Can We Talk? Communication Technologies, Social Informatics, and Systemic Change

Abstract

Asynchronous communication technologies (ACT), such as email, listservs, and online discussions, have been slow to catch on in K-12 classrooms. Not coincidentally, these are potentially the most transformative of all technologies and the ones most difficult to integrate into a traditional classroom. Teacher training, technical support, and access do not really explain this glaring exclusion. The theoretical standpoint of social informatics– or the ecology of technology and social systems– gives us a productive way of understanding technology's impact– or lack thereof – in school settings. More specifically, the individual/organizational, institutional, national, and societal contexts impede or propel technological integration in any given setting. In light of these contexts, one teacher's successful integration practices are examined. While teachers can effect change in their own classrooms, only administrators can truly effect systemic change, ironically working from the grass-roots up, as one district success story illustrates.

Citation

Monroe, B. (2006), "Can We Talk? Communication Technologies, Social Informatics, and Systemic Change", Tettegah, S.Y. and Hunter, R.C. (Ed.) Technology and Education: Issues in Administration, Policy, and Applications in K12 Schools (Advances in Educational Administration, Vol. 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 213-229. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1479-3660(05)08015-7