TEACHERS AND TECHNOLOGY: UNPACKING ILLUSIONS OF A ONE-TO-ONE COMPUTER INITIATIVE
Open Access
- Author:
- Clark, Shanetia Pertrelle
- Graduate Program:
- Curriculum and Instruction
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- June 13, 2006
- Committee Members:
- Jacqueline Edmondson, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Patricia M Hinchey, Committee Member
James Ewald Johnson, Committee Member
John David Popp, Committee Member - Keywords:
- secondary teachers
computer technology
sucessful teaching
one-to-one laptop computer ratio
pedagogy - Abstract:
- In January 2005, the US Department of Education announced the National Education Technology Plan, the latest vision for computer technology in education in public schools. In it, districts and schools which have moved toward being computer technology based were applauded. My descriptive study is set in one of these “success” story districts which has embarked on a massive one-to-one laptop computer initiative for all secondary (grades 6-12) students, faculty, and staff which started in 2001. Primarily through the voices of classroom teachers, I share their perspectives about the administrative directed program. The participating teachers revealed that the presence of the laptops changed their teaching, solidified their pedagogical beliefs, and reinforced their ideas about what successful teaching is and what it looks like. The teachers described how their classroom changed when students did not have access to the laptops because of students’ parents/guardians’ financial constraints, help desk delays, and consequences of students’ misbehavior. Overall, my descriptive study aimed to expose and problematize the overwhelming positive illusions of the one-to-one initiative and publicized effects on teaching and learning within this celebrated laptop program.