With a focus on educational computing, this book examines how technological practices align with or subvert existing forms of dominance. Examines the important question: Is the enormous financial investment school districts are making in computing technology a good idea?

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

"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