SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: SHIFTS OF KNOWLEDGE AND PEDAGOGY IN A POST-TYPOGRAPHIC WORLD

By Glenn L. Devoogd

This paper is a chapter in a book I wrote with Drs. Loveless and Bohlin.

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW: SHIFTS OF KNOWLEDGE AND PEDAGOGY IN A POST-TYPOGRAPHIC WORLD By Loveless, Avril University of Brighton, UK Glenn L. DeVoogd & Roy M. Bohlin California State University, Fresno

The forces that initiate change in classroom come from a range of sources; electronic technology is not one of them. However, technology does provide a new workshop full of new and constantly improving tools that can achieve new results when applied strategically. And although, at this point in the history of instructional technology, educators are not even sure what kinds of educational practices students are capable of when using these technological tools, they do know they can influence their use in school. It is hoped that the following chapter will provide some insights informing all decision makers to lever the educational performance of students to a level of thought and complexity, students couldn't have achieved without technology. Toward that end, this chapter provides an overview of some old and new ways of knowing as schools enter the post-typographic world and some insights into the shifts in pedagogical methods required to accommodate those new epistemologies.

This chapter starts out by suggesting that technology doesn't change practice; people do. If practice in schools change using technology, it will be because educators are being deliberate about shifting to a new curriculum by changing the norms and routines that shape the daily grind. The heart of the chapter describes the many shifts in the character of knowledge caused by electronic technology and the pedagogies that will have to shift to take advantage of the new ways of knowing. Implicit in the description of these old and new technologies is the hope that they will one day evolve. It would be naïve to think these technologies will be used in a vacuum with no other forces which will attempt to shape the pedagogies used with technology. Hence, the final section describes the competing forces which shape the curriculum at school and consequently, the uses of technology. In the end, it is up to all people to inform society and the educational community so that these new technological tools are used in ways that result in a more reflective and humane society.

Defining a New Pedagogy: Shifts in Norms and Routines Currently classrooms are steeped in cultural norms and classroom practices that have been constant for decades and even centuries. Using technology doesn't necessarily change the norms and practices in the classroom unless the teacher or other forces establishes and guides new habits. For example, in math, some teachers in California have the habit teaching multiplication facts by requiring all students complete a timed test figuring all the facts on a page of simple one digit multiplication problems. The use of technology doesn't necessarily change that norm. If students are simply practicing their facts in a computer program such as Number Crunchers, while it may be more motivational for the students, there is little change in the shift of new knowledge.

However, if technology could be used to help make the multiplication facts more memorable by exploring skip counting with the aid of a calculator (e.g., press addition key, two key, then repeat the equal key), the pedagogy and knowledge makes a dramatic shift. Accordingly, in contrast to the skill and drill on number facts done in the traditional classroom, in the new pedagogy would have the teacher practicing differently relying more on explanations and student construction of knowledge. Such educational practices and their emphasis on meaningfulness and reason as a way to help students remember also reflect a different norm or belief in pedagogy. And so, it is not enough to merely use technology to do the same types of activities, the educator must also think of new ways of thinking the technology affords.

SHIFTS IN THE CHARACTER OF KNOWLEDGE

Technology and other influences have caused rapid changes in the character of knowledge that could improve the education of students in society. In this section, many of those shifts in epistemology are explored along with the old and new pedagogy.

An Exploding Base of Accessible Knowledge

The Evolution of the Source of Information in Classrooms Perhaps the best way to initiate an examination of the potential impact of the rapid increase of access to knowledge on classrooms would be to describe the sources of knowledge in classrooms in the last one hundred and fifty years. In that time, the vast majority of the population made their living in agriculture and lived in rural areas where one room school houses served to provide basic literacy and math skills. Schooling was in session when the community could find an itinerant teacher and when there wasn?t much work to do on the farm. Because people at the time rarely saw much text, literacy and schooling was considered to be more a luxury than a necessity. Newspapers and libraries were still uncommon in everyday life for most people and letter writing was unnecessary because most friends and family were could be visited. Children read the very few books available in the class and wrote on little slates with chalk. Science and social studies were studied only to the extent to which the teacher remembered information they shared orally with the classroom. In effect, with the exception of a few books, the teacher was the source of information in classrooms.

Schools were organized with all the pupils facing the front where the teacher would orally impart knowledge. The routines and procedures in the school including strict obedience and attention to the teacher, reflected the need for students to receive the information stored inside the teacher?s head. In summary, the teacher was the source of knowledge in the first evolution.

The second evolution of the sources of knowledge in the classrooms, which still exists in many classrooms in the world, was in many ways similar to the first, except students were able to get information from a textbook designated for that age level containing information appropriate for that child to learn (Cuban, 1995). Children were also expected to stay in their seats reading their books, writing, or listening to the teacher. Desks were separated to ensure students did not speak with each other. Since the sources of information were somewhat limited, students were expected to be able to repeat all or most of the information spoken by the teacher or presented in the textbook.

The third evolution of the sources of information came with the proliferation of books in libraries and in classrooms in addition to charts and other visual aids. In the fourth evolution of the sources of knowledge, students receive information via a range of sources including the teacher, the textbook, other books, and a range data that is electronically stored and communicated such as information on the Web, CD-ROM, hard drives, the telephone, and emails.

Whereas traditional classrooms could be defined as those using routines and procedures that take advantage of the first three evolutions of the sources of knowledge; more progressive classrooms would provide opportunities for students access and manage a wide range of information using only the portions necessary to synthesize a unique and personal product. In such schools, students would be moving around the classroom or school to access information available on computers, in books, on video tape, or on the telephone. With a unique purpose in mind, students would decide what information to store and then in collaboration with other students and the teacher, students would write, edit, and publish information perhaps in some electronic form such as a Web page, Powerpoint presentation or hypermedia.

The pedagogy in these more progressive classes would provide a context in which students could access information, process the information, and publish their work. This new pedagogy would establish and maintain classroom norms and routines to achieve those goals. Finally, though traditional classroom norms would assume the teacher would spend most of the time giving information to the students, the new pedagogy would provide new roles for the teacher who would serve as a model, guide, collaborator, and evaluator. The teacher would need to establish student roles, which would also serve to help the students model, guide, collaborate, and evaluate each other. Though in the progressive curriculum, students are expected to have a basic mastery in a somewhat broad range of subjects as is outlined by the government curriculum, they are also expected to have some choice and purpose for their assignments as well. The goal in this more progressive education is to provide knowledge, skills, and propensity for learning that allows students to set their own goals and purposes for learning, to process, and then to be able to publish that work in some way as a means of sharing with others. In this way students learn how to learn; a skill which will serve them lifelong.

In the next several sections, the skills and principles students must learn to take advantage of the new electronic evolution of information will be elaborated upon.

Access to a Wide Range of Information When information had to be stored on paper there was a major cost associated with the print production, distribution, and sale of information. The ability to store information electronically on tapes, disks, or computers, which is sometimes accessed on the World Wide Web led to the development of rather inexpensive low-end production, distribution, and relatively free access to information. This access to information is currently available for all adults who read well the Web. However, for young people whose reading level is not in the high school level range, access to a wide range of information may be limited to the books they can purchase or borrow from the library.

For the educators in teacher education, while traditional positivistic pedagogy provided students with a limited range of perspectives, mostly from the college textbooks and the professor, free storage has allowed for a greater access of information on the Web. News stories, for example, can be easily viewed from the prospective of online newspapers from different countries. Web pages from individuals and groups can also yield different perspectives, although, as free materials they are sometimes unedited and of low quality. Book dealers, in contrast, are much more careful with the quality of the text they publish to ensure the profitability of the printed material. However, profitability is a limitation with which Web authors don?t concern themselves.

Newsgroups, online journals, and listservs especially when archived, can reflect a range of views. One example, is the International Reading Association?s Reading Online Journal. Not only can a someone read an article and the associated links online, but they may also explore and even write alternative points of view in response to the article which are archived for readers to peruse. Needless to say, Web searches can produce a range of information students and teachers might never have been able to access. For children whose interests and readability are different than adults, there are fewer critical sites online that demonstrate and provide opportunities to construct diverse opinions. Diversity of opinion appropriate for children who read at lower levels is still less common than it is at sites targeted for adults. A better source for diversity, albeit not cheaper, is common in the wide range of books that focus on topics children typically study in school.

Technology has made it easier to select books online which come from different perspectives. For example, at Amazon, one can limit searches of books to a particular age range and topic. In a recent search for books on the civil war for students age 9-12, 179 books were displayed for review. Among them there is a wide range of perspective in books on the American Civil War such as: Bull Run (Fleischman, 1995) which describes that battle in the first person from several different participants and onlookers point of view; Abraham Lincoln the Writer : A Treasury of His Greatest Speeches and Letters (Holzer, 2000) which describes the president's point of view, Soldier?s Heart (Paulsen, 1998) which describes a typical enlisted soldier?s experience; Undying Glory: The Story of the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment (Cox, 1993) which describes a black regiment; and Behind Rebel Lines: The Incredible Story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War Spy (Reit, 1991) which describes a woman in the Civil War. It is relatively easy to select from a wide range of books to cover the many curricular interests for particular grade level groups. So book selection has become easier on the web. Unfortunately, though, current norms in the school do allow teachers to select books on the web, they don't allow teachers to purchase such books online. Nevertheless, teachers can seek books they find on the web in their own libraries.

Online book sellers such as Amazon also provide opportunities to read book reviews from sources such as Horn Book, Booklist, major newspapers, and readers. Though having many sources doesn't ensure diversity of opinion, the possibility for diverse opinions exists when varied sources are present. For example, the first Harry Potter book listed at Amazon had 15 editorial reviews and 2291 customer reviews.

Of course the value and skill of accessing a wide range of information will not occur to the student spontaneously when writing a report for at least two reasons. First, as is often the case, when students seek sources in books or on the Web, many of the books are almost the same in content, therefore defeating the purpose of getting two sources. Books and Web sites that reflect diversity of opinion are available and yet they are not commonly seen in instruction. There are several reasons for this. For purposes of maintaining high home property values and facilitating passage of bond levies, there is pressure to keep critical stories of the school out of the media. Therefore, schools have shied away from allowing students to address issues from a wide range of perspectives that may be viewed as divisive or unconventional.

Secondly, many teachers don?t have access to the Web yet. According to the Educational Testing Service (1999), only 14% of all classrooms in the United States are connected to the internet. Thirdly, when access is available, many teachers practice traditional whole group management techniques that don?t allow students to get to the computer. In addition, teachers are usually unaware of these diverse kinds of sites. Even so, to take advantage of such a site, the student would have to be able to identify the perspective and how it is different than other perspectives. Younger students instead typically focus on differences that are salient features such as number of pictures and layout.

Finally, seeking many different sources in fact may seem superfluous to students who can write the report from just one source. Students won?t likely access a range of information unless it is expected and instructions are given about how to identify and access a range of information.

One example from social studies is described as 'historians do history' as one way to rethink pedagogy. Technology can greatly facilitate this shift by making primary and diverse sources of information available to students. CDs of the entire archives of National Geographic are available. The Internet provides instant access to newspaper archives, reproductions of documents, copies of letters, and thousands of specialized sites about individuals or events. Students learn to research information, analyze what they find, and challenge their understanding as they reach conclusions about history.

In summary, old pedagogy limits the range of information in the class provided principally by the textbook and teacher. The new potential for pedagogy which would allow students to access, identify, and make use of a wide range of information seems to be presently unfulfilled.

The Need for Information Management As is obvious to anyone with a mailbox, a television, and an internet connection, accessible knowledge in the world is exploding to the point of an estimated doubling every 18 months. A personal computer with a few CDs can hold the contents of an entire room of books and can connect the user to other computers throughout the world which can each hold even more. The world is full of information and the most skilled people will be able to learn what?s necessary, store what they need to and remember where important information can be retrieved if they need it.

Whereas at one time a scholarly person was expected to have a general knowledge of a whole range of ideas, today professionals must have enough working knowledge to perform their work. They must also be skilled at knowing what they need to know and what they need to know how to easily access. Traditional pedagogy focuses on remembering as much as possible; the new pedagogy helps students focus more on knowing what to know and where find and how to store knowledge.

This focus on the sifting of information is not common in schools. The texts used in traditional schools contain information compiled and organized to provide just what students need to know to pass state assessments. Real life is not that simple. To perform a complex task, a person needs to explore purposes for finding information; what is valuable to know; the extent to which material provides a different perspective; what makes a different perspective as opposed to another perspective; and how knowing different perspectives makes the individual more knowledgeable and effective. This process of sifting through information and making decisions about the purpose of the information gathering; which information to use; decisions about the use of visuals, all reflect the preferences and voice of the child as an author.

Old Pedagogy New Pedagogy Know as much as there is in the book and as much as the teacher says. Use strategies to decide what is worth knowing in the head and what needs to be stored. Not all information should be learned. Teacher uses lecture to tell what they know to the students. Teacher helps students access, select, evaluate, organize, and store information coming from a wide range of sources. Students dump information or organize information by categories. Students organize by categories and a range of perspectives. Students publish information on paper for the teacher to see or the paper is posted on the wall for the school to see. Students publish on discs or to the Web for parents and relatives to see. Paper journals and books as the source of knowledge Online journals and books replacing established protocols for writing and publishing. Texts are set. Texts are editable. Everything is saved on a disk and transferred. Saved on servers over phone lines or cables. Students having limited choice of sources. Students' personal choices are expected. Goals using tech are not integrated or not present. Integrating classroom goals with the power of technology.

Traditional pedagogy provides information from the teacher and/or textbook, limiting student talk in the classroom. New pedagogy will require that teachers spend a great deal more time establishing purposes for the learning, helping students identify a credible body of information, and create an author?s voice that nurtures and represents their intellectual identity. Restrictions with copyright also need to be explained and practiced to students so they know how to manage this new information.

Knowledge as Revisionary, Creative, Personal, and Multi-sensory Schools currently focus most of their efforts to advance the telling and accrual of knowledge. They incorrectly view knowledge as a static, impersonal, and unchanging entity. They view their purpose as that of transmitting that knowledge to others. By treating knowledge as static and unchanging, schools are misrepresenting the true character of knowledge that is revisionary, creative, personal, and pluralistic in nature (Schwab, 1982). The shifting nature of knowledge from its static, unchanging print on paper to the fluid electronic forms presents a truer image of its character. In the past, knowledge was represented in a fixed form on paper. Paper has so mediated people?s experiences, that knowledge, like ink on paper, is fixed. Its true nature has been distorted. In some ways, using the tools of technology, allows us to represent that character of knowledge by the ability to revise, represent experiences in sound and image.

One of the true joys many people experience when starting to write with a computer after using a typewriter is the ability to revise and edit texts almost effortlessly. In a similar way, digital sound and image is relatively more revisable that a child's painting that has been put on paper or a recording made with the old technology such as a record. Traditional pedagogy focuses on the finality of a text, image, or music, whereas the new pedagogy allows for products to be revised to improve the product and changed to make it into a new product. Not only is text revised, but digital images can be altered, cut, colored, or expanded. User?s choices in the revision of text and images determining the coloring, editing, and shaping represent the personalized character of knowledge. They refer to personal tastes, creative perspective of knowledge, and, as users are able to create several different images from one image, the pluralistic nature of knowledge.

Teachers reflecting a new pedagogical style, must start their school year by establishing norms and routines in the classroom to help students create and revise their products. For example, in process writing, students may work with others or by themselves moving through the process of brainstorming, drafting, and revising their texts. During writing time, this process of revision becomes a norm when students get in the habit of following the routines of brainstorming for ideas, drafting, and getting feedback from others during peer conferences and student-teacher conferences during the revision and editing of the story.

Old Pedagogy New Pedagogy Intellectual products such as reports are fixed on paper and finished Intellectual products are revisable living documents which are revised with additions, subtractions, and changes. Report form with text with no connection to the person. A range of creative multi-sensory electronic forms such as web pages with movement, charts, pictures with personal connections. Report in neat handwriting on paper. Looks like a child's product. Intellectual product has a professional look printed with color and attention to design.

In a similar way, in a new pedagogy, a teacher may also brainstorm, draft, and revise images and sound with (or without) the text to reflect the multi-sensory character of knowledge which, includes being visual and auditory. The sense of personal choices is reflected in the purpose for the creation, the revisions, and the final product. For example, one teacher asked students to gather information from different sources, create a graphic organizer and subsequently a draft of a Web page complete with pictures and sound about their favorite president. Students used the library, the Web, their friends, and their prior knowledge about a president to put information in an electronic Web-authoring program. Later, they integrated the use of their created text, sound, and revised images to create a multi-sensory experience.

The computer is in many ways a multimedia machine. Science teachers may attach a microscope to a computer or a television (such as a Kenascope) allowing an image to be magnified allowing the class to describe and analyze in whole group or small groups what they otherwise could only do individually.

Attractiveness and Credibility Technology The ability to revise and edit along with the sophisticated tools in a computer, allows the product to become more attractive and hence, more credible. A child who writes by hand may not feel his/her work is as good as when they key it into the computer. In contrast to the grand difference between a child?s handwriting and the adult handwriting, the computer text levels the status difference between child and adult insofar as the handwriting is concerned. Since with the computer, there is also lots of opportunities to edit and rewrite without fear of leaving erasure marks, a child's writing when using technology has a much more credible professional look to it.

The Group Principle The act of writing on the computer is different from writing by hand because the text on the computer monitor is lighted and lifted up as if for display for everyone to see. It is unlike handwriting which is covered partly by the writer's hand on the table as if to hide the paper. Because of the inviting display, which is easily shared, the computer lends itself as a good tool for a group. Though typically one person controls the keyboard, that process frees the others to read and to see if the writing makes sense. Sometimes the lighted screen even attracts comments from people who are working near by or passing by. This inviting atmosphere shifts the pedagogy by encouraging students to revise, edit, and respond appropriately to the passersby as audience.

Transportation and Transformation Principles Electronic texts pass across continents and through office walls in the form of Web pages and attached files at speeds and in ways paper could never travel. When the paper arrives at it's destination, it can be easily edited and within moments returned back to the sender. Because this technology moves text so fast, electronic transportation has extended the classroom beyond the specific place and dimensions of its four walls. Students may send drafts of papers, which can be quickly read and returned, without forcing the student or teacher to physically travel to the other.

While paper texts assignments are typically returned by the teacher to the student at the following class, electronic editing can allow the student to send the paper in later and receive the feedback sooner and in fact repeated. This saves on travel time and convenience for both the student and teacher making them both more efficient. Old methods of responding to text are cumbersome and slow in comparison to texts transported electronically. The new pedagogy provides more flexibility, more responsive timing, and allows the classroom practices to move more comfortably beyond the physical classroom.

The transformation principle refers to the ability of texts to shift to be used for a variety of purposes. A teacher?s lecture notes are easily printed for the students to make notes on and equally easy to put in a presentation software to show to the class. That same text can be saved in html code and posted on the Web for students who are absent to access. This transformational principle provides increasing support for the student using Web pages, electronic projections with color and images, as well as notes for students with minimal work for the teacher.

Interactivity and Hypertext Interactivity refers to the users ability to make meaningful and convenient choices with the text. For example, most television channels do not give the user a choice of control of time, a user on the Web is able to access Web pages when needed and to follow hypertext links to reach his/her goal. The random accessibility and digital nature of disc technology such as CD-ROM and DVD allow the user to search, locate, and access the correct song or film section more quickly than one could with the tape technology. Hypertext of today on the Web and the new digital television of tomorrow will allow the teachers and students to make more choices. The old pedagogy would use the 'whole class, turn off the lights and everybody watch' method. However, this increased interactivity, when coupled with a number of computers allows individual students to select an expository or narrative text and watch it just as others might be reading their own book. They could examine particular parts of the movie by stopping the action or by ?jumping? back to review a section. This type of strategic watching would allow students time to contemplate the ideas of the video, hence providing opportunities for reflection and greater growth.

Old Pedagogy New Pedagogy Students hide papers from each other only allowing teacher to read the paper. Students give each other comments about their products for editing and revision from time to time. Texts are brought home and shared with parents or others in person. Teacher asks students to share their products with friends and relatives in an attachment or on the Web as a way to revise and publish for an audience. Knowledge is only displayed in one form. Knowledge is written in a range of forms such as web pages, paper reports, Powerpoint presentations by cutting and pasting the information into different programs. Knowledge is displayed only in a linear form. Knowledge is displayed in a linear and hypertext format. Class discusses advantages of each. Students who don't use technology at a young age don't have facility with electronic tools. Students use technology early, often, and discuss strategies for using tools.

Needless to say, students who have the opportunity to be strategic in their learning, don't often know the strategies or have the inclination to stop and reflect when it might be more relaxing to just watch the video to the end. The new pedagogy needs to provide modeling, structure, and monitoring the child's viewing to make sure the child is thinking more rigorously than they would possibly be accustomed to viewing at home.

Future Principle Teacher's also realize that technology is becoming increasingly sophisticated just as the strategies for using the technology efficiently develop. Like a child who doesn't learn to read around the age of seven or before, any child who hasn't used technology at a young age can still catch up, however, as time passes, the child is increasingly less likely to become highly proficient at the use of technology. The future principle suggests that learning technology has a developmental nature that requires proper planning with attention to strategy for effective use. So educators need to think about the developmental steps required to becoming effective in the use of technology since those strategies will serve the student well in their lifetime.

The Character of Synchronous and Asynchronous Communication Synchronous communication is that which occurs in a dialogue in the same time such as a conversation between two people, small group discussion in a classroom or a lecture in a classroom. Using technology, synchronous communication, by way of chat session, provides a lively and interesting sense of dialogue, but the quality of the information is limited to what can be organized off the top of one's head.

In contrast, asynchronous communication is that which we experience with telephone answering machines, email, videos, and listservs. This type of communication doesn't require the presence of both parties. In a listserv or bulletin board, the text a student wants to post for others to see, can be organized, researched, and crafted for a long period of time. The writer can spend a great deal of time and space making sure the meaning is clear and thoughtful. Likewise, in contrast to the synchronous communication in which the receiver may not have very much time to reread or analyze the producer's comments, in an asynchronous communication, the receiver can ponder and revisit the author's ideas or even go to get more background knowledge. It can allow many simultaneous conversations with deeper levels of probing and dissecting of each others understanding and perspectives. Of course, like the other sections, the mere opportunity to ponder the author's ideas and craft a well-organized response drawing from different readings and perspectives, will not create the environment that fosters such activity. The norms and procedures of the communications, must be established, expected, modeled, and guided over time. The advantage with the asynchronous communication has over the synchronous is time. Though it is hard to make critical comments about another's ideas during a conversation, on a listserv, the time between class members' posts and responses allows the teacher to teach those norms and procedures.

Old Pedagogy New Pedagogy Communication is always synchronous Communication is synchronous and asynchronous allowing students time to reflect and organize their thoughts. Synchronous communication doesn't allow much time to hone one's skill of communicating. Asynchronous communication allows the teacher and class time to analyze the ideas present, teach, and learn new ways of communicating.

The Relationship of Society's Knowledge and Pedagogy: Why Just Reading This Chapter Doesn't Make Good Pedagogy a Reality The potential for curricular reform, as discussed in this chapter, is often lost to the many forces which press on the curriculum to shape it. Much to the disappointment of instructional technology educators, what is 'new' in pedagogy is often times not defined by the scholarly community or by the practitioner. School officials, commercial forces seeking to sell their products, special interest groups, state officials, and voters have all had influence they exert on the educational system which has impact on the pedagogy.

Commercial forces have sought to define the market by selling computer programs that claim to manage and guide student learning all by themselves. Teachers and school officials are encouraged to purchase this software so they don't have to manage the students work on computer. In this way, teachers simply rotate students through the computer stations with some kind of chart; the pedagogy is left up to the program and is ignored by the teacher. Yet, most scholars are concerned because the skills learned are discreet and not integrated into what would be genuine practice. The computer manages all that you have to do so that the learner never has to manage their own learning. In effect, then, learners do not learn important strategies that allow them learn on their own. This type of program leads to dependence on the computer learning system hence limiting lifelong learning.

The political nature of state officials is to dictate agendas to improve their image (e.g., the education Governor, an advocate for children) instead of to address the needs of all children. Those within the power structures of society usually have little insight or sensitivity to the real needs of the disenfranchised members of society. Under the pretense of accountability, responsibility, and blame for disappointing multiple choice assessments, student achievement is naively placed completely on the shoulders of teachers. In response to such forces, school officials often retreat to a more skills based approach of discreet disconnected knowledge that reflects the tenor of the assessment.

In a number of cases, formal groups of individuals have taken up a cause. Self-proclaimed experts can create a Web site, which for some gives credibility to the group?s perspective. With no formal review of the quality of the information provided at the site, they may mislead those who make important policy decisions. Technology used to its fullest advantage can fuel enormous power shifts.

Though once boasting one of the best school systems in the world, in the past twenty years, California voters have passed referendums limiting property taxes, requiring that bond issue votes receive two-thirds majority, and limiting bilingual education. All of these voter initiatives have had a profound effect on the pedagogy of the schools. Lack of funds has caused classroom numbers to swell into the thirties for children older than age 9 making the teachers shift toward more conservative whole group activities to limit the management.

With three or fewer computers in a classroom and whole group instruction, the pedagogical strategies are somewhat limited. For example, recently graduated teachers are still going to be primarily concerned about classroom management. With 30 or more students combined with difficult assignments (e.g., split age classrooms, fewer materials) new teachers are not likely to be adventuresome by using small groups, thematic study with literature, or portfolios. Even if the new teacher did know of a few ways that teachers can use technology in whole group lessons, it is unlikely that they would have the resources to use it effectively. The instructional methods would more likely be like those which substitute for a blackboard.

Almost all of the states in the United States require students in certain grades to take a state assessment test which measures the achievement of students using multiple choice tests. In most places that information is made available to the public and printed in the newspaper or in the case of California, the comparative performance of each grade level in every school is listed at a Web site. For low scoring schools, many state legislatures have raised the stakes by threatening to tie the amount of money and control of their schools have to their ability to improve on the assessment. For other schools, there is pressure to achieve well on the assessment to keep the property values high. This context promotes assessment and instruction of discreet knowledge and skills such as those measured on the standardized tests.

So when educators begin to articulate what is new and what is old in pedagogy especially when methods are pushed by the uses of new technology, they must admit that much of what is new is still in the minds of progressive educators. It has not been diffused into many classrooms because the pressures to create a different kind of pedagogy are too strong. In order to have an impact, educators will have to become active as change agents in influential sectors of society educating not just beginning teachers, but rather an entire society.

Conclusion Most of the new ways of knowing in this chapter require teachers establish new classroom routines and procedures that reflect these evolving epistemologies. Since learning teaching involves learning to establish and manage such routines, any shift in practice will be risky in the eyes of any established teacher who is already comfortable teaching a particular way. Any shift in routine costs the teacher dearly. It costs them time to learn the new approach, time to plan differently, time to gather new materials, and time to convince principals and parents of the value of this new approach and so we have to be prepared to provide organized thoughtful long term inservice.

Technology doesn't change pedagogy; people do. And although technology has brought teachers the ability to teach in many ways taking advantage of the explosion of access to information and all the new aspects of the character of knowledge, it is the societies' beliefs, influencing the norms, and procedures in the classroom which eventually affect change. Yet there is space of tremendous optimism that our uses of technology will create more thoughtful and rigorous education for our children.

References

Cuban, L. (1986). Teachers and machines : The classroom use of technology since 1920. New York: Teacher?s College.

Cox, C. (1993). Undying glory: The story of the Massachusetts Fifty-Fourth Regiment. New York: Scholastic.

Educational Testing Service (1999). Computers and classrooms: The status of technology in U.S. schools. http://www.ets.org/research/pic/compclass.html

Holzer, H. (2000). Abraham Lincoln the writer : A treasury of his greatest speeches and letters. New York: Boyds Mills.

Fleischman, P. (1995). Bull Run. New York: Harper Trophy.

Paulsen, G. (1998). Soldier's heart : Being the story of the enlistment and due service of the boy Charley Goddard in the First Minnesota Volunteers. New York: Delacorte.

Reit, S. (1991). Behind rebel lines: The incredible story of Emma Edmonds, Civil War spy. New York: Harcourt.

Schwab, J. (1982). Science, Curriculum, and Liberal Education. Chicago: University of Chicago.