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Book Review: English Language Arts: Units for Grades 9–12, Transforming
Schools with Technology: How Smart Use of Digital Tools Helps Achieve Six
Key Education Goals

Article in E-Learning and Digital Media · June 2010

DOI: 10.2304/elea.2010.7.2.188

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E–Learning and Digital Media
Volume 7 Number 2 2010
www.wwwords.co.uk/ELEA

Book Reviews

English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12

CHRISTOPHER SHAMBURG, 2008
Washington, DC: International Society for Technology in Education
253 pages, paperback, ISBN 978 1 56484 240 4, US$44.95

So that’s it. There are officially no more excuses for teachers in English-speaking countries to not be
using digital technologies to enhance their English and/or literary teaching. Christopher
Shamburg’s book – English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 – offers so much excellent practical
advice, friendly insights and wise guidance that readers will not be able to stop themselves from
podcasting, making movies, creating collaborative wikis, fan-fiction writing, and the like with their
students.
The book is divided into three main sections. The first section comprises a set of four ‘Getting
Started’ chapters that orient the reader to the purpose of the book, make explicit links to US
national and professional student performance standards, provide a highly informative overview of
copyright issues and suggested guidelines, and summarize key elements entailed in teaching
language arts efficaciously. The second section of Shamburg’s book comprises 12 English or
language arts curriculum units. Each unit is linked explicitly to student performance standards,
comes replete with suggested online resources and tutorials for learning how to use the digital
technologies mobilized within each respective unit, and then a week-by-week breakdown of
content, skills and knowledge that can be covered within the unit. Each unit includes assessment
rubrics, too, which are linked to the performance standards. The third section of the book
comprises sets of photocopiable handouts and worksheets that Shamburg has developed to be used
within each curriculum unit.
Content-wise, the units cover a wide range of text and media production purposes, including,
for example, creating audio interviews grounded in historical research; writing memoirs and
making use of peer editing to improve and polish the text; creating fan-fiction texts; writing
research papers on self-selected topics of interest; public speaking; performing play segments; and
generating a range of literary analyses that cover everything from madness, to political discourse,
to feminist critiques of social roles, along with sustained and informed personal interpretation (and
using blogs, wikis, and video to do so) – to name just a few. This is a book written by someone
who loves language in all its richness and messiness and power, and wants school students to have
the chance to fall in love with using, tinkering with and playing with language themselves.
As I see it, the main purpose of this book is to enable school students to really and truly think
for themselves. Shamburg reiterates this purpose throughout his book – whether it is in making
space for students to explore a range of popular media interpretations of Shakespeare’s plays and
having students develop their own informed ‘takes’ on certain scenes (see unit 12), or researching
social issues as part of developing a position video to send to a government representative (see unit
8), or having students collaboratively investigate a specific historical period that serves as
illuminating background to a classic text they are reading (see unit 4). For example, in unit 11 (titled
‘iBard: mastering soliloquies through performance and audio editing’), Shamburg explains how
students can
create an audio recording of a soliloquy and then purposefully modify the recording of the voice
with echo, reverberation, changes in pitch, amplification, fades, and a dozen other effects. They
also mix in music and sound effects. Afterwards, they reflect on and discuss their creative
decisions and how these decisions contributed to the overall dramatic effect of the soliloquy.
(p. 144)

188 http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/elea.2010.7.2.188
Book Reviews

In short, the unit focuses on interpretation and meaning making – and on explaining, if not
justifying, one’s production and performance decisions – and clearly emphasizes learning how to
think in informed and confident ways. Similarly, in unit 9 (titled ‘Technology and the Research
Paper’), Shamburg explains how the ‘holistic literary research process’ – where students are guided
in developing their own research questions to explore in detail – helps students to become
independent thinkers who can confidently work with and develop knowledge and understanding in
the process of completing their project. This research process also encourages students to place
texts read in class within their wider social, historical, and political contexts to aid understanding
and to evaluate the ‘trustworthiness’ of sources upon which they draw (p. 114).
The aim of developing students as informed and logical thinkers also underpins his gentle
urging of teachers to think carefully about and be prepared to justify what they include in their
classroom teaching. This extends to the books teachers expect their students to read and
understand, through to the skills and processes students are expected to master. Chapter 4, in
particular, focuses on the importance of really understanding what it means to conduct research,
whether it be library-based research, online research, or field research entailing observations and
interviews. For example, Shamburg opens chapter 4 with a critique of how research processes have
been taught in schools, even before the introduction of the Internet and digital text archives. This
acts as a useful reminder that, all too often, student research in schools has been taught poorly, if at
all, or only narrowly with preparation for higher education studies in mind. Shamburg suggests
approaching student research as a process of idea and position development, and to focus on the
skills, understandings, and processes needed for conducting research in the world outside school
(which includes far more than simply conducting research for academic purposes). He provides a
series of prompt questions for teachers in chapter 4 that are excellent starting points for planning
meaningful student research. These include, for example, asking:
1. What types of research are educationally worthwhile?
a. What makes research meaningful in a high school English class?
b. What types of projects correlate with the way people need to research outside of school, in
professional and everyday experiences?
and
3. How do students develop their ideas by incorporating multiple sources of information [into
their text]?
a. What methods are useful to help students take ownership of ideas and facts?
b. How can we capitalize on a student’s prior knowledge of and interest in a topic? (p. 32)
These kinds of questions help teachers to think really deeply about the learning experiences they
are planning for their students. Shamburg concretizes his suggestions concerning student-centered
research in a number of units in the body of the book. He shows teachers very explicitly how to go
about incorporating meaningful student research practices into a range of learning contexts, so that
the students are not regurgitating textbook content, but truly developing their own informed
stance on issues, are learning how to support claims and interpretations using other, respected
work, and are understanding why even good fiction writing often includes extensive background
research before the writer begins to write. Such attention alone to what students need right now in
school, and what will also be of use to them beyond school in their everyday and work lives, makes
the content of this book worth owning and putting into practice in any classroom.
The purpose underpinning and shaping English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 finds its
roots in Shamburg’s own history as an educator. Shamburg himself was a high school teacher for
many years, and continues to teach high school students enrolled in an online high school in New
Jersey, USA. He is also a teacher educator and very much concerned with finding ways of
facilitating teacher learning and professional development. Shamburg is someone who ‘gets’ high
school students – he understands what makes them tick, what engages them, and what they find
tedious. At the same time, he does not leave students to their own devices, but has found a way to
bring together reasons for engaging students in interpreting and responding to literature and
exploring how language works in the world in ways that will challenge them and require them to
do difficult thinking.

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Book Reviews

Shamburg has tinkered and mucked around with digital media production for many years,
too, and his insider knowledge is put to excellent use in the wealth of tips and hints he provides for
readers. This includes the free and low-cost resources he lists and recommends, and the ways in
which he makes use of affordable digital technologies to support and enhance student learning.
This book stands as clear evidence that Shamburg clearly has spent many years working
assiduously to bring together his insider understandings of how students learn best with his
understandings of how digital technologies are being used by young people to both consume and
produce things that engage them, along with his wide and deep reading of learning and social
theory. And it works. English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 is filled with practical advice and
much needed myth-busting, without being at all preachy or paternalistic, or – even worse –
gushingly utopian. The book opens with a number of important clarifications for educators.
Among these is sound advice about not taking learning theories on board without having thought
them through carefully. For example, Shamburg explains:
The theory of multiple intelligences and interdisciplinary study are extremely valuable if applied
thoughtfully. However, making [Shakespeare’s] Globe Theatre out of Popsicle sticks or creating
a PowerPoint presentation on the Spanish Armada is not the same as giving students a
meaningful appreciation of Shakespeare. Multidisciplinary units and the theory of multiple
intelligences have often been used as a distraction from doing the work of high school English.
(p. 3)
Similarly, Shamburg cautions against a no-holds-barred approach to incorporating digital
technologies into classroom learning: ‘There are limits. Advanced uses of technology do not
translate to advanced skills in English class. Enthusiastically embracing a complex or time-
consuming technology in the English class can be misguided’ (p. 3).
Shamburg draws directly on his own experiences gained from working with students to offer
wise tips and hints about what works well, or what needs to be done. His chapter on copyright
(chapter 3) is full of common-sense advice and a real commitment to ensuring that important
learning opportunities for students (and their teachers) are not excised from the curriculum due to
overconcern with narrowly interpreting what can be done with online resources. He emphasizes
the importance of students becoming ethical users of intellectual property and suggests ways this
can be done by using Creative Commons works and teaching students about different copyright
licenses and what they mean with respect to reusing digital materials in remixes, in illustrating a
point within a larger work, and so on.
Shamburg’s curriculum units are all the more valuable because they are tried and tested. A
primary impetus behind this book was developing a year-long English curriculum for a fully online
high school program in New Jersey.[1] This program has been in place for a number of years now,
and has been met with high levels of student success and wide acclaim for its innovative content
and approach. When Shamburg suggests using (paraphrased) profane comments posted by a
random viewer to a class’s online video account as an opportunity to discuss with students the
immediate and downstream effects of one’s online conduct, you know as a reader that this is
grounded in Shamburg’s own experiences in dealing with the Internet as a public space (p. 104). As
another example, he speaks directly to the problem often encountered by English teachers where
students’ unswerving interpretations or understandings of a story or play are grounded in a movie
version of the text (p. 151). You know that Shamburg has run full force into this issue himself
because the subsequent advice and practical suggestions he offers deal directly with this problem.
His teaching suggestions are tailored very much for real classroom contexts, and key
elements of good teaching and learning are written directly into his language arts units. For
example, when students are asked to condense a lengthy stretch of a play into a shorter text, he
recommends having students work in groups of four to ‘cut the scene to 20-30 lines, then to 10-15
lines’ (p. 155). Recommendations such as this help teachers to scaffold students’ own text
production by breaking tasks into manageable, yet increasingly complex, segments. The units
themselves are organized around building up skills and understandings using a variety of small
tasks and activities to scaffold student learning and text production.
Shamburg’s suggestions regarding digital technologies are grounded clearly in his own
experiences and uses of the same. Each unit comes jam-packed with resources, including where to
go to download free software to use with students (for example, audio-recording and editing

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software like Audacity) and where to go to legally and ethically obtain digital resources and music,
and, in some cases, Shamburg has created sets of resources online specifically for units in this book
that readers are able to download and use when following his step-by-step technical guidelines. The
emphasis within the technical strands of the book really is on using free or low-cost technologies.
This is a book that understands the everyday realities of school budgets – Shamburg even talks
about how he bought a second-hand video recorder to use with students on eBay for around
US$50. He also understands the demands on teachers’ time that even small innovations in
classroom teaching can make. None of the recommended digital applications are overly complex,
or require hours and hours of use to become familiar with. All of the suggested student-learning
tasks are both manageable and doable within the time frame he suggests. Even the most
technologically timid readers will find themselves sitting back and exclaiming, ‘Hey, I could do
that!’ Those more at home with using digital technologies will appreciate the swag of online and
offline resources found by Shamburg and brought together in usefully targeted lists for each unit.
Shamburg makes it very clear that sound theories of learning and language use are important
components of his book. He pokes gentle holes in the ‘English teacher as savior/tyrant/pedant’
narratives presented in so many Hollywood movies and puts in their stead a well-reasoned
exposition of the theories that inform his own work. These theories include critical theory, and an
explicit discussion of the hidden curriculum in schools and how it can undermine some students’
success at school. Shamburg also talks very openly about the ‘hidden curriculum’ to be found in the
units at the heart of this book; one that is very much invested in facilitating student learning in
ways that reach well beyond formal schooling. As Shamburg himself puts it:
The hidden curriculum of these units also places value on participation – in culture, society, and
politics. History and literature are not disconnected or distant experiences and culture is not an
exclusive club. In most of these units, students become active participants in culture, politics, and
society – whether podcasting to the world or appropriating existing stories and creating original
fanfiction from them. It is common to hear about hands-on math and hands-on science in
schools. These units are about hands-on culture – culture that includes Shakespeare and
YouTube. (p. 4)
Shamburg does not bash readers over the head with theory until they submit to thinking a certain
way, and he does not overlard his book with needlessly complex combinations of academically
popular theories, either. He lays out the theories that inform his own work, and offers a brief
explanation of why these theories work for him. This includes Freirean approaches to reading and
writing the word and the world as key components of understanding what it means to be truly
literate. It includes theorizing ‘literacy’ as a ‘social practice’ and understanding that current times
include new ways of looking at literacies, as well as entirely new literacy practices that teachers
need to engage students with in classrooms. It also includes healthy learning theories which can be
traced back to Lev Vygotsky and which call for lots of modeling, demonstration, and scaffolding
that all ring true because Shamburg himself understands learning and what it means to really know
something. His discussion of theory is no throat-clearing exercise as an opening move and nothing
more, either; rather, these informing theories are in evidence throughout his book and usefully
shape content and strategies within each curriculum unit.
Before closing, I do have a disclaimer to make: I am no stranger to Christopher Shamburg’s
work. I have heard him present at conferences, have read his other work, and use his work in my
own teaching as required reading. Chris has written a chapter in the book DIY Media: creating,
sharing and learning with new technologies, which I have co-edited with Colin Lankshear (Peter Lang,
2010). Chris’s chapter in this volume focuses on creating podcasts as a way of having students really
explore meaning while reading Shakespeare’s plays. We invited Chris to contribute to DIY Media
precisely because we knew full well that we would be guaranteed to receive a chapter from him
that was steeped in insider technical and discourse knowledge. Chris very much understands what
teachers need and writes clearly and engagingly for this audience.
I also know from direct experience that Chris’s teaching suggestions work across the school
grades as well, and are not exclusive to grades 9 to 12. For example, a teacher in one of my
graduate classes used Chris’s explanations of how to create podcasts to work with her grade 2
students – and especially with her students learning English – to explore meaning and expression in
reading. Her students – most of them from homes where access to computers was not a common

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thing – oversaw their own interpretations of the narratives they were reading out loud, and
managed their own digital recordings using the teacher’s personal laptop and Audacity, which she
had downloaded and installed by following Chris’s directions in his text. The project was a
significant success with respect to improving students’ confidence in their abilities to make sense of
texts, their willingness to read out loud to others, and so on.
English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 makes an important contribution to the field of new
literacies and to grounding new media theories in usefully pragmatic ways.
Shamburg shows readers, for example, how students can become media produsers (Bruns,
2008) within school settings. According to Axel Bruns, conventional distinctions between
‘producers’ and ‘consumers’ no longer hold within an online, networked economy. Bruns argues
instead for recognizing a new hybrid: the produser. A produser is an ‘active’ and ‘productive’ user
(Bruns, 2008, p. 23) of content created, developed, modified, and shared by a community. That is,
produsers use rather than consume (i.e. ‘use up’) artifacts, knowledge, information, content, and
other resources (p. 14). Similarly, English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 sits very well alongside
the New Media Literacies research initiative [2], spearheaded by Henry Jenkins (see Jenkins et al,
2006). This project has developed a number of teacher strategy guides for developing students’
participation in and engagement with required school curriculum content and the new media
landscape. English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 helps to flesh out ideas explored in the New
Media Literacies initiative by providing teachers with a practical guidebook that resonates strongly
with many of the teaching ideas and learning principles promoted within this initiative.
In short, English Language Arts: units for grades 9-12 is highly recommended reading for all
teachers everywhere, whether it be in primary schools, secondary schools or in schools of
education. It is highly readable, very engaging, and readers will come away bursting with ideas and
a very real sense of how to make these language arts units their own.

Michele Knobel
Montclair State University, USA

Notes
[1] See http://podcourse.blogspot.com
[2] See http://newmedialiteracies.org

References
Bruns, A. (2008) Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond: from production to produsage. New York: Peter Lang.
Jenkins, H., with Purushotma, R., Clinton, K., Weigel, M. & Robison, A. (2006) Confronting the Challenges of
Participatory Culture: media education for the 21st century. Boston: MIT Press/MacArthur Foundation.

Transforming Schools with Technology:

how smart use of digital tools helps achieve six key education goals
ANDREW A. ZUCKER, 2008
Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press
260 pages, hardback, ISBN 978 1 89179 283 0, US$49.95
260 pages, paperback, ISBN 978 1 89179 282 3, US$26.95

In his book Transforming Schools with Technology, Andrew A. Zucker aligns technology with six key
education goals: increasing student achievement; making schools more engaging and relevant;
providing a high-quality education for all students; attracting, preparing, and retaining high-quality
teachers; increasing support for children outside school; and requiring accountability for results.
According to Zucker, these goals ‘enjoy widespread political support and are codified in national
and state laws, such as Goals 2000’ (p. x). These six goals also provide the framework for Zucker’s
book and enable him to address each while supporting a moderate, but carefully planned, approach
to incorporating technology into the tool kit that educators use. Zucker states, very clearly, that the

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thesis of this book is that digital technology has enabled schools to change the way they operate
in significant ways; that technology is an essential component of the transformation of schools
that most people believe is necessary; and, that the impacts of technology will depend partly on
technical factors, but also, importantly, on the choices many people make about how to use
technology. (p. 16)
Zucker provides solid examples of this thesis at work throughout his book. This includes different
ways in which schools can provide students with computers (for example, lab settings, in the
classroom), as well as how a range of technologies can be used to support English-language
learning, address access issues for students who do not have a computer at home, and so on.
Zucker discusses technology as a tool to use to support parents, educators and policy makers. For
example, he describes how digital technologies and networks can be a means to deliver information
in a way that allows decisions to be made quickly based on available data.
Following Zucker’s own format for his book, each of the six key goals identified above is used
below to structure a summary of chapter content.

Increasing Student Achievement

In the age of No Child Left Behind, this goal stands out in the crowd. Unfortunately, the need to
improve students’ test scores all too often drives many of the decisions US educators currently
make. Zucker provides examples of digitally mediated programs developed to specifically address
teaching students how to read and write, along with mathematics and science (for example,
graphing calculators, word processors, probes for scientific investigations). Zucker also provides
strong arguments for online courses and virtual schools to support small schools that cannot
provide the courses that larger schools can, and also to provide access to education outside brick
and mortar schools. Using a tool such as Moodle, which is an online course management software
application, creates a new means of communicating between teachers and students. It can support
holding the students accountable for their progress and learning because the onus is on them to
access the documents and spaces they need, and to ensure they participate actively in this social
space. One of the advantages of Moodle is that it can be used to create spaces for private dialogue
between the educator and students.
The heart of the matter is that, for Zucker, the key to effective learning is engaging students.
If digital tools can be used to reach students and engage them in learning, it is then worthwhile to
consider changing traditional practices regarding content delivery and in-class participation.

Making Schools More Engaging and Relevant

All around us, people are using technology to make reference to things happening in their lives.
They can do this on their laptops, and on smart phones and other hand-held devices. In this
chapter, Zucker discusses whole-school initiatives that provide a laptop for every student, such as
the initiative started in Maine in 2001. Zucker discusses how the programs are used and how the
programs are supported and managed by administrators, teachers, and students. In schools that
have one-to-one computing – that is, where each student has a laptop computer – ‘technology is
pervasive, flexible, and interactive. Access to information is democratized, and some of the
differences between students from wealthy and poor families in accessing information and software
tools are reduced’ (p. 91). I do believe that the educational system has a responsibility to educate
our youth about technology. In schools that support students from lower-income families, students
can be provided with additional technology access and support in using it effectively for school
purposes in order to compete with students who have computers and Internet access at home.
However, I do disagree with Zucker on one point: I do not believe that providing a laptop to every
child is necessarily the best approach because digital tools actually can be a diversion from the task
at hand (for example, multitasking has been shown to facilitate superficial readings of texts). In
addition, my own experiences with students and digital technologies suggest that if students
primarily are concerned about their laptop being damaged or stolen, the added stress may well
reduce its effectiveness as a learning tool.

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This particular chapter also covers tools that facilitate cooperative learning and collaboration.
These include, for example, Moodle, fan-fiction sites, and online book review sites. These tools,
Zucker argues, are critical in educating students to be prepared to join the workforce. For me, this
chapter does a good job of discussing both the advantages and disadvantages of one-to-one
computing and the use of laptops in the classroom. At no point does the reader feel as though the
argument is presented within the context of an impossible-to-achieve technological nirvana. For
example, Zucker discusses at length the ongoing costs of supporting one-to-one computer
programs, and how teachers and administrators need to be aware that one-laptop-per-child
programs are not a one-time cost. Indeed, Zucker rightfully includes within the costs of such
programs the time that teachers need to spend to make changes to curricula in order to include
laptops and other digital technologies. He also includes factors such as the technical limitations of
computer battery-life, hardware failures and the cost to maintain the computers in general in his
discussion of what kind of understandings are needed when making decisions about one-to-one
computing initiatives.

Providing a High-Quality Education for All Students

Zucker argues that using technical tools – such as computers, modems, and even online courses –
will help educators reach a highly diverse student population. The challenges of planning for and
educating ‘millions of students with disabilities; working with students achieving at high, average,
and low levels; helping millions of English language learners; and providing compensatory
education to economically disadvantaged students’ ( p. 99) cannot be met without a tool kit that
includes digital tools. As one example among many offered in this chapter, Zucker recommends
using Thinking Readers, a CD-ROM-based computer program designed specifically for students
with special needs. Zucker explains how this program ‘uses seven comprehension strategies as well
as several prompts and hints to help struggling readers understand a set of literature books
commonly assigned in grades 5th to 8th’ (p. 102).

Attracting, Preparing, and Retaining High-Quality Teachers

This chapter covers technology that aids with recruiting, preparing, and mentoring teachers, all
with the goal of retaining teachers. For Zucker, this includes using technologies like teacher
recruitment websites.[1] The chapter also discusses ways in which digital tools can reduce the
amount of administrative tasks teachers need to complete. Tools that provide online assessments
and grading – such as fully integrated student information systems – ensure that student-related
information is available to all stakeholders: administrators, teachers, parents, and students
themselves. The challenge of changing the habits of the people using the tools is discussed in this
chapter, along with the need to have sufficient time and strong leadership so that the school culture
can adapt readily to changes. Some readers may ask the question: What is wrong with existing
habits, and why do they need to be changed? I believe educators have a responsibility to model
progressive and innovative behavior. By no means do I support initiatives that are created based on
nothing more than the latest ‘trend’ in education. Educators must look at all the tools available to
them and their students, weight them up in informed ways, and continue adding to and modifying
their repertoire as needed to best meet the needs of all their students.
In this chapter, Zucker also discusses professional resource websites and collaboration that
can be mediated by the Internet. Having the freedom to access information and other professional
educators at any time of the day or night has such tremendous value. As a new educator, I cannot
imagine planning lessons and incorporating digital tools into my classes without the support of the
Internet. Ironically, there sometimes is just too much available online to sift and sort through, and
an educator can spend hours finding just the ‘right’ resources that support student learning.
Zucker’s recommendations – like the National Council of Teachers of English website [2],
Illuminations, a mathematics resource [3], and listservs such as Teachers First that email interested
parties once a week with resource materials – help educators like me to home in on useful
resources.

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Increasing Support for Children Outside School

In this chapter, Zucker begins with discussing the challenges educators face now that so many
students are spending extraordinary amounts of time using digital tools and engaging with other
media, such as television, outside school. These activities, according to Zucker, have displaced
reading in students’ everyday lives, and schools must devise programs to ‘help students to learn
appropriate and effective ways to use computers and the Internet’ (p. 139) so that students know
how to manage their time and prioritize school work, along with entertainment pursuits, sports,
and family commitments. Zucker provides insights into digital tools that will support students in
important ways. These include: online tutoring services, homework help sites, and test preparation
resources; career guidance services for students; websites and blogs that aim at informing parents
about their child’s school or schooling in the USA in general; web services that link parents and
schools with other organizations; mentoring networks; and in-person after-school programs that
focus on engaging students with technology and learning. For me, it is critical for parents to know
about these recommendations and valuable online resources as well. Indeed, Zucker’s
recommendations provide students and parents alike with valuable information about online safety
guidelines and how to incorporate digital technology into students’ daily lives in healthy ways.

Requiring Accountability for Results

With high-stakes accountability being a current mantra of the educational field, the need to keep
track of data, interpret these data, and report outcomes at local, state, and national levels is
important. This could be rendered impossible without using a range of digital tools, according to
Zucker. This chapter discusses the challenges that educators have with gathering information
because tracking student data typically is handled on the local level and does not consolidate even
at the state level. The only state-level data gathering at present in the USA comprises standardized
state test scores. In this chapter, Zucker discusses computer-based testing in detail. Computer-based
assessment in schools appears to be a growing trend within US education; Zucker explains how
‘more than 20 states have followed the examples set by Oregon and Virginia and offer some form
of computer-based assessment of student learning’ (p. 157). Zucker also discusses data-driven
decision making, which enables educators to use data effectively to help schools – and students –
meet educational goals. For too long, Zucker argues, educators have made decisions based on what
they know or feel is right; the time has come to use data to drive decisions and inform all levels of
instruction. This will drive the need for educators to become more collaborative versus
maintaining the status quo by keeping their students behind closed doors and simply doing their
own thing. I certainly believe that all educators can benefit from collaborating with one another. In
my own experience, some of the best problem solving occurs in groups, with each person
providing a different point of view or a new suggestion about how to reach a particular student or
group of students. Educators have a responsibility to share their wisdom and expertise with other
educators; that collective wisdom and expertise has far greater value than any new education
initiative.
In the final chapter in this book, Zucker states that ‘if schools are to be transformed, leaders in
education need to understand and support the process of innovation’ (p. 167). Zucker focuses in
particular on the lessons to be learned from innovation that are applicable to schools. For Zucker,
innovation and digital tools go hand in hand. He discusses, for example, the roles of non-profit
organizations in general, and the Concord Consortium (with which Zucker himself is affiliated) and
SRI International in particular. The Concord Consortium is a non-profit education research and
development organization that aims at maximizing the educative benefits of digital technologies.
Zucker describes this consortium as ‘innovative’ because it was a pioneer in promoting the use of
‘probes’ in science education, launched the first online high school in the USA in 1996, and is a
leader in developing open-source science and mathematics education software for schools, among
many other initiatives. The contributions of SRI International’s Center for Technology in Learning
include the use of hand-held devices, such as clickers, to gather responses to classroom teaching
and the use of a range of technologies in assessing student work.
Zucker also discusses lessons on innovation for schools, such as ‘what the leaders in Maine
and Henrico County, Virginia, did when they took a calculated risk and began 1-to-1 computer

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programs’ (p. 182). For Zucker, ‘successful innovation, including innovation using digital tools,
requires vision, teamwork, resources and time’ (p. 182). In short, the crux of Zucker’s argument in
this chapter suggests that educators must always be looking at trends in the larger culture as well as
trends to be found in research in order to connect to their students and, in turn, to be able to best
help make education connect with the real world.
As a technology professional myself, after spending over 20 years in the hospitality industry, I
find it rewarding when I can read an educational text like Transforming Schools with Technology that
takes on the attainment of educational goals in a very practical way. I have seen far too many
technology initiatives fail because the goal of the initiative is technology, rather than some positive
change in education. Many students today have more technology in their smart phones than
educators do in their entire tool kit. Zucker’s book should be read all the way through once and
then the reader should return to the book as a planning resource for many years to come.
Educators have an obligation to bring themselves fully and meaningfully into the digital age so that
they can relate to students, who truly are ‘digital natives’ and know no pre-digital world. Zucker’s
text should – without a doubt – be on the summer reading list of all educators.

Pamela Burke
Verona Board of Education, USA

Notes
[1] Such as http://www.teacher-teacher.net, among others.
[2] http://ncte.org/
[3] http://illuminations.nctm.org/

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