How the Computer went to School: Australian Government Policies for Computers in Schools, 1983-2013

Description

Governments everywhere have advocated the use of computers in schools as an essential learning technology. Over the years the view that computers can enhance student learning has gained broad acceptance. When schools promote the use in their classrooms of the latest computing technology now tablets they signal technological sophistication and the academic success which computers, allied with learning, are assumed to bring. The association of computers with success in school, however, is neither a natural nor an inevitable phenomenon. Over more than thirty years, particular governments, individuals and organisations have actively promoted computers as learning technologies. Enormous amounts of money and time have been spent promoting specific kinds of educational computing, and distinct policies by which these might be implemented. One important outcome has been to entrench the view that all school children will benefit equally from access to computers, overlooking inequities associated with differing patterns of use.How the Computer Went to School gives an account of the origins and development of the computer industry in the United States and shows how these influenced educational computing in both that country and Australia. It explores government policy visions which prioritise the economic benefits of educational computing for the nation and asks questions about the proper role of the computer in education and society more generally.

Denise Beale taught English and languages in Victorian schools for many years and has worked as a Research Fellow in the Faculty of Education, Monash University. How the Computer Went to School is based on her PhD thesis, which in 2010 won the Mollie Holman Award for Doctoral Excellence, at Monash University.