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Web Sites (all sites will open in a new window)
Audio Education by James Cisek. The Audio Journal web site is designed to supplement subscriptions to the Audio Journal's interviews on cassette and audio CD-- executive briefings for school administrators. The journal's mission is to help school administrators become more effective through education so they can become lead learners and model behavior for their entire community. The web site provides transcripts of past interviews and a real-time interactive forum for the discussion of issues-- the AudioEd Chat Room.
Educational Issues Scanning from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory provides multiple perspectives on key national, regional, and state (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio & Wisconsin) educational issues.
From Now On: The Educational Technology Journal
by Jamie McKenzie. Features Jamie McKenzie's stimulating monthly Educational Technology Journal, a collection of technology-related planning documents, and resources to support school districts' thoughtful use of networked technology and new information resources. It also headlines a subject index of previous issues dating back to 1991.
Green Design Initiative from Carnegie Mellon University provides information on safely recycling old computer equipment without harming the environment.
How Teachers Learn New Technologies by Jamie McKenzie. is a web site devoted exclusively to professional development for educational technology. Contains a variety of articles and links to other resources on the subject.
Milken Exchange on Education Technology: Featured Issues from the Milken Family Foundation. Offers over 80 brief articles on a variety of issues related to educational technology.
Pathways to School Improvement from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory includes discussions of timely educational concerns receiving a lot of attention in the field. NCREL provides a brief overview of the subject, links to NCREL work, and links to other internet sites. Frequent updating of Timely Topics provides recent national news along with recent program information for each of 7 states in the North Central US region.
Policy Briefs and Publications from the North Central Regional Educational Laboratory offers periodic reports on a wide array of hot topics, discussing policy from the viewpoints of experts, practitioners, and policymakers. The reports contain information on the status of current issues in education from a national perspective, descriptions of actions and agendas in the states in the NCREL region, commentaries by experts from their particular point of view, and resources for further information.
The Technology Puzzle by Larry Cuban is an article from education week which explores the puzzle that relatively few teachers use computers at school, though most have them and use them at home.
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Books
Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman, 1986. Kill your television . . . or kill your mind. The premise of Amusing Ourselves to Death is that the medium of television has injured and is injuring the ability of individuals and the culture as a whole to reason. The injury is evidenced in every area of human endeavor, from politics and news to education and religion. Postman observes that we are becoming "a culture in which all public discourse increasingly takes the form of entertainment."
The Children's Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer by Seymour Papert, 1994. In a follow-up to Mindstorms, the pioneering scientist who created the programming language Logo used in hundreds of schools nationwide now discusses why the computer revolution has failed to revolutionize education.
The Connected Family: Bridging the Digital Generation Gap by Seymour Papert, 1996. In simple language that cuts through computer speak and technical hype, The Connected Family answers fundamental questions about computer for concerned parents, including how best to use the Internet and the World Wide Web, what to do about cyberporn, what to look for when buying computer equipment, CD-ROMs, and computer games, and how to keep up with their children's progress.
The Cult of Information: A Neo-Luddite Treatise on High Tech, Artificial Intelligence, and the True Art of Thinking by Theodore Roszak, 1994. Roszak is no computer hater, but in an age that idolizes intelligent machines he stands out as a rare cautionary voice. His book makes an eloquent case for a simple thesis: digital computing has created as many problems as it solves. Roszak worries about our utopian techno-idealism--the belief that a scientific broom can sweep away our messy problems. The author challenges this belief with a detailed, common-sense look at the history of what computing has actually brought us.
Education Is Not a Spectator Sport by Willard R. Daggett & Benedict Kruse, 1997. Education exists in the larger context of society. Therefore, when society goes through fundamental changes, so do educational institutions.
Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think by Jane M. Healy, 1991. Dr. Healy examines the decline in schools and offers concrete advice for improving our students' endangered minds. A fascinating assessment which argues that children in today's fast-paced electronic world use their brains differently than did children in past generations.
The End of Education: Redefining the Value of School by Neil Postman, 1995. Well known social critic Postman begins by describing how schools early in the century sought to forge a coherent and unified culture from the diverse traditions, languages, and religions in the US. He then contrasts today's goals of economic utility, consumership, mechanical solutions, and separatist multiculturalism. Not surprisingly, he has some suggestions. He offers narratives for redefining education: preserving the earth, acknowledging the imperfection of knowledge, America as an experiment rather than success or failure, the strengths and weaknesses of all cultures, and the primary importance of communication.
Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences by Howard E. Gardner, 1993. The legendary book about the 7 intelligences (now he says that there are 8!!). This is a very heavy read but it has taken on the quality of educational gospel.
The Monster Under the Bed: How Business Is Mastering the Opportunity of Knowledge for Profit by Stan Davis & Jim Botkin, 1995. A guide for educators and executives explains how the new mega-industry that dominates education is transforming our economy and lifestyle; changing companies, consumers, and employees; and redefining learning in both the public and private sectors.
Paradigm Lost : Reclaiming America's Educational Future by William G. Spady (Editor), 1997. Here Spady explores the important changes in culture, instruction, school calendars, and school agenda that school leaders must make to prepare students for the next millennium, despite the fact that the current system of schooling leads to institutional inertia. Spady's big-picture view refutes the wisdom of adhering to a system of schooling--a paradigm--based on a bureaucratic-age culture, industrial-age delivery system, agricultural-age calendar and feudal-age agenda. Spady then explains how school leaders can overcome this inertia by working with staff and community members to adopt a new paradigm of schooling based on a locally developed vision of the future and what students will need to succeed in that future.
The Quality School: Managing Students Without Coercion by William Glasser, 1992. A bestseller with over 90,000 copies sold in its first edition, this expanded edition explains that traditional coercive management in school is the root of today's educational problems. "This should be required reading by every school administrator, every teacher, every board member and all university faculty involved in the training of teachers."
School's Out by Lewis J. Perelman, 1995. A jarring book that challenges most of our assumptions about education and educational delivery. Perelman suggests that public education is on the endangered species list and that the days of virtual education are just ahead. Even though it's five years old, it's still right on the money in terms of current trends.
Setting the Record Straight: Responses to Misconceptions About Public Education in the United States by Gerald W. Bracey, 1997. An incredible book that explodes many of the urban myths about education. Bracey outlines the myths, presents the details, and then explains what the very latest research tells us. This book is a must for any teacher, administrator, or school board member. Highly recommended!
Silicon Snake Oil: Second Thoughts on the Information Highway by Clifford Stoll, 1996. In this book Stoll looks at what the Internet really is now, aside from all the hype and high hopes, and asks some down-to-earth questions about how we as users want the future of electronic communications to unfold. This book may challenge what you thought was most useful about the Internet. It may also point out valuable aspects you never considered. It will certainly get you thinking in a new way about computers and technology in general. Personally, I think he's a hypocrite.
Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology by Neil Postman, 1993. Neil Postman is one of the most level-headed analysts of education, media, and technology, and in this book he spells out the increasing dependence upon technology, numerical quantification, and misappropriation of "Scientism" to all human affairs. No simple technophobe, Postman argues insightfully and writes with a stylistic flair, profound sense of humor, and love of language increasingly rare in our hastily scribbled e-mail-saturated world. Highly Recommended.
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