Media & Technology
Better Teaching and Learning in the Digital Classroom
ed. by David T. Gordon (Harvard Education Press, 8 Story St., Cambridge, MA 02138; 175 pp., $24.95 paperback).
Examines the ways teachers can best use available technology in their classrooms to advance teaching and learning. Some of the topics explored include digital portfolios for student assessment, K-12 distance learning, online teacher communities, multiple literacies, and handheld computers in the classroom. Contributors to the collection include James Moore, David Niguidula, Cathleen A. Norris, Andrea Oseas, and Louise Grace Yarnall.
Distance Education: Issues and Concerns ed. by Cleborne D. Maddux, Jacque Ewing-Taylor, D. LaMont Johnson (The Haworth Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY 13904; 234 pp., $32.95 paperback, $49.95 hardback).
A study of the advantages and disadvantages of distance education as a means of providing university-level teacher education classes.
It’s Not the Media: The Truth About Pop Culture’s Influence on Children by Karen Sternheimer (Westview Press, 5500 Central Ave., Boulder, CO 80301; 272 pp., $26 hardback).
A University of Southern California sociologist looks at why the media are so often seen as the root cause of social problems. She argues that we blame the media because they represent what we fear. Changes in media culture are easier to see, and therefore scapegoat, than are shifts in social, economic, and political forces. “Fear of social change, and what it means to be a kid in today’s media-saturated climate, lies at the heart of our media-bashing culture,” the author writes.
Never Mind the Laptops: Kids, Computers, and the Transformation of Learning by Bob Johnstone (iUniverse, 2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100, Lincoln, NE 68512; 351 pp., $23.95 paperback).
The story of the world’s first laptop school, Methodist Ladies’ College in Melbourne, Australia. This chronicle traces the history of computers in the classroom, from the 1960s to the present, and relates how the Melbourne school overcame such obstacles to laptop learning as inadequate teacher training. It describes how the college served as an example to schools worldwide, especially in the United States.
Technology in Education: A Twenty-Year Retrospective ed. by D. Lamont Johnson and Cleborne D. Maddux (The Haworth Press, 10 Alice St., Binghamton, NY 13904; 192 pp., $29.95 paperback, $59.95 hardback).
Celebrates the 20th anniversary of Computers in the Schools, an academic journal that explores the integration of information technology into educational settings. The predictions made by early computer enthusiasts are examined, as well as obstacles that continue to hinder the integration of information technology in education. Other topics covered include historical advances in education and technology and students’ perspectives on computers in the classroom.
The Flickering Mind: The False Promise of Technology in the Classroom and How Learning Can Be Saved by Todd Oppenheimer (Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019; 481 pp., $26.95 hardback).
An award-winning journalist examines the ways in which technology has failed to breed the kind of educational success predicted for it. The influx of technological innovations into the schools will not be enough to reform education, he argues, when greater needs such as teaching and attention to the “basics” are not being met. Meanwhile, finding the true power of technology to enhance learning, he suggests, has taken a back seat to selling the “novelties of technology,” often with a profit motive in mind.
Virtual Inequality: Beyond the Digital Divide by Karen Mossberger, Caroline J. Tolbert, and Mary Stansbury (Georgetown University Press, 3240 Prospect St. N.W., Washington, DC 20007; 208 pp., $19.95 paperback).
Based on a national survey of 1,800 respondents in low-income communities, this study attempts to tell the real story of the “digital divide,” and of the failed efforts to address it. Inadequate access to information technology is viewed not only through the lens of politics, economics, and public policy, but also as it relates to skills not developed.
Virtual Schooling: Issues in the Development of E-Learning Policy ed. by Donovan R. Walling (Phi Delta Kappa Educational Foundation, PO Box 789, Bloomington, IN 47402; 158 pp., $14.95 paperback, member; $19.95 paperback, nonmember).
A collection of essays that extends the dialogue on policy issues related to e-learning, such as virtual schools and distance education. Contributors include Barry D. Amis, Gene I. Maeroff, and Andrew A. Zucker.
What Video Games Have to Teach Us About Learning and Literacy by James Paul Gee (Palgrave Macmillan, 175 Fifth Ave., New York, NY 10010; 256 pp., $26.95 hardback).
Examines the ways in which players of good video games engage in intricate learning experiences such as interpreting sign systems and developing problem-solving skills. Written by a professor of education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the book argues that “36 important learning principles are built into good video games.” Research on human learning and cognitive science that support that assertion is laid out, as is a comparison of learning and literacy in video games and learning and literacy in classrooms.
The One-Room Schoolhouse: A Tribute to a Beloved National Icon by Verlyn Klinkenborg, photographs by Paul Rocheleau (Universe Publishing, Rizzoli International Publication Inc., 300 Park Ave. South, New York, NY 10010; 208 pp. with 200 photos, $35 hardcover).
A visually stunning and historically rich portrait of these architectural treasures, as they appear today in each of the 48 contiguous states.
Publishing: A Leap From Mind to Mind by Harold T. Miller (Fulcrum Publishing, 16100 Table Mountain Parkway, Suite 300, Golden, CO 80403; 336 pp., $27.95 hardcover).
The former president and chairman of Houghton Mifflin Co. attempts to document a half-century of the company’s history, with special emphasis on developments in education and educational publishing during that time. The book was a 10-year project and comprises interviews with more than 100 authors and editors, educational leaders, and end users of Houghton Mifflin books.
