Re-forming education with new technologies

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Re-forming educationwith new technologies

• Presentation to C.A.P.E. BoardSeptember 14,
  2000by Craig A. Cunningham, Ph.D.

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Topics

• Who am I?
• Why reform education?
• What can new technologies do?
• Some cautions
• Some suggestions for C.A.P.E.

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Who am I?

• Former high school math and science teacher
• Trained as a philosopher of education
• Expert on John Deweys moral theory
• A techie by disposition, not training
• Former assistant professor of education at
  Northeastern Illinois University
• Author of forthcoming bookCurriculum Webs A
  Practical Guide to Weaving the Web into Teaching
  and Learning
• Now director of Web Institute for Teachers and
  director of curriculum for CUIP (Chicago Public
  Schools/University of Chicago Internet Project)

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Why reform education?

• To increase
• Equity
• Excellence
• Ethics
• Esthetics
• To decrease
• Dehumanization, despair, desensitization
• Digital divide
• Dumbing down

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What can new technologies do?

• Computers, software, connectivity, webs can
  increase
• Communication
• Resources for teaching and learning
• Range and depth of learning activities
• Inquiry/Problem-solving
• Localized action
• Exposure to multicultural ideas and artifacts
• Interdisciplinary understanding

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Some sample curriculum webs

• A primary look into Africahttp//cuip.uchicago.ed
  u/pfrazier/curr.guide.htm
• African Folktales in the Classroomhttp//cuip.uch
  icago.edu/wit/99/teams/tales/folktales.html
• The Photographic Experiencehttp//cuip.uchicago.e
  du/wit/99/teams/photography/
• World Art Webhttp//cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/2000/te
  ams/artweb/home.html
• Once Upon a Timehttp//cuip.uchicago.edu/wit/2000
  /teams/onceupon/toppage.html

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Some cautions

• New technologies are not inherently good
• New technologies have high costs
• Structure of most schools is NOT conducive to
  teaching or to learning
• Quality of teacher training is often terrible
• Local control both a blessing and a curse
• Philosophy and art increasingly marginalized by
  capitalism, consumerism, and massification

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Some suggestions for C.A.P.E.

• When considering uses of new technologies, always
  focus on CAPE belief statements
• All students have the right to equitable access
  to art in their lives and in their schools.
• The arts are important for young people not only
  as a means of enlivening and deepening overall
  learning, but also as valuable experiences in
  their own right.
• The arts teach learners to know themselves as
  capable citizens in a democratic
  society--observing, creating, reflecting, making
  choices, and taking responsibility for actions in
  the world.
• The arts are fundamental to the development of
  life-long learners capable of self-expression,
  critical thinking and problem solving, and
  understanding of others.

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More suggestions for CAPE

• Use technology to
• recruit partners and support partnerships
• spread news about results of these partnerships
• increase teacher understanding of the arts
• provide students with opportunities for formal
  and informal arts-oriented learning
• create and sustain collaborations with other
  organizations

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More suggestions for CAPE

• Think about the moral and spiritual uses for art,
  and defend its role in schools on these bases,
  not just how it serves so-called academic
  achievement
• Explicitly identify barriers to effective arts
  partnerships, and create specific initiatives to
  overcome these barriers
• Create new programs in schools of education
• Position organization as provider of teacher
  professional development oriented around
  technology integration through arts integration

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