Author(s)

P. Ramsden

Abstract

On its own, a new piece of technology is not enough to change anything very much. Things change, in any field, not through technology alone but through the way people use it. How people use it depends in turn on how they think about it. In the early history of many technological innovations that went on to shape modern life profoundly there was a period in which the innovation was seen, and therefore used, mainly as a new way of doing old things. The revolutionary potential of new technology lies, however, in our finding new things to do with it. The impact upon educational practice of powerful software like Mathematica has been less profound than optimists hoped or pessimists feared. In many classrooms, I argue, it may be used as an adjunct to a curriculum and pedagogy unaltere

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