"This book provides a powerful set of metaphors and linkages for thinking about technology in relation to education. It urges us to move beyond questions of instructional efficiency or the wonders of new technologies to consider the sociopolitical origins and implications of computing practices." — Bertram Bruce, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign

"A highly original collection of essays on computers in schools and educational settings, this book causes us to question the contemporary verities about computers and schools. The essays definitely bring perspectives not usually seen in discussions of computers in education. A refreshing critical perspective on a topic that receives little criticism." — Philip Altbach, Boston College

List of Figures


Introduction: Data-Driven Democracy?
Social Assessment of Educational Computing
Hank Bromley


I. Discursive Practices: Who Speaks of Computing, and How?


1. The Mythic Machine: Gendered Irrationalities and Computer Culture
Zoë Sofia


2. The Everyday Aesthetics of Computer Education
Anthony P. Scott


3 Telling Tales Out of School: Modernist, Critical, and Postmodern "True Stories" About Educational Computing
Mary Bryson and Suzanne de Castell


4. Computer Advertising and the Construction of Gender
Matthew Weinstein


II. Classroom Practices: Pedagogy and Power in Action


5. "I Like Computers, but Many Girls Don't": Gender and the Sociocultural Context of Computing
Brad R. Huber and Janet Ward Schofield


6. "You Don't Have To Be A Teacher To Teach This Unit": Teaching, Technology, and Control in the Classroom
Michael W. Apple and Susan Jungck


III. Democratic Possibilities: When Does Technology Empower?


7. Control and Power in Educational Computing
Peter H. Kahn, Jr. and Batya Friedman


8. Using Computers to Connect Across Cultural Divides
Brigid A. Starkey


9. Learning to Exercise Power: Computers and Community Development
Antonia Stone


Notes


References


List of Contributors


Author Index


Subject Index