Barbara Ross (bsross@starnetinc.com)
Fri, 27 Nov 1998 15:18:15 -0600
Date: Fri, 27 Nov 1998 15:18:15 -0600 From: Barbara Ross <bsross@starnetinc.com> Subject: [ifets] Teachers & Technology Refusal
I find this to be a very inportant topic of discussion and one on which I
am currently conducting some research, both historical and current.
Is it technology that is imposed upon classroom teachers from external
sources (districts, administrators, etc.) that is causeing "technophobia"
among ecuators? I think that educators have always had 'newer/better'
tools given to them when they had not yet even mastered the use of the ones
they were already using. How did teachers first approach the use of the
television, the tape recorder, the overhead or opaque projector, the slide
and filmstrip projector? Time was when the classroom teacher was not even
allowed to operate such "technical equipment" and the man from the
audio-visual department had to come to the classroom.
That brings up another salient point...K12 Education has long been the
domain of female teachers. Females are less likely to be well familiarized
with technology in its newest forms and therefore the area of gender-bias
in technology education also becomes a piece of the puzzle. Much of the
research that I have read talks about girls being less comfortable than
boys where the new computer technologies are concerned. Might this be
because of lack of female role models in the technological forums of
education?
Just a few questions and food for thought.
Barbara Ross
c/o Irving Park Middle School
3815 N. Kedvale Ave.
Chicago, IL 60641
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