TECHNOLOGY REFUSAL AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF SCHOOLS

Reference:
Steven Hodas
University of Washington

Technology refusal and the organizational culture of schools. Education Policy Analysis Archives.

Abstract
Analyses of the deployment of technology in schools usually note its lack of impact on the day-to-day values and practices of teachers, administrators, and students. This is generally construed as an implementation failure, or as resulting from a temperamental shortcoming on the part of teachers or technologists. It is predicated on the tacit assumption that the technology itself is value-free. This paper proposes that technology is never neutral: that its values and practices must always either support or subvert those of the organization into which it is placed; and that the failures of technology to alter the look-and-feel of schools more generally results from a mismatch between the values of school organization and those embedded within the contested technology.





“Still nothing Try the spellcheck”



What about computers and Steiner Education?

Steiner teachers feel the appropriate age for computer use in the classroom and by students is in high school. We feel it is more important for students to have the opportunity to interact with one another and with teachers in exploring the world of ideas, participating in the creative process, and developing their knowledge, skills, abilities, and inner qualities. Steiner students have a love of learning, an ongoing curiosity, and interest in life. As older students, they quickly master computer technology, and graduates have successful careers in the computer industry. For additional reading, please see Fools Gold on the Alliance For Childhood’s web site, www.allianceforchildhood.org and The Future Does Not Compute by Steven Talbot.


Computers
There is no doubt that the computer is a very useful tool in today’s world. However, the fact that the computer can be indispensible in the adult economic world, does not necessarily equate it to being beneficial to the child’s world.

Steiner schools do not introduce the use of computers until secondary school. This is not because they are old-fashioned, but due to careful consideration of the computer’s benefits and disadvantages.

Education in the Steiner primary school is based on the knowledge that during the years from 7 – 14, the child is primarily developing his/her ‘feeling’ or emotional life; and is still naturally active. Therefore during this time, the utmost importance is placed on human wisdom and interactions; learning through direct experiences; and learning opportunities that use as many of the senses as possible.

All learning experiences are seen as opportunities to learn academic skills as well as social and moral values. While computers can ‘teach’ the academic aspects of a subject, whilst doing so, they isolate the child from classmates and the teacher. For example, during a Maths lesson, a child may have shell counters, and be asked by the teacher to share them amongst a number of friends. The child may protest, as he/she may not yet be able to freely share, thus a Maths lesson about division, becomes an opportunity to practise sharing. If the child experiences the same lesson through the use of a computer, he/she may learn division, but even if given the scenario of sharing, will not have the direct experience in life of having to share, and all the emotional impact and social learning that that imparts. Computers can teach facts but can not impart wisdom.



Children learn and remember best from direct experience. For example, if a teacher brought a large cake to class to explain the relative size of fractions (ie, slices of cake), many of the senses of the child are awakened. Their learning is sparked by such senses as sight, sound, touch, taste and smell as they are actively engaged in a Maths lesson (and cutting and eating cake!). The same lesson given on a computer gives only ‘second-hand’ images and sound, thus only a few senses are being used to stimulate learning. Which lesson has given ‘direct experience’, which lesson/learning is likely to be remembered?

Children are naturally active and learn best through ‘doing’. Thus lessons are planned with activities that will utilise this ‘love to move’ bringing in the senses of balance, rhythm and spatial awareness. A computer activity provides none of these.

By the time a child reaches secondary school, in a Steiner school, he/she has been given the opportunity to develop his/her ‘feeling life’, whilst keeping abreast of academia and worldly knowledge. At around 14 years, the intellectual and logical capacities of the child are really ready to be worked with, this is the right time to introduce the computer to the child. In this way, rather than primarily educating the thinking qualities only, the child’s education has provided him/her with ample time to develop physically, emotionally and intellectually.

Reference
Bairnsdale Steiner School