JTE v1n2 - Tubal Cain and All That
Volume 1, Number 2
Spring 1990
Tubal Cain and All That
Peter Wilkinson(1)
A new journal arrives in the mail and,
I'm sorry to say, gets the same treatment as
most of the others. That is to say, I
quickly skim read for things which might be
useful to me, and then finding nothing, file
it with the others. ("Useful" at 3:30 p.m.
on a Tuesday means something I can incorpo-
rate into my lesson tomorrow which will help
a kid learn better). On this occasion I find
myself more disappointed and irritated with
this state of affairs than usual. Mainly
this is because it reinforces an impression
gathered when I attended my first ITEA Con-
ference in Dallas. At that time I circulated
madly and spoke to everyone I could pin into
a corner, searching for ideas to bring a new
relevancy and value to my own program and
philosophy. Until the third day it was vir-
tually impossible to find a teacher, a front-
line-trenches genuine school teacher. Almost
everyone was a "Teacher Educator" and almost
all of them were advocating a similar philos-
ophy -- get out of "projects" and into "prob-
lem solving" and "technology," as though both
of these were new ideas and had not been
taught before. "High-tech" was the new wave,
with advanced computer hardware and software,
CAD systems and robotics, etc. -- things gen-
erally far beyond the budget in my school. I
heard comments about "turning your paint room
into a clean room" and other strange things.
I found it altogether very disappointing and
somewhat frustrating. Where were the people
like me at this ITEA conference? The answer
came a day later, when real-life teachers ar-
rived (you could tell them by the lack of
blue pinstriped suits and the generally dif-
ferent air about them as they strolled
through the foyer in groups supporting one
another -- I knew the feeling well!).
When I met and talked to these people I
found a very different reality. Many were
still in the old "unit shops," had either an
old Apple or no computers at all, and almost
no budget. In short they were either worse
off or in the same state as me. I asked
about the "new" technology and they all
laughed wryly, bitterly, and sometimes loud
and long. The situation in most areas seems
to be that there are a few schools in major
centers, generally close to universities,
where funds for "high tech" have been made
available. But, they themselves were still
managing with largely the same old equipment
and the same minimal budgets as always, be-
cause there had simply been no injection of
new funds to make changes and purchase new
equipment. However I found that the failure
to change to the newer ideas was invariably
presumed to be the reluctance of teachers to
"get out of the old comfortable rut." Some-
how we have a reality gap, and politicians
are being given a perfect cop-out.
It also seems to me that we have somehow
lost the bridge between academic research,
philosophical theorizing and the actual real-
ities of the practice of teaching. Faculties
of education used to be that bridge. They
took the academic research and theory and
operationalized it; they translated the the-
ory into simple terms. They made it under-
standable and useable for the practitioner.
Today I find the jargon almost unintelligible
even with some 11 years of university educa-
tion. I have no quarrel with jargon and am
fully aware of its value both for a de-
scription and identification, but it seems
that unless one is actively involved with a
university, much of the research literature
is almost totally incomprehensible. For most
teachers the task of keeping totally abreast
of current writing and research is almost im-
possible. Distance and workloads are just
two of the factors involved. Am I right in
thinking that "education" in universities has
now truly become just one of the other "sci-
ences" and so no longer needs a practical end
goal -- research is done for the sake of pure
research? This is obviously a legitimate
philosophy, but someone had better form a new
university department to do what faculties of
education used to do -- bridge that gap.
Thankfully there were also a few speakers at
Dallas, the quartz-halogen highlights of
those few days, who renewed me in my own
search for excellence and spurred me on. I
thank them with all my heart. I wish we
could clone them.
This all came to my mind as I read your
instructions for the submission of articles.
To be frank I have no access to a system us-
ing either IBM, Macintosh or WordPerfect, I
also can't give you anything in ASCII format.
I have an old Apple of 10 year vintage -- and
consider myself fortunate in that respect.
It is in use most of the hours the school is
open. Your writers, I'm afraid, will all
have to be from universities or the richer
(and urban?) school divisions - and what that
will do to the whole cause of technology edu-
cation in North America I leave to your imag-
ination. If change is indeed necessary, and
I believe we really can do better, the change
will come about by field teachers being chal-
lenged and educated and inspired to do bet-
ter. "Teacher educators" will have to do
much more than write obscure journal articles
to produce that inspiration -- however bril-
liant the research or quality of thought.
They have to teach on the same planet as I --
to 32 grade eight students at 9:00 a.m. Mon-
day morning.
I do know why I teach what I teach. I
am fortunate in that we have been in a total
multiple activity environment in Alberta
since the 1960's. The curricular freedom
built into that system has produced many in-
novative programs in this province, each
bearing the individual stamp of the multitude
of personalities and experiences involved. I
have yet to see a better system for allowing
teachers, professionals in their own right,
to teach what they know and to inspire learn-
ing in their students.
In short, I teach children, taking indi-
viduals from where they are into new discov-
eries about themselves and the world. I use
simulations and projects (so often decried in
"scholarly" writings) and I usually find they
work for me if I put enough effort and plan-
ning into them. I do hope that someone
understands this plea - like all rural teach-
ers I spend most of my teaching year without
others in my specialization to "rap" with.
It can get lonely and frustrating and I won-
der what will happen if/when my own store of
innovation dries up.
I am also very afraid that the profes-
sion once again is being "set-up" by politi-
cians. It could be that I am growing too
cynical but this is exactly what happened in
the days of "Sputnik," remember? The reason
given for the west being behind the USSR was
that educators weren't doing what they should
have been and education had to be fixed.
Well now North America is "behind" Japan and
WE are again expected to correct that situ-
ation by changing what WE do -- and without
any extra funding this time you will notice.
The task may well be forever outside of our
control. Beware the revenge if we accept
this precept, climb high on the bandwagon of
"high tech" and yet, in the end, fail to re-
store the forever lost advantage.
Please find room in your journal to
highlight some of the innovative real pro-
grams which are out there. We all have ac-
cess to scholarly papers, and they certainly
do have their crucial part to play, but I
have yet to find a source describing new
practical ideas actually working and the phi-
losophies and personalities behind them. I
want to be able to write and interact with
those leaders in the classroom so that we can
all build upon a shared experience and not
continue to work alone, hunting and pecking
in isolation.
EDITOR'S NOTE: THE JTE DOES IN FACT ACCEPT
MANUSCRIPTS THAT ARE NOT ON FLOPPY DISK (AS
WE DID THIS ONE). SINCE MOST PEOPLE NOW USE
WORD PROCESSORS FOR THEIR WORK, IT MAKES
SENSE TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE "ELECTRONIC"
VERSION OF THE MANUSCRIPT, RATHER THAN REKEY-
ING IT. SO FAR, THIS APPROACH IS WORKING
VERY WELL... AND EXCEPTIONS WILL BE MADE
WHERE NECESSARY.
A NUMBER OF EXCELLENT SOURCES FOR NEW
IDEAS DIRECTED TOWARD SECONDARY LEVEL CLASS-
ROOM TEACHERS ARE LISTED AND DESCRIBED IN
LITOWITZ'S ARTICLE, "WRITING FOR TECHNOLOGY
EDUCATION PUBLICATIONS," PUBLISHED ELSEWHERE
IN THIS ISSUE. THE JTE IS ADMITTEDLY (AND
INTENTIONALLY) DIRECTED MORE TOWARD TECHNOL-
OGY TEACHER EDUCATORS THAN TOWARD SECONDARY
TECHNOLOGY EDUCATORS.
----------------
1 Peter Wilkinson is Instructor, Department of
Industrial Education, Olds Junior/Senior High
School, Alberta, Canada.
Permission is given to copy any
article or graphic provided credit is given and
the copies are not intended for sale.
Journal of Technology Education Volume 1, Number 2 Spring 1990