On disruption and integration: two views of digital media technologies in K-12 schools

In this review essay, Earl Aguilera compares two recent contributions to the growing body of literature on technology in education, Christo Sims' Disruptive Fixation and Antero Garcia's Good Reception, to examine the conceptual and practical contributions of each text, along with points of divergence through which readers might glean additional insights. Sims and Garcia both address efforts rooted in a growing area of work around integrating digital media technologies into K-12 schools, but present contrasting perspectives and differing notions of technological disruption and integration. While Sims' ethnographic work on the "school for digital kids" is rich in conceptual tools that help readers understand what he calls cycles of disruptive fixation that have occurred throughout the history of public education in the United States, Garcia's embedded perspectives as high school teacher provide practical guidance for integrating new media technologies with responsive and critical pedagogical practices. Taken together, these texts highlight both the promises and the pitfalls of integrating new media technologies into existing models and contexts of education often labeled as outmoded for life and work in the 21st century.