, I do not feel this approach would work well with students younger than high school. I could see using a blended learning environment but I feel children younger than high school would not have the ability to fully benefit and participate in such a class. I am sure that some students may be ready but the majority would not. I believe that children need someone in the room physically accessible.

Epilogue

What is Cuban’s purpose in writing this book? Did he accomplish it?

Cuban views the classroom as a workplace. I do not believe many policy makers view it as such. Cuban also wanted to determine what technology teachers used and why they used it. Cuban does present research findings and experience as to what technology teachers used and why. The reasons behind the lack of use remained fairly consist over the years.

However, during the school week I spend as many waking hours in my classroom as I do my own home. I was informed that I was going to have to move my classroom the year before last. It was going to be my 8^th move in 7 years and I had just spent over $300 during the summer on paint and shelving for the room. It was perfect. My dream classroom and I was told I would have to move. I was so mad. Why? Because it just wasn’t a classroom. It was my classroom- my home away from home. I did move the school bought my paint and other supplies and with the help and encouragement of my friends I created another home and even like it a little better. My classroom just isn’t where I work; it is where I live too. I open it to my students and we build a relationship. I take responsibility for their learning. So I think this is part of the reason teachers are so reluctant to open their classrooms to technology.

Do you think technology is used more in elementary, secondary or post-secondary educational settings?

Cuban suggests that technology is used more in the elementary grades. I would agree to some extent that elementary grades are more exploratory and willing to allow technology into their classrooms. In my school, I believe the primary teachers use more software and video as sources than the intermediate or middle school teachers. However, I believe secondary schools are now embracing computers and software as a teaching medium for students to recovery credits and graduate on-schedule. This type of setting had allowed some students the opportunity to graduate that would have previously dropped out of school.

In addition, I believe that post-secondary schools have embraced distance learning through the use of technology. It has provided an opportunity to get an education that did not exist before or was out of reach for many people. There has been an increase in the number of classes offered on-line at all the local colleges and universities. I see on-line classes increasing and becoming more the norm in post-secondary education in the future. I also believe this will filter down into the high schools.

Address the commonalities across Cuban, Hughes and Postman—that is, what themes and ideas did you find the three authors shared.

When I first began reading Cuban I was did not think I would find any common themes with the first two books. However in reflecting over Cuban, Hughes and Postman I have found some common themes.

First, Postman believed technologies increased the information supply and schools served to control some of that information. Hughes view is contradictory as he feels that we are technologically illiterate. In my opinion, Cuban bridges these two ideals. Reformers controlled the production of film and television programs available to schools, thus controlling information and supporting Postman’s view. On the other hand, teachers are resistant to change and often close the door on new technologies and that supports Hughes view.

Second, Postman discusses “learning technologies” and proposes that technopolies are interested in making learning more efficient. Postman feels education should address the question of “what is learning for?” (pg. 171). Hughes believes that technology is developed to serve a purpose. Machine technology produced goods and services that excited consumers. Cuban again intertwines these ideas into his writing. He tells us how technologies were introduced into the classroom with the under the ideal that learning would become more efficient. Teachers would also be more efficient in their role as well. Reformers were excited about these new technologies and sold them to schools with promises of bettering education. These new “learning technologies” would make teachers more efficient. However, in some instances teachers were made more like a mechanical machine. Cuban also questions what learning is for and how these questions largely remain unanswered.

Last is the human-machine likeness. Postman compares the computer to humans and attempts to “humanize” the computer. He talks about the computer, as it is a human or being capable of thinking for itself. Hughes also proposes that technologies may someday redesign the human-built world and maybe even humans. Cuban touches the lines of these two authors when he talks about collateral learning and children at a school immersed in technology. The children began to see the computers as “friends” and developing a child-robot friendship. Even older students may seek the computer for friendship.

Postman and Hughes did discuss the enchantment that technology had on some people. Cuban also talked about those “who saw solutions to school problems in swift technological advances” (pg. 5). We have read about the spell technology cast over people.

What different ideas did Cuban raise?

Cuban raises more questions dealing with education and technology. He examines the relationship between teachers and technology along with the benefits and drawbacks of using technology in the classroom. This could be seen as a cost-benefit theme we have seen before in Postman and Hughes as well. However, Cuban is largely supportive of technology being used in the classroom. The question is more how should technology be implemented into the classroom to best benefit and enhance student learning.

Cuban also addresses the bureaucracy of politics between school board policy makers, education reformers and salesman pushing the next technology that is the magic bullet. These relationships often led to changes in education which Cuban views as the paradox of constancy amidst change.