As a school we do not have a large population of students with special needs, however we have used assistive technologies in some cases. I think the main goal we should have in this area is to educate our teachers and special education coordinators about assistive technologies. Each student situation is uniques and looking at assitive technologies as a way to help can be critical in creating a productive learning environment.
Our school must address the digital divide in three main areas, access, instructor use and parental support. The main reason students have limited access is economic. Most of our students are upper middle class, but come are low income and those students do not have access to computers at home. In our Junior High we are considering a one to one student lap top program where the school would provide the lap tops and this would definitely address that issue. We also have our library which is equipted with 30 computers available before and after school for student use.
With our teachers we have to continue to provide support and development in the area of technology to ensure all teachers are using technology to improve student learning. We still have some teachers who are very unskilled or unmotivated to use technology and I believe it is my responsibility as an administrator to resolve this issue, through training and accountability.
If we hope to continue to have technology as a major goal of the school and therefore a major budget item, we must continue to educate our parents on the immportance of this goal. This can be accomplished through exposure to technology uses to improve student learning at open houses, posting calendars and grades on line to show the value to parents of technology and constant writen and oral communication on the value of technology for student in college and careers.
The Critical Elements for Creating 21st Century Schools has strengths and weaknesses. Being generalized goals can be helpful to schools who are more interested in a broad based approach to standards. This can allow schools the freedom to develop their own standards or deal with technology integration purely on a departmental level with departmental outcomes.
It's weakness is also that it is general. Many teachers, administrators and parents for that matter are looking for a much more specific set of standard for technology integration. They want accountability and defined criteria. These elements would require more work on the part of the school and the teachers to develop specific goals and outcomes.
In the fractured fairy tales lesson was a combination of the frameworks of the RAT theory. The curriculum was amplified through allowing quick access to peer review. The instruction was also amplified in that teachers would have quick access to student work and student reviews. in some ways the student learning was simply replaced. I think the students would have accomplished the same learning of writing skills and peer review had they completed a paper and pen version of the same assignment. However, one could make an argument that learning was transformed in the way that students would be able to work on keyboarding skills and e mailing skills.
Good theoretical support for the use of technology to increase learning. Specifically, discovery learning is key to integration of technology and according to the research important for learning as well.
Integrating technology in the classroom is a means to achieve educational outcomes. It should allow teachers and students to enhance and enrich learning experiences so that students can grasp material more thoroughly and with deeper understanding. In some cases using technology would be similar to differential instruction in that it reaches some students that may not grasp the material otherwise. In other cases technology integration can be used to excite learners and give them an opportunity to have hands on learning experiences. In this case, more students will become interested in the material and become involved in the learning process themselves.
I hadn't really taken the time to think about how political the issue of access to technology really is. The article gave some good examples of ways corporations have brought access to technology to impoverished areas, but it didn't really answer all of the questions on how to provide funding for access.
There are also so many other issues besides access like internet security, supervision and providing trained educators in areas of poverty.
This article gives great ideas to help determine which technology initiatives are worth pursuing and spending money on.
It can help reassure administrators and boards that certain technology integration ideas have a higher chance of success before having to try and fail when a great deal of time and money is at stake.
The ideas can also help when schools are evaluating why certain initiatives failed or succeeded.
This article provides an excellent argument for support of technology initiatives in the schools. Great for teachers, administrators, parents and drive large strategic goals in a school or district.
The arguments make it hard to deny the importance of technology integration in education.
This article provides excellent examples of higher level technology integration for teachers. This is so crucial when many are still working at acheiving this important goal.
This article challenges teachers to move beyond technolgy knowleges to using technology to support content and pedagogy.
I really support the idea of technology supporting existing curriculum, not just an add on. Definitely recognize the need to offer different levels of training to different teachers depending on readiness.
Finding good inservice trainers is difficult and costly, but worth it if it is effective and supports teachers ideas. Would love to begin inservices by providing examples of effective technology integration to teachers then let the teachers drive the wants and needs to enhance their own specific curriculum.
Excellent article, lots of applications to our own schools goals in the area of Critical Thinking. Some practical software ideas for teachers, would like to present the ideas in this article to a faculty inservice.
One question, "How do we as administrators differentiate teacher development in the area of technology?" Some teachers are ready for this high level integration others are way behind.
It's been a few years since I've taken a class on a college campus, so I'm excited to be back. Technology integration in the classroom is a major goal of our school so I'm hoping to gain some insight into this area to bring back to my teachers.