信息技术以及美国学校的未来（上）

信息技术以及美国学习的未来（下）http://www.etthink.com/thread-1025-1-1.html继续翻译，把论文的上篇发布，还请大家对翻译不当的地方多多指证。

1. Technology Enthusiasts and SkepticsEnthusiasts of technology struggle with skeptics to predict whether the practicesof schooling will be transformed by or be resistant to the effects of informationtechnologies. Enthusiasts point to how technologies have already reshaped communicationand information exchange practices across professions and disciplines(e.g. diSessa, 1999; Gee, 2003; Papert, 1994).There are three imperatives of informationtechnology that can radically change the nature of education:

1.技术的拥护者和怀疑论者技术的拥护者与怀疑论者一直以来都在为学校教育将被技术改造或不受其影响予以抵抗而争论不休，技术的拥护者指出，技术已经通过专业和学科对交流与信息交流实践予以重塑。（如diSessa, 1999; Gee, 2003; Papert, 1994）信息技术有三个必要条件可以从根本上改变教育本质：

Customization. Enthusiasts believe that technology offers a variety of ways tobreak the lockstep of schooling. It can address the individual interests of thelearner. It can adjust to the pace of the learner, providing personalized feedback toaddress the learner’s particular difficulties. In short, it can customize the content,pedagogy, and assessment to the learner’s needs, interests, and abilities. There isno way that teachers will ever be able to do this, given that they must attend totwenty or more students at a time.

（1）自定步调 技术的拥护者认为技术可以提供一系列不同的方法进行学习，从而打破了学校的同步教学。技术按照每个学习者各自的兴趣，适应的学习者学习的步调，为学习者各自出现的问题提供反馈。简言之，技术可以订制学习内容、教学、评估从而满足学习者的需要、兴趣、能力。这是以往的教师所不能做到的，因为他们必须同时教授二十个甚至更多的学生。

Learner control. New technologies, like the printing press before them, enablepeople to take control of their own learning. Outside of school, people can decidewhat would be valuable to them and what they want to learn. They can decidehow long they want to spend and what help they think they need. They aregaining more and more control over their own learning, both in big ways and insmall ways. Hence, the imperative of technology is toward more learner control,and schools are fighting a losing battle to control what students learn. Technologyenthusiasts think people will decide to take control of their own education, whenthey see it is possible.

（2）学习者控制像以往的印刷出版业，新技术可以使人们自己控制自己的学习，在学校学习之外，人们可以自己决定对自己有价值的内容进行学习，他们还可以决定自己学习的时间长短，以及他们认为有需要的帮助。无论在方式与方法上，人们对自己的学习都得到了越来越多的控制，因此，技术的迫切需要势必会带来学习者自我控制，并且学校也会失去对学习者学习方式的控制。技术拥护者认为，人们控制自己的教育是很有可能的。

Interaction. Computers are highly interactive, which provides a number of capabilitiesthat can enhance education. By providing dynamic interaction, computersare likely to make education much more engaging. Interaction also allowslearners to see the consequences of their actions. For example, complex gamesgive users rich feedback on the consequences of a series of actions or a strategyfor interaction. To succeed in the games, users need to comprehend what thisfeedback means, and take the lessons of their experience into account in futureplay. Another capability that this interaction provides is the possibility of onlineassessment of students. By giving students complex tasks to perform, such astroubleshooting a complex circuit, computers can provide support to the studentto carry out the task, while assessing just how much and what kind of support thestudent needs. Because of the large number of students in classrooms, teacherscannot provide the kind of interaction and feedback that computers can.

（3）交互能力计算机是高度交互的，它为提高教育提供一系列的能力。计算机通过提供动态交互，极可能市教育变得更有生机，交互带给学习者操作结果，例如，复杂的游戏在参与者一系列操作和策略交互后，给予丰富的反馈信息。为了在游戏中取得胜利，参与者需要理解反馈的意思，并为将来的游戏吸取教训。这种交互的另外一种作用为再现评估学生提供一种可能。通过让学生完成一项复杂的任务，比如组织一个复杂的电路，计算机可以为学生完成任务提供支持，同时评价学生需要多少以及什么样的支持与帮助。然而，由于教室内学生太多，教师不能提供计算机的这种交互和反馈。

While enthusiasts have predicted great revolutions in American schooling as a result
of technological innovations, skeptics point out how school systems resist technological
innovation. Cuban (1986) notes how radio, TV and filmstrips were projected to
transform schooling, and instead were marginalized by existing practice. As Cuban
(2001) describes, in many school systems computer technologies are meeting with
similar fates. This reluctance to embrace new technologies is rooted in the institutional
evolution of public schooling.
当技术的拥护者们已把美国学校教育的巨大改革归结为技术革新时，技术的怀疑者则指出学校教育是如何抵制改革的。古巴在1986年时指出广播、电视、电影预计改变学校教学，然而结果却是被现存的实践边缘化。正如古巴2001年描述的那样，大多数学校系统的计算机技术都面临相同的命运。这种不情愿接受新的技术就根植于公立学校的体制改革。

2. Technology and the Evolution of Public Schooling
in the United States
At the inception of universal schooling in mid-19th century America, schools experienced
rapid change and considerable variation in practice as they struggled to
replace the apprenticeship system which dominated education prior to that time.
In a short time (from about 1850 until 1910), local variation in instructional, curricular
and governance practices stabilized into a system, variously described as a
“factory model” (Callahan, 1962), “real school” (Metz, 1990), and the “one best
system” (Tyack, 1974).
2.美国公立学校的技术和改革
    在美国19世纪中叶教育普及之初，学校经历着迅速并且相当大的改变，在实践上，他们努力取代那种在先前教育中一直处于领导地位的学徒制教育。在很短的时间内（1850年--1910年），当地不同的教学、课程以及政府实践都稳定为一种系统，被形容为“工厂模式”（Callahan, 1962），“真正的学校”(Metz, 1990)，“一个最好的系统”(Tyack, 1974)。

In this model of schooling, the teacher is an expert whose job is to transmit
knowledge to students through lecture, recitation, drill, and practice. The curriculum
spells out content and sequence of learning. Locally developed assessments
determine if students have learned what was covered. As students advance, they
acquire a transcript of courses taken and grades assigned. Graduation from school
is determined by passing a sufficient number of courses. The technologies that have
supported this system are the textbook to determine curricular scope and sequence,
the blackboard and overhead projector to support teacher explanations and display
of student work, and paper and pencil to record and assess student work. Similar
practices have evolved in many post-secondary and graduate education institutions
and have proven equally resistant to change. In the course of the development of
the school system, all these pieces evolved to fit together into what Cuban (1984)
calls a system of “situationally constrained choice.”
在这种模型中教学，教师作为专家，职责为通过演讲、复述、研究和训练的方式将知识传递给学生。课程安排好内容和学习的顺序。本地开发评估决定学生是否已经掌握了课程所涵盖的知识。当学生学习完成后，他们会得到课程的成绩单以及等级的划分。从学校毕业要通过足够科目的课程。支持这套系统的技术为决定课程范围及顺序的教科书，支持教师解释及展示学生作品的黑板及投影仪，记录和评价学生作业的纸笔。在许多高等学校及研究生教育机构中，类似的实践已经改革，同时也显示了对改变的抵制。在学校系统发展的过程中，以上所有的状况都改革为一种系统，被古巴（1984年）称之为“情景化约束选择”。

The commonality of core practices in schools is surprising considering the relative
absence of uniform control. Contemporary public schools display remarkably
little variation in curricular and governance practices and have developed great
capacity to maintain equilibrium among core practices in a wide variety of localcircumstances. Weick (1976, 1982) explains that while a loose coupling of governance
and instructional practices makes each system adaptable to local circumstance,
it also protects the core practices of instruction from inspection and alternation
due to local conditions. This makes widespread change in core practices
difficult to achieve. Changing one part of the system pushes other parts to reestablish
the original equilibrium in order to protect the integrity of the core practices.
For example, if changing the assessment system means that students fail, parents
and teachers will pressure the system to revert to the original assessments, instead
of pushing for sustainable changes in teaching practices. The nature of piecemeal
instructional changes in complex systems means that innovations will often be dismissed,
marginalized or co-opted by the existing practices. The fate of information
technology to change core practices is writ large: to the degree technology that is
flexible, it will be adapted to fit that system; to the degree that it is not flexible, it
will be ignored or kept in the periphery of schooling (Cohen, 1988).
这种学校中核心实践的共同点，却很奇怪得不到相对统一的控制。当代公立学校的课程很明显没有什么变化，并且在各种环境下，公立学校都掌控着实践，发展保持核心实践平衡的能力。Weick (1976, 1982)解释，当教学管理与教学实践连接不紧密时，每个系统都会适应当地的环境，系统会根据当地的条件保护教学核心实践不被影响和替换。这使得核心实践的广泛改变难以实现。系统中的一个部分改变，会促使其他部分的重建，实现最初的平衡，从而保证核心实践的完整。例如，如果改变评价系统会使学生失败，家长和老师往往给予系统压力从而使先前的评估恢复，而不是推动持续的教学实践改革。在复杂系统中，教学变化的零散性质，意味着改革经常被停止、边缘化或者被现存的实践所替代。信息技术必定会改变核心实践；技术在一定程度上是灵活的，此时可以适应系统；在另外一种程度上又是不灵活的，这时的技术就会被忽视或被放在教学的边缘。(Cohen, 1988)

While the enthusiasts’ and the skeptics’ predictions for the possibilities of technology
might be contradictory, we think that together they point to the future
relation of education and schooling. There are many reasons why schools do not
seem able to embrace the possibilities of new technologies. But, as information
technologies become an integral aspect of many communication processes, we think
that the dominance of schools as venues for education will diminish. Technologies
will open up new alternatives to schools for learning.
虽然技术支持者与怀疑者对技术可能性的预测大概是矛盾的，然而我们认为，他们共同指向教育与学校教学关系的未来。学校似乎不能接受新技术，原因有很多。但是当信息技术成为许多交流过程不可分割的因素时，学校作为教育场所的支配地位将会减弱。技术会为了促进学习为学校找到一个替代品。

3. Seeds of a New System
We see the seeds of an alternative system emerging in the recent movements toward
home schooling, virtual schools, distance education, learning centers, workplace
learning, adult education, computer gaming environments, educational television
and videos, technical certifications, and Internet cafes. Although we believe that
technology-supported learning will be particularly transformative for adult learning,
movements such as home schooling, virtual schools and learning centers will
increasingly address the unmet learning needs of children. As these venues continue
to develop, we believe they will begin to converge as a viable alternative for the
existing school systems.
3.新系统的出现
    我们在最近的动向中看到了一种新系统的出现，这种系统趋向于家庭教育、虚拟学校、远程教育、学习中心、工作场所学习、成人教育、电脑游戏环境、教学电视及影片、技术认证、网吧。尽管我们相信技术支持的学习特别用于成人教育，然而诸如家庭教育、虚拟学校、学习中心等活动越来越能满足孩子未能得到的学习需要。随着这些学习方式的继续发展，我们相信他们会成为现行的学校教学制度的一种可行的替代方法。

3.1. Home schooling
Home schooling has been burgeoning in America (over ten-fold growth from
1985–95) as individual families seek alternatives to the established school system.
Recent developments in home schooling rely on technologies to distribute materials,
provide assessments, and create distributed learning communities. As curriculum
materials are developed, computers can take over more of the content burden, leaving
parents and others to play the role of facilitators. Groups can get together in
homes and community centers to provide education to their children, using networkbased
materials (Hill, 2000; McDowell & Ray, 2000).
3.1家庭教育
家庭教育作为单个的家庭寻求取代学校制度在美国一直蓬勃发展（从1985--1995增长速度超过十倍），家庭教育的最近发展依赖于分散式材料的各种技术、提供评估的技术以及分布式学习社区的建立。随着课程材料的发展，计算机可以承担更多的内容，父母和其他人只是担当促进者的角色。学习小组在家中或是社区中心集合在一起，利用网络化的学习材料为他们的子女提供教育(Hill, 2000; McDowell & Ray, 2000)。

仔细看了一下。。翻译的真的不错。

看得正起劲，就没有了？

这里包含学校改革，学位授予新条件，这就不是技术能解决的了。可以看一看这本书：

Collins, A., & Halverson, R. (2009). Rethinking education in the age of technology: The digital revolution and schooling in America. New York: Teachers College Press.

Collins and Halverson （2009）回顾了美国学校是怎样组织的，象

a, 教学是以学科来组织的 (数学，科学)，然后学校招聘这些学科老师。

b. 典型的学校一天是：分六堂课，每堂课35分钟，课间休息10分钟，一周上课5天。

c. 通过分数决定升留级。最后根据分数获取学位。

这样的组织方式是怎样阻碍学校采纳科技呢？?

a. 课间才有10分钟，老师间根本没有时间沟通。他们也不能在上课时间走过去看看别人是怎么教课的，也没法分享，自由讨论，只能等课间才走动。

b. 现有的学位授予标准与新发明不相容。虽然现有网络科技允许学习者为自己量身制定学习规划(获取资源，随时都可以学习，任意学习自己喜欢的东西)，但没有新的学位授予制度（学历）来与之对应。

source
http://tech-discussion.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=375