Sunday, July 29, 2007

The Politics, The Politics, The Politics~~~~~Building Public Support

The Politics of Technology Transformation by Isa Kaftal Zimmerman examines political strategies for advocacy and change in local, state , and nations forums in Chapter Eight of TECHNOLOGY IN ITS PLACE. Improving teaching and learning through technology requires attention to politics as well as to pedagogy there definitely no doubt. I never realized how much politics was played in the schools until I joined the educational workforce three years. Most of the time I truly believe that it is not what you know, it's who you know. The structuring and scaffolding of the administration in public school districts is enough for anyone to wonder, how the students even achieve to learn during the school day.
There is no doubt that the times has arrived for more libraries to move from passive to intervention in politics...I mean not taking political sides but, in supplying the information and recorded knowledge students need. Educators and facilitators in schools need to continue to encourage informed and knowledgeable discussions of the public education policy of technology. Town Hall type discussions need to be held covering the technology goals for thiner particular school district and also what's happening in neighboring communities as well as nation and world wide. The technology highway is truly a super expressway and stalling out with outdated technology will not promote World Class Learning nor Intellectual Freedom.
Today, in school technology the question then, is how can we balance our desire for democratic values and the imbalance of power and influence between the school adminstration and the idealism and quest for technology efficiency?

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