Case Study:

The Role of Time, Space and Culture in School Computer Deployment Initiatives

Bram Moreinis
Past Coordinator, Living Schoolbook Project, Downstate Group
Institute for Learning Technologies [www.ilt.columbia.edu]
Teachers College, Columbia University

Special thanks to Gil Israeli for his editing support and anthropological references.
[TOC]

Abstract

In the New York State-funded Living Schoolbook Project (LSB), two schools of education from very different and distant communities partnered with NYNEX, a Regional Bell Operating Company, to bring high-end technologies to schools and explore potentials for development of classroom projects within existing curricula. The project is in its third year; the author served as project coordinator for the first two years. A fuller description of the project is available on the Web at .

Although LSB was initially framed as an open-ended exploration of high-end technological applications, a degree of restructuring of school environments was required to accommodate the pilot projects. These organizational and infrastructural changes were unique to each school, and were reinforced and constrained by existing cultures of time and space use, communication patterns and conventions, and school community values. Reflecting on the merits of a more anthropological approach to technology deployment, this paper examines the experiences of the Downstate project group, directed by the Institute for Learning Technologies (ILT) of Teachers College, Columbia University, through an analysis of two case studies of project activity in New York City schools.

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Table of Contents

I. Framework

1. Introduction Page 2

2. An Anthropological Approach Page 3

3. General Context: "The Medium is the Message" Page 5

II. Case Summaries & Analysis

1. The Ralph Bunche School Page 6

2. The School for the Physical City Page 7

III. Analysis

1. RBS Implications Page 9

2. Classroom Clusters and the End of Lab-Centrism Page 30

3. SPC Implications Page 11

4. SPC Cultural Evolution on the BBS Page 13

IV. General Conclusions Page 16

V. Appendix: Websites Page 17

=>Proceed to Framework