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This review has been accessed times since September 9, 2009

Domine, Vanessa Elaine. (2009). Rethinking Technology in Schools. NY: Peter Lang Pp. 152         ISBN 978-0820488004

Reviewed by Paul A. Asunda
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale

September 9, 2009

Vanessa Elaine Domine, in her book, “Rethinking technology in schools” offers a fervent, refreshing, and insightful argument for promoting the use of new technologies in teaching and learning by all educators. This primer edition consists of five conceptual chapters, Technology redefined, Shifting Perspectives, Pedagogical Stages, Technology Leadership, and Curriculum and Technology Integration. Throughout these chapters, Domine offers a new narrative for technology in schools that seeks to challenge educators to think decisively and carefully about fundamental communication and technological processes that support learning and eventually define education from an instructional perspective. The author offers new conceptions and definitions, (e.g. redefining Technology in chapter 1 to coining new terms like communification in chapter 5) and fresh practical examples that tie technological trends that can affect education practices with technological gadgets that have impact our daily lives.

The first chapter, Technology Redefined, offers a holistic definition of technology that includes media, language, bureaucracy, literacy, and democracy. Language, according to the author, is a medium of shaping and transforming knowledge although, bureaucratic policies hinder and seek to cut funds that support individuals’ abilities to access, analyze, evaluate, produce, and communicate through various media forms in a democracy. Domine further addresses a misconception shared by educators that technology encompasses sophisticated mysterious technological gadgets. She argues that technology should be perceived as a way of thinking about the curriculum. Its use in education can never be neutral because it presents not only a particular view of the world, but also how people learn about the world. The author posits that technology should be viewed as a way of thinking about information, knowledge, and the world at large.

The second chapter, Shifting Perspectives, describes different views of technology from an adult as well as adolescent perspective. Domine argues that in the current information economy, adults and adolescents view the role of technology differently in schools. A focal argument presented in this chapter is the importance of educators identifying students’ perspectives in order to be able to assist these adolescents to develop critical thinking and decision making skills as they transition into adulthood. For the author, the adult perspective includes celebrancy, protectionism, cultural criticism, and educated consumerism. According to Domine, (a) celebrany embodies the belief that positive aspects of technology outweigh any potential negative effects, (b) protectionist perspective is based on the fear that technology can and does exert harmful influences upon users particularly young people, (c) cultural criticism assumes technology and media institutions promote oppressive ideologies through manipulation and representations of race, sex, and class, (d) educated consumerism seeks empowering individuals to become more knowledgeable as a consumer. On the other hand, an adolescent perspective of technology includes casual acceptance, skeptical rejection, savvy consumerism, and responsible citizenship. Domine defines casual acceptance as a perspective that positions technology and commercialism as status quo, (b) skeptical rejection assumes that negative experiences emanating from use of technology fail to support schooling, (c) savvy consumerism privileges consumption of technologies and their media content, (d) responsible citizenship relegates the uses of technology for civic engagement and social responsibility exclusively into the realm of adulthood.

The third chapter, Pedagogical Stages provides an engaging discussion that outlines four stages hierarchically that mirror Abraham Maslow’s pyramid of needs. These stages are geared toward developing pedagogy of teaching with technology in schools. The stages are Content Management, Authoring, Collaboration, and Cultural Transformation. Domine argues that (a) content management follows the traditional cultural transmission model of schooling and is found in the pervasive language of instructional delivery, (b) authoring refers to students and teachers being designers of multimedia programs upon acquiring basic skills of managing media content, and (c) collaboration focuses on students working together to author content, for example, develop blogs, wikis. Domine states that’s students and teachers upon satisfying stages one through three, they become empowered agents of change as they have achieved a level of technological transparency that enables them to concentrate their efforts on transforming the local communities they live in. The last stage discussed is cultural transformation, a complex level of pedagogy that can be achieved only after the first three lower basics have been satisfied. Domine posits that the assumption at this level, is to use technology as leverage to change aspects of social and political institutions that are problematic and sometimes oppressive in our societies, e.g. Teenangels a team of young volunteers worldwide who protect their peers online from criminals who prey on children by using email, chat rooms etc. share safety messages that seek to protect young people through their website.

The fourth chapter, Technology Leadership addresses the issue of technology leadership in schools and calls for a renewed spirit toward integrating curriculum and technology within the complex and often chaotic schooling environment. It calls for a systemic view of technology particularly as to the communication environments that surround the uses of technology in schools. Domine states that there is a key distinction between offering technology leadership and merely administering technology. Leadership empowers individuals to enact a common vision despite of cultural and social differences, while administration works through hierarchy and systems. She posits that the difference lies in the ability of educators to anchor their teaching practices with a larger vision or purpose. If effective leadership does not accompany effective technology administration, the results will mismatch priorities and needs. Domine states that school leaders may want to keep on asking themselves how the evolution of a particular communications technology has changed teaching, learning, and schooling. To this end, she argues that educators need to rethink professional development activities. Teachers not only require technical training but also insight into how specific technologies can be integrated into ongoing curricular activities. She offers three stages of technology professional development that seek to address the question, how a specific technology may influence teacher’s personal, professional, and pedagogical lives? Personal or individualized professional development involves the use of technology for one’s own learning, professional or teacher centered involves use of technology to help make one’s work life easy and pedagogical or learner centered is integration of technology in the classroom to help students learn. In this chapter, the author also discusses the importance of technology planning as well as strategies of implementation. Domine emphasizes that schools should have an evolving technology plan that should be thought of as a living document that flows from an articulated educational vision and should be adaptable to serve identified needs.

The last chapter, Curriculum and Technology Integration looks at how teachers can critically and creatively integrate curriculum goals, pedagogical strategies, as well as technology resources to achieve and maximize the potential benefits of instructional media technologies. Domine argues that the process of aligning goals, strategies, and technologies is a complex challenge. However if all the facets of technology discussed throughout this conceptual piece as detailed by Domine are achieved then, she argues that we have a new form of pedagogy called Communification. Domine states that this pedagogical style is neither concerned with space nor time. She defines communification as the use of various communication media and technologies to achieve communal and unifying experiences among diverse groups especially in the schooling environment. In closing, Domine posits that rethinking technology in schools requires teacher leaders who, seek to understand their students, realize communication characteristics associated with technological devices, locate authentic and communal educational purpose, and understand that acquiring computer skills is not adequate to integrate technology in the classroom.

Teaching with and about technology is a complicated affair that requires an integrated knowledge of content, pedagogy, and technology and how they work together to comprise learning environments. An understanding of these three aspects is key to helping the 21st century educator realize how students learn with and respond to different pedagogical styles that seek to integrate technology as an instructional tool. Domine seeks to tie these three aspects together while offering practical suggestions in this easy to read book that provides the 21st century educator with a new perspective on the impact of new technologies on student learning. The author offers new definitions of technological terms relating them to our daily lives interactions with technological gadgets at the same time illustrating practical classroom examples that give insight into today’s students learning practices as well as adults perceptions of technology.

Rethinking technology in schools is organized in a user friendly manner that provides easy reader access to definitions of terms, along with a glossary at the end of each chapter. The use of graphics and illustrations throughout the text to emphasize key arguments about shifting perspectives of technology, pedagogical stages, systemic technology planning etc. achieves the goal of this book that is geared toward all educators who want to stay above the cutting edge of technological innovations that may have an impact on educational practices.

About the reviewer:

Paul A. Asunda, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the College of Education and Human Services, Department of Workforce Education and Development at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. Paul’s research interests include STEM education and teacher preparation in workforce education, technical literacy, new technologies, and strategies for preparing teachers to integrate and disseminate these technologies in the curriculum.

Copyright is retained by the first or sole author, who grants right of first publication to the Education Review.

Editors: Gene V Glass, Gustavo Fischman, Melissa Cast-Brede

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