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Welcome to my personal site. The intent of this site is to gather resources and express my own opinions about technology today as well as its implications for education. The infusion of technology into instructional environments allows teachers to engage students in incredibly powerful ways. It has been shown that successful technology use in schools motivates students to achieve, reduces absenteeism, increases parent involvement, improves teacher skills and provides for better management of the school as a whole.
That being said, technology must be infused systemically into the school or district. It must become a part of the culture, vision and goals of all stakeholders. This includes not only the availability of the technology itself, but also must include appropriate support and training.
Technology - rich Schools
Studies examining the success of technology-rich schools have
revealed four key features that appear to represent best practices of
the high technology school of the future. The first feature emphasizes
the role of concentrated, conscious, and explicit planning among school
leaders, families, and students to create "learner centered"
environments. These learner-centered environments focus on how
technology can support students' individual needs and capabilities, not
on the capabilities of the technology itself.
As a corollary to this planning process, the goals and challenging
standards for student achievement are clearly articulated. In successful
technology-rich schools, these measures of student success are not
simply limited to achievement test scores, but also include indicators
of other important school processes, such as student motivation and
engagement, job placement, attendance rates, dropout rates, and level of
family involvement.
A third feature emphasizes the restructuring of the school to support
the learner-centered environment and achievement of standards.
Successful technology-rich schools physically reorganize and redesign
their classrooms and school buildings, rethink their use of time,
reevaluate the manner in which they deliver their curriculum, and build
better partnerships among teachers, administrators, parents, and
students.
For example, within the framework of this learner-centered environment,
a successful technology-rich school may lengthen its class periods to
accommodate an interdisciplinary program, which is enhanced through the
use of technology. Teachers may lecture less and require more
interaction and discussion from students. Properly supported with
technology, many students with disabilities remain in regular classrooms
with their peers, or reduce their need for school-related services.48 In
these and similar ways schools are restructured to become learner
centered.
The fourth and final feature common to successful technology-rich
schools is near universal access to computer technology --at least one
computer for every five students. To accomplish this level of access,
successful schools spend about three times as much on technology-related
costs as do average schools. In some cases, these schools spend more
than five times the average. Additionally, many currently successful
technology-rich schools secure an initial investment of external funding
to defray the startup costs of technology and training.
http://www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/os/technology/plan/national/benefits.html
Below is a very well done video that frames some of our need to transform education and challenge our beliefs of a system that was constructed around an era of industrialization. The world has certainly changed, yet our educational system has been slow to respond in a way that systemically evaluates and adjusts to the needs of our students and preparing them for what lies ahead.
Here is another great video from Pearson.
Sir Ken Robinson - Creatively Speaking.