Technological Tools for School Reform

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Technological Tools for School Reform

Fall 2005

MIT has developed the $100 laptop with the goal of revolutionizing how we teach in the world. (Image courtesy of MIT.)

Course Highlights

This course features readings, lecture notes, and the examples of student final work in the projects section.

Course Description

This course explores the potential impact of modern technologies on the school reforms debate. The first part of the course provides an overview of the current state of the school reform debate and reviews the ideas in the progressive school reform movement, as well as examining the new public charter school in Cambridge as a case study. The second part of the course requires critical study of research projects that hold promise as inspirations and guidelines for concrete multidisciplinary activities and curriculum for progressive charter schools. The course concludes with a discussion of the challenges in scaling the successful innovations in school reform to new contexts.

Syllabus

Course Overview

This course explores the potential impact of modern technologies on the school reforms debate.

In this first part of the course, after providing an overview of the current state of the school reform debate and reviewing the ideas in the progressive school reform movement, we look at the process of founding and the design principles behind the new public charter school in Cambridge, Community Charter School of Cambridge (CCSC). We provide an in-depth analysis of this school because it will serve as a concrete local context for the implementation of the final design projects for the course.

In the second part, we will critically study research projects that hold great promise as inspirations and guidelines for concrete multidisciplinary activities and curriculum for progressive charter schools. Students will work in small groups to design tools, material and activities to be field-tested in the charter school during the term or beyond. We anticipate that each group will engage the faculty, administrators, and the broader school community in the design and implementation process.

The course concludes with a discussion of the challenges in scaling the successful innovations in school reform to new contexts, and the types and roles of nonprofit organizations that have been formed to meet these challenges. In particular we will discuss strategies for successful introduction of innovative educational ideas - such as the ones students develop in this class - in real world settings.

Course Requirements

Readings

All students are expected to do the readings, and to participate in discussions of the readings in class. Readings that are not available on-line will be provided at least a week in advance.

Active Participation

I strongly recommend that you discuss the readings outside of class in preparation for class discussions. The class discussions are very important since they give us an opportunity to present different perspectives and interpretations of the readings and in the process come to a shared understanding of the central questions and issues. You are encouraged to share the questions or issues that you found particularly provocative in the reading with the rest of the class.

Final Paper and Web Site

The main deliverables for the course will be:

A full research paper about the tools or materials that your team develops and evaluates for the course.
A complete Web site with background research, design and development notes, documentation, and source for the tools and materials you develop for your project. I will provide more detail in class.

Final Class Presentation

There will be two opportunities for presenting your class project. The first will be on Ses #13. This presentation will be to the class participants only. The initial feedback from this session should be reflected in your final presentation on Ses #14 which will be open to a broader audience.

Grading

The grade will be based on your class participation, class presentation, and your contribution to the various components of your group class project.

Calendar

Course calendar.
SES #	Topics
1	Introduction and Overview
2	General Context: Approaches to School Reform Guests: Paula Evans and Rob Riordan
3	Specific Context (I): Community Charter School of Cambridge (CCSC) Guests: Rob Riordan and Robin Pringle
4	Specific Context (II): CCSC Design Principles Guests: CCSC Faculty, Rob Riordan, and Robin Pringle
5	The Role of Technology (I): Documentation for Reflection, Evaluation, and Communication Guest: Glorianna Davenport
6	The Role of Technology (II): Creating Deep Community Connections Guests: Erik Blankinship, Mike Ananny, Leo Burd, and Stefan Agamanolis
7	Final Project Proposal: Brainstorming Session
8	The Role of Technology (III): Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology
9	The Role of Technology (IV): Media Literacy Guest: Erik Blankinship
10	The Role of Technology (V): Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Guest: Eric Klopfer
11	The Role of Technology (VI): Learning All the Time Guests: Sandy Pentland and Eric Klopfer
12	The Role of Technology (VII): Art, Music, and Technology
13	Understanding the Role of Nonprofit and Volunteer Organizations in School Reform
14	Final Presentations

Readings

There is a significant amount of reading in this course. Your effective participation in and contribution to class discussions depends critically on your familiarity with the readings. I therefore strongly recommend that you start with the readings for the course - especially those for the first four meetings - as soon as possible in order to have a chance to reflect on them before class discussions.

Course readings.
SES #	TOPICS	READINGS
1	Introduction and Overview	Bush, Vannevar. "As We May Think." (1945.) (Wikipedia entry) ———. "As We May Think." The Atlantic Monthly 176, no. 1 (July 1945): 101-108. Gates, William. "Prepared Remarks to the National Educational Summit on High Schools." February 26, 2005. Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat. New York, NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005. ISBN: 9780374292881. Meier, Deborah, and George Wood. Many Children Left Behind. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2004, Introduction, Preamble, and chapter 5. ISBN: 9780807004593. No Child Left Behind Act. (The official Web site)
2	General Context: Approaches to School Reform Guests: Paula Evans and Rob Riordan	Dewey, John. Experience and Education. New York, NY: Free Press, 1997. ISBN: 9780684838281. Sizer, Theodore. Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1984, Preface, Introduction, Prologue, Section II, Section IV, and Afterword. ISBN: 9780395344231. ———. The Red Pencil: Convictions from Experience in Education. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004. ISBN: 9780300104585. Meier, Deborah, and George Wood. Many Children Left Behind. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2004, chapters 4 and 6. ISBN: 9780807004593. No Child Left Behind Act. (The official Web site) Coalition of Essential Schools. (The official Web site) High Tech High Charter Schools. (The official Web site) High Tech High Learning. (The official Web site)
3	Specific Context (I): Community Charter School of Cambridge (CCSC) Guests: Rob Riordan and Robin Pringle	Sizer, Theodore. Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of the American High School. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1984, Section I and Section III. ISBN: 9780395344231. Meier, Deborah. The Power of Their Ideas. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN: 9780807031117. Lawrence-Lightfoot, Sara. Respect. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1999, Introduction and chapter 3. ISBN: 9780738200934. Commonwealth Charter Application. Cambridge, MA: Community Charter School of Cambridge, November 14, 2003. (PDF - 3.4 MB)
4	Specific Context (II): CCSC Design Principles Guests: CCSC Faculty, Rob Riordan, and Robin Pringle	Dewey, John. "My Pedagogic Creed." School Journal 54 (January 1897): 77-80. Meier, Deborah. In Schools We Trust. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780807031513. Tatum, Beverly Daniel. Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? New York, NY: Harper Collins Publishers, 1997, Introduction, chapters 1, 2, 4, 10, and Epilogue. ISBN: 9780465091270. Lawrence-Lightfoot, Sara. The Essential Conversation. New York, NY: Random House, 2003, Introduction, chapter 3, and Conclusion. ISBN: 9780375505270. Duckworth, Eleanor Ruth. "The Having of Wonderful Ideas" and Other Essays on Teaching and Learning. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1996. ISBN: 9780807735138.
5	The Role of Technology (I): Documentation for Reflection, Evaluation, and Communication Guest: Glorianna Davenport	Project Zero and Reggio Children. Making Learning Visible: Children as Individual and Group Learners. Cambridge, MA: Project Zero, Harvard Graduate School of Education, 2001. ISBN: 9788887960259. Goldman-Segall, Rikki. Points of Viewing Children's Thinking: A Digital Ethnographers Journey. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum, 1997. ISBN: 9780805824322. Davenport, Glorianna. "Sharing Video Memory: Goals, Strategies and Technology." Cambridge, MA: MIT Media Lab. (Short Working Paper) Marshall, John. "Filming and Learning." In The Cinema of John Marshall. Visual Anthropology 3. Edited by Jay Ruby. Philadelphia, PA: Harwood Academic Publishers, 1993. Review "A Kalahari Family" from Documentary Educational Resources to get a sense of John Marshall's ethnographic life work. Leacock, Richard. "The Art of Home Movies." November 30, 1993. (Draft article) ———. "A search for a Feeling of Being There." May 20, 1997. Additional Recommended Reading Barnouw, Erik. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1983. ISBN: 9780195033014. Geertz, Clifford. The Interpretation of Cultures. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2000. ISBN: 9780465097197. Manovitch, Lev. The Language of New Media. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780262133746. Goldman-Segall, R. "Learning Constellations: A Multimedia Ethnographic Research Environment Using Video Technology to Explore Children's Thinking." PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. Butler, Deirdre. "Self determined Teacher Learning in a Digital Context: Fundamental Change in Thinking and Practice." PhD dissertation, Joint Faculty of Education, St Patrick's College and Dublin City University, 2004.
6	The Role of Technology (II): Creating Deep Community Connections Guests: Erik Blankinship, Mike Ananny, Leo Burd, and Stefan Agamanolis	First Half: The Many Faces of Community Connections Smith, B., and E. Blankinship. "Justifying imagery: Multimedia support for learning through explanation." IBM Systems Journal 39, no. 3-4 (2000): 749-767. Sirianni, C., and L. Friedland. "Civic Innovation and American Politics." In Civic Innovation in America. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2001. ISBN: 9780520226371. Price, V. "Problems of Public Opinion." In Public Opinion. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, 1992. ISBN: 9780803940239. Ananny, M., and C. Strohecker. "Forms and Forums for Developing Public Opinions." International Journal of Knowledge and Learning. (Forthcoming) Burd, L. "Technology-Supported, Youth-Led Social Change in Low-Income Communities." Paper presented at annual meeting of Digital Nations, Sao Paolo, Brazil, 2004. Second Half: Tools for Creating Distributed Reflective Learning Communities Blankinship, E. "E-mail list Equations to Create Specific Audiences." MIT Media Lab Paper, 2002. ) DIVER project Web site: Digital Interactive Video Exploration and Reflection. (Web site by the SCiL at Stanford) Agamanolis, S. "Designing Displays for Human Connectedness." In Public and Situated Displays: Social and Interactional Aspects of Shared Display Technologies. Edited by Kenton O'Hara, Mark Perry, Elizabeth Churchill, and Daniel Russell. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 2003. ISBN: 9781402016776. Bly, S. A., S. R. Harrison, and S. Irwin. "Media spaces: Bringing People Together in a Video, Audio, and Computing Environment." Communications of the ACM 36, no. 1 (1993): 28-46. You may also wish to Review other Publications by the Human Connectedness Research Group at Media Lab Europe.
7	Final Project Proposal: Brainstorming Session
8	The Role of Technology (III): Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology	First Half: Children as Scientists and Engineers Resnick, M., et al. "Beyond Black Boxes: Bringing Transparency and Aesthetics Back to Scientific Investigation." Journal of the Learning Sciences 9, no. 1 (2000): 7-30. Martin, F. "Kids Learning Engineering Science Using LEGO and the Programmable Brick." Paper Presented at Annual Meeting of AERA, New York, NY, April 8-12, 1996. Turbak, F., and R. Berg. "Robotic Design Studio: Exploring the Big Ideas of Engineering in a Liberal Arts Environment." Journal of Science Education and Technology 11, no. 3 (September 2002): 237-253. Martin, F., et al. "To Mindstorms and Beyond: Evolution of a Construction Kit for Magical Machines." Chapter 1 in Robots for Kids. Edited by J. Hendler and A. Druin. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufman, 2000. ISBN: 9781558605978. Mikhak, B., et al. "The Children's Machines: Handheld and Wearable Computers Too." In Proceedings of the 1st International Symposium on Handheld and Ubiquitous Computing. Karlsruhe, Germany: Springer-Verlag, 1999. ISBN: 9783540665502. Hancock, C. "Real-Time Programming and the Big Ideas of Computational Literacy." PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. Second Half: Personal Fabrication Gershenfeld, N. FAB: The Coming Revolution on Your Desktop - From Personal Computers to Personal Fabrication. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2005. ISBN: 9780465027453. Lyon, C. "Encouraging Innovation by Engineering the Learning Curve." Mechanical Engineering Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2003. Eisenberg, M. "Mindstuff: Educational Technology Beyond the Computer." Convergence 9, no. 2 (Summer 2003): 29-53. Mikhak, B., et al. "FAB LAB: An Alternate Model of ICT for Development." Paper presented at Development by Design Conference, Bangalore, India, 2002.
9	The Role of Technology (IV): Media Literacy Guest: Erik Blankinship	Atwell, Nancie. In the Middle. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1998. ISBN: 9780867093742. Delpit, Lisa. Other People's Children. New York, NY: New Press, 1996. ISBN: 9781565841802. Blankinship, E., et al. "Closed Captions, Open Source." BT Technology Journal 22, no. 4 (October 2004): 151-159. Basu, Anindita. "Full Contact Poetry." MS Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002. Shankar, Tara. "Speaking on the Record." PhD dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005. Kegan, Robert, and L. L. Lahey. How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, 2000. ISBN: 9780787955359.
10	The Role of Technology (V): Science, Mathematics, Engineering, and Technology Guest: Eric Klopfer	First Half: Computational Science and Mathematics: Logo, StarLogo, New Kind of Science Papert, S. Mindstorms: Children, Computers and Powerful Ideas. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1982. ISBN: 9780465046294. ———. "An Exploration in the Space of Mathematics Educations." International Journal of Computers for Mathematical Learning 1, no. 1 (1996): 95-123. Resnick, M. "Beyond the Centralized Mindset." Journal of the Learning Sciences 5, no. 1 (1996): 1-22. Wolfram, S. The New Kind of Science. Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media, 2002. ISBN: 9781579550080. Second Half: Handheld and Wearable Computers Klopfer, E., et al. "Comparative analysis of Palm and wearable computers for Participatory Simulations." Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 20, no. 5 (October 2004): 347-359. ———. "Using Palm Technology in Participatory Simulations of Complex Systems: A New Take on Ubiquitous and Accessible Mobile Computing." Journal of Science Education and Technology 14, no. 3 (September 2005): 285-297. Colella, V. "Participatory Simulations: Building Collaborative Understanding through Immersive Dynamic Modeling." MS Thesis, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1998. MIT Teacher Education Program (Web site - Selected Readings) Hi-CE and GoKnow (Web sites - Selected Readings)
11	The Role of Technology (VI): Learning All the Time Guests: Sandy Pentland and Eric Klopfer	Klopfer, E., and K. Squire. "Environmental Detectives - The Development of an Augmented Reality Platform for Environmental Simulations." 2004. ———. "Augmented Reality Simulations on Handheld Computers." Paper presented at the annual American Educational Research Association Conference, Chicago, IL, 2003. de Freitas, S., and M. Levene. "Evaluating the development of wearable devices, personal data assistants and the use of other mobile devices in further and higher education institutions." JISC Technology and Standards Watch Report: Wearable Technology. TSW03-05 (June 2005): 1-21. Gips, Jonathan, and Alex (Sandy) Pentland. "Mapping Human Networks." PerCom. Fourth IEEE International Conference on Pervasive Computing and Communications, 2006, pp. 159-168.
12	The Role of Technology (VII): Art, Music, and Technology	First Half: Art, Design and Technology Selections from books by John Maeda on the work of his research groups: Aesthetics of Computation and Physical Language Workshop. Selections from the work of Chris Csikszentmihalyi and his research group: Computing Culture. Selections from relevant theses from Grassroots Invention and Lifelong Kindergarten groups at the lab. Second Half: Digital Audio and Computer Music Selections from relevant theses and papers from Hyperinstruments (Opera of the Future), Music, Mind and Machine, Responsive Environments, Tangible Media, Grassroots Invention and Lifelong Kindergarten research groups at the MIT Media Lab.
13	Understanding the Role of Nonprofit and Volunteer Organizations in School Reform	Drucker, Peter F. Managing the Non-Profit Organization. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 1990. ISBN: 9780060165079. Frumkin, Peter. On Being Nonprofit. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. ISBN: 9780674007680. Letts, Christine W., William P. Ryan, and Allen Grossman. High Performance Nonprofit Organizations. New York, NY: John Wiley and Sons, 1998. ISBN: 9780471174578.
14	Final Presentations