Abstract
Few change issues are more compelling for schools today than the introduction of new technologies. Computers in particular are widely advocated as harbingers of an educational revolution where children will have independent access to rich sources of information, be able to integrate and apply knowledge in sophisticated ways and where their teachers will become coaches, guides and facilitators to assist young people in the new forms of learning that will engage them. At the same time, critics of the computer revolution argue that much of it replaces education with entertainment, that the quality of information that can be accessed is often very poor, that children will learn in more and more isolated ways from each other, and that critical elements will be drained out of the educational process by focussing on technical competence alone.
Bigum and Kenway take their readers through this highly contested and controversial field with a balanced and thoughtful review and evaluation of the main standpoints that educators take towards new technologies in education. They describe and critique the positions of groups they call the Boosters, the Doomsters, the Anti-Schoolers and the Critics — leading to their own exposition of a practically workable and educationally justifiable stance that schools might best take towards high technology and future schooling.
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Bigum, C., Kenway, J. (2005). New Information Technologies and the Ambiguous Future of Schooling — Some Possible Scenarios. In: Hargreaves, A. (eds) Extending Educational Change. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4453-4_5
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