Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom (Paperback)

~ (Author) "In the national imagination and in historical fact, the state that gave the world Silicon Valley shimmers with contradiction..." (more)
Key Phrases: tech gods, wiring schools, faculty survey, Silicon Valley, Head Start, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Challenging "the belief that if technology were introduced to the classroom, it would be used; and if it were used, it would transform schooling," Stanford education professor Larry Cuban (Teachers and Machines) provides a jargon-free, critical look at the actual use of computers by teachers and students in early childhood education, high school and university classrooms in Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom. Combining an historical overview of school technologies with statistical data and direct observation of classroom practices in several Silicon Valley schools, he concludes that, "Without a broader vision of the social and civic role that schools perform in a democratic society, our excessive focus on technology use in schools runs the danger of trivializing our nation's core ideals."

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal

Cuban (education, Stanford) has written extensively about school reform (e.g., How Scholars Trumped Teachers). In his latest work, he disputes the policymakers who have thrust computers into schools without much regard for the educators who are expected to improve students' learning with the new technologies. In fact, Cuban's 2001-2000 study of Silicon Valley schools, discussed and analyzed in the first two-thirds of the book, showed that less than ten percent of the teachers used their classroom computers at least once a week. Another unanticipated finding was that there was no evidence that information technologies increased students' academic achievement. Arguing that the educational revolution that computers were expected to incite has progressed far too slowly, he recommends that administrators involve teachers in the planning and implementation of technology plans and allow them more unstructured time, technical support, and professional development opportunities to optimize the educational benefits that computers offer. Highly recommended for academic and public libraries. Will Hepfer, SUNY at Buffalo Libs.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harvard University Press (April 30, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0674011090
• ISBN-13: 978-0674011090
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #648,621 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Overwritten and underanalyzed, August 7, 2002

By	James H. Bluck (Westfield, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom (Hardcover)

If you're looking for a thoughtful, insightful analysis of the use of technology in the classroom, this book is NOT it. Two of the book's conclusions seem unassailable, i.e., the benefits from using computer technology in the classroom have been oversold by its proponents and the technology is little used in the classroom despite pervasive access to computers. This, however, is not news, as virtually any thoughtful parent with school-age children could tell you. Unfortunately, the book is rambling, and the analysis is sophomoric and naive. It might have made a useful magazine article, but the book-length format has resulted in the inclusion of so much chaff with the few grains of wheat as to make reading this rambling, poorly argued book a frustrating and annoying experience.

The unspoken assumption that underlies the whole book is that computers represent a genuinely transformative technology that should and inevitably will result in a revolution in instructional methods from pre-school through the university level. The author investigates a number of reasons why this revolution has not yet occurred notwithstanding the pervasive availability of computers in the school systems he studies but fails to investigate or discuss one of the obvious reasons, i.e., that the technology (at least at the current state of hardware and software development) is a vehicle ill-suited to producing the author's hoped-for instructional revolution.

The author uses the advent of film, radio and television as models for the acceptance of new instructional technologies in the school systems. He fails to discuss in any of these cases the ultimate reasons for their failure to revolutionize the classroom experience, i.e., their fundamental unsuitedness to the task. No one today would seriously advocate the widesrpead use of any of these still "underused" technologies to transform the educational experience for the better.

The author would have been able to explore his subject more effectively if he had compared these supposed revolutionary technologies, which advocates argued would fundamentally transform education but were never widely adopted, with technologies that have been widely adopted in the classroom. Teachers, like other workers, will rapidly adopt procedures and technologies that they believe will improve their ability to function effectively. (See, for example, the pervasive use of computers by teachers for preparatory and administrative activities, which the author discusses but whose significance escapes him.) The computer revolution in business was driven from the bottom up. Workers clamored for computers that they knew would simplify complex tasks and improve their ability to get their work done, much the way teachers have embraced computers for preparatory and administrative tasks. By contrast, computers have been introduced to the classrooms not by grassroots demands from teachers but from top down pressures from parents and administrators. As the author rightly points out, teachers today are not technophobes and commonly make extensive use of PCs outside the classroom for person use or to prepare for classes. If there were readily apparent, readily implementable and educationally beneficial uses of computer technology for instructional purposes in the classroom, teachers would be clamoring for more computers not letting them sit "underused."

The author investigates any reason he can think of to explain why teachers don't integrate computer technology into the classroom except the most obvious one -- that computer technology (like film, radio and television) is not a suitable vehicle to produce a revolution in instructional methods.

The author fails to cite even one example where computers have had a revolutionary effect on classroom instruction, even among teachers who are highly motivated to use and promote the technology. Even the few teachers he praises for integrating computers into the classroom seem to be doing nothing more than using computers to do the same old things that could otherwise have been easily done with slides, pictures and other low tech technologies. There was nothing "transformative" or "revolutionary" about any of the "innovative" uses that he lavishly praises.

The term "underused" in the title of the book assumes that computers should be used in the classroom much more than they currently are, but this assumption goes wholly unexamined by Mr. Cuban.

JHB

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oversold and Underused: Really?, October 7, 2002

By	Cindy LaRochelle (Laurinburg, NC United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom (Hardcover)

In this book, Larry Cuban details why he thinks a moratorium should be placed on all educational funds earmarked for technology. He methodically outlines the case studies of several Silicon Valley Schools. He points out that Silicon Valley, above all other places, should have been able to incorporate on a wide-spread basis technology-infused, student-centered teaching methodologies. Based on his studies, he predicts that not much will change in the near or far future as far as teaching is concerned. But he also offers suggestions as to how the desired changes in teaching might be realized. The book is interesting, well-written, and thought provoking. It may even be thought-provoking enough to facilitate the changes, he predicts will never happen.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Thought-provoking for technophiles and technophobes, October 10, 2002

By	Cathy Kyle (Germantown, TN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom (Hardcover)

In Larry Cuban's book, Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classrooms, the author contends that all the technology that has been infused in schools has done little to change the way teachers teach. Furthermore, he believes that technology probably will never change the way teachers teach. He researchers the technology in schools in Silicon Valley, thinking that if technology will change the way we teach, what better place to begin his research. He finds that very little has changed in the way teachers teach and children learn even in this geographical area where technology in schools all began. He gives very detailed and specific research, and then gives his reasons why he believes the way he does. He understands that technology is here to stay, but unless schools first concentrate on learning and their core and social values, technology will continue to be oversold and underused. Although I disagree with him on some of his observations, this book has certainly made me think and will change the way I make future decisions when recommending what technology should be purchased and how it should be incorporated so that it will not be underused.