Flight of a Butterfly or the Path of a Bullet? (Paperback)  | Released: 06 Mar 2018

In this book, Larry Cuban looks at the uses and effects of digital technologies in K-12 classrooms, exploring if and how technology has transformed teaching and learning. In particular, he examines forty-one classrooms across six districts in Silicon Valley that have devoted special attention and resources to integrating digital technologies into their education practices. Cuban observed all of the classrooms and interviewed each of the teachers in an effort to answer several straightforward, if also elusive, questions: Has technology integration been fully implemented and put into practice in these classrooms, and has this integration and implementation resulted in altered teaching practices? Ultimately, Cuban asks if the use of digital technologies has resulted in transformed teaching and learning in these classrooms. The answers to these questions reflect Cuban's assessment not only of digital technologies and their uses, but of the complex interrelations of policy and practice, and of the many--often unintended--consequences of reforms and initiatives in the education world. Similarly, his answers reflect his subtle understanding of change and continuity in education practice, and of the varying ways in which different actors in the education world--policy makers, school leaders, teachers, and others--understand, and sometimes misinterpret, those changes. The result is a crucial contribution to our knowledge of digital technologies and their place in contemporary education practice from one of our leading scholars of education policy, practice, and reform.About the Author: Larry Cuban is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University. He has taught courses in the methods of teaching social studies; the history of school reform, curriculum, and instruction; and leadership. His background in the field of education before becoming a professor includes fourteen years of teaching high school social studies in big-city schools, directing a teacher education program that prepared returning Peace Corps volunteers to teach in inner-city schools, and serving for seven years as a district superintendent. His most recent books are Teaching History Then and Now: A Story of Stability and Change in Schools (2016); Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice: Change Without Reform in American Education (2013); As Good as It Gets: What School Reform Brought to Austin (2010); Hugging the Middle: How Teachers Teach in an Era of Testing and Accountability (2009); Partners in Literacy (with Sondra Cuban, 2007); Against the Odds: Insights from One District's Small School Reform (coauthor, 2010); and Cutting Through the Hype: The Essential Guide to School Reform (with Jane David, 2010).