Professional Development:
Teachers cannot be expected to learn how to use educational technology in their teaching after a one-time workshop. Teachers need in-depth, sustained assistance not only in the use of the technology but in their efforts to integrate technology into the curriculum. Skills training becomes peripheral to alternative forms of ongoing support that addresses a range of issues, including teachers’ changing practices and curricula, new technologies and other new resources, and changing assessment practices. This time spent ensuring that teachers are using technology to enrich their students' learning experiences is an important piece in determining the value of technology to their students. According to Soloway (cited in Archer, 1998), teachers always have been the key to determining the impact of innovations and this situation also is true of technology.
Besides pedagogical support to help students use technology to reach learning goals, teachers also need time to become familiar with available products, software, and online resources. They also need time to discuss technology use with other teachers. Professional collaboration includes communicating with educators in similar situations and others who have experience with technology (Panel on Educational Technology, 1997). This activity can be done in face-to-face meetings or by using technology such as e-mail or videoconferencing. The effects of introducing technology on teacher professionalisation include increased collaboration among teachers within a school and increased interaction with external collaborators and resources.
Structural Changes in the School Day: It is important to build time into the daily schedule allowing teachers time to collaborate and to work with their students. Engaged learning through technology is best supported by changes in the structure of the school day, including longer class periods and more allowance for team teaching and interdisciplinary work. For example, when students are working on long-term research projects for which they are making use of online resources (such as artwork, scientific data sets, or historical documents), they may need more than a daily 30- or 40-minute period to find, explore, and synthesise these materials for their research. As schools continue to acquire more technology for student use and as teachers are able to find more ways to incorporate technology into their instruction, the problem will no longer be not enough computers but not enough time (Becker, 1994).
Technical Infrastructure and Support. Increased use of technology in the school requires a robust technical infrastructure and adequate technical support. If teachers are working with a technology infrastructure that realistically cannot support the work they are trying to do, they will become frustrated. School districts have a responsibility to create not only nominal access to computers and electronic networks but access that is robust enough to support the kinds of use that can make a real difference in the classroom. (For specific information on creating an infrastructure that supports technology, refer to Building the 21st Century School, K-12 Networking Infrastructure Guide Recommendations, and Technology Models for Accessing the Information Superhighway.) Teachers also must have access to on-site technical support personnel who are responsible for troubleshooting and assistance after the technology and lessons are in place.
Evaluation: Ongoing evaluation of technology applications and student achievement, based on the overall educational goals that were decided on, helps to ensure that the technology is appropriate, adaptable, and useful. Such evaluation also facilitates change if learning goals are not being met. Administrators can acknowledge and recognise incremental improvements in student outcomes as well as changes in teachers’ curricula and practices. Gradual progress, rather than sudden transformation, is more likely to result in long-term change.
Baker (1999) emphasises that besides being a means to collect, interpret, and document findings, evaluation is a planning tool that should be considered at the beginning of any technology innovation. She adds that the overall focus of evaluation is student learning. Heinecke, Blasi, Milman, and Washington (1999) note that multiple quantitative and qualitative evaluation measures may be necessary to document student learning outcomes. To ensure that evaluation procedures are adequately designed and carried out, administrators and teachers may wish to consult evaluation sources such as An Educator's Guide to Evaluating the Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms.
All of these issues are important in using technology to improve student achievement. Educational technology is not, and never will be, transformative on its own. But when decisions are made strategically with these factors in mind, technology can play a critical role in creating new circumstances and opportunities for learning that can be rich and exciting. "At its best, technology can facilitate deep exploration and integration of information, high-level thinking, and profound engagement by allowing students to design, explore, experiment, access information, and model complex phenomena," note Goldman, Cole, and Syer (1999). These new circumstances and opportunities--not the technology on its own--can have a direct and meaningful impact on student achievement.
Goals: Before discussing technology, the school or district develops a clear set of goals, expectations, and criteria for improvements in student learning. This information is well-disseminated and understood throughout the district. Teachers, students, administrators, and parents have a shared understanding of what skills and abilities are important and how they are being measured.
Parents and representatives of the community are actively involved with the school and district in setting and revising goals and developing a vision for student learning through technology.
Stakeholders recognise that technology by itself will not transform student achievement. The technology must be used to support the school or district's learning goals.
Technology is integrated into all aspects of teaching and learning, and it addresses the learning of critical content. The school or district technology plan reflects this goal. The school establishes a realistic time frame for improving student achievement through technology. All stakeholders recognise that new skills, new technologies, new curricula, and new practices all take time to become effective parts of teachers’ and students’ daily routines.
Teachers, administrators, and library/media personnel receive ongoing professional development on using various types of technology and developing meaningful instructional strategies supported by technology.
A robust infrastructure with connections and equitable access supports the impact on student learning. Adequate technical support is available. The structure of the school day and class scheduling are adjusted to support engaged learning with technology.
Alternative assessment methods (such as portfolio assessment, peer assessment, and performance assessment) are used to complement standardised test information in order to determine the different skills and knowledge that students have obtained.
Evaluation plans are in place to ensure that technology is being used for authentic tasks, generates continued improvement in student achievement, and is cost-effective.
Action Options:: Administrators, the technology planning team, and teachers can take the following steps to improve student achievement through technology.
Administrators and the Planning Team (comprising teacher representatives, Technology Co-ordinator, students, parents, and interested community members):
Review a range of national and state educational standards for student learning (such as those listed in Developing Educational Standards). Seek out content standards that articulate the goals for students to achieve.
Determine key aspects of national and state student learning standards for the school to focus on as educational goals. Involve teachers in this process to ensure that their expertise and opinions are considered.
Charge cross-disciplinary groups of teachers and Technology Co-ordinators with finding new ways that technology can help students to achieve those learning goals.
Collaborate to create a technology plan for the school. Set one-, three-, and five-year goals for improving student learning through technology.
Identify specific curricula, practices, skills, attitudes, and policies that can be enhanced through the use of technology to foster significant improvement in the character and quality of student learning. (For example, if the school is interested in improving students’ writing performance, word processing with an emphasis on revision and editing should become a salient part of the curriculum across disciplines.)
Identify classrooms in the school where students are already producing exemplary work using technology; or visit virtual classrooms by viewing CD-ROMs, videotapes of technology use in other schools or Internet sites relating to technology integration in content areas. Build a database or other resource that allows the school to share these best practices with school staff and the community in general.
Be aware of state technology plans, district technology plans, and related policies. Ensure that the school is in compliance.
Become familiar with factors that affect the effective use of technology for teaching and learning. Learn about research studies conducted in real school settings that describe how technology use is influenced by teachers' experience with technology, adequacy of release time, professional development opportunities, and length of class periods.
Ensure that teachers are aware of the value of technology for all students, especially those considered at risk of educational failure.
Ensure that all students have equitable access to effective uses of technology. Develop strategies for addressing access inequities, strategies for addressing type-of-use inequities, and strategies for addressing curriculum inequities.
Provide ongoing, extensive, and research-based professional development opportunities and technical support to help teachers use technology to develop meaningful instructional strategies for students.
Provide incentives, structures, and time for teachers to participate in highly effective staff development (such as study groups and action research) to help them integrate technology into their teaching and learning.
Find ways to make appropriate structural changes in the school day and class scheduling to support engaged learning with technology. Consider block scheduling as a possibility.
Educate parents about new assessment methods that enable teachers and administrators to make judgments about the effectiveness of technology in supporting student learning.
Use appropriate evaluation procedures and tools to determine the impact of technology use on student achievement based on the learning goals that were set. Consult evaluation sources such as An Educator's Guide to Evaluating the Use of Technology in Schools and Classrooms. Share findings with the community.
Teachers determine the purpose of using technology in the classroom, as determined by the specified educational goals. Is it used to support inquiry, enhance communication, extend access to resources, guide students to analyze and visualize data, enable product development, or encourage expression of ideas? After the purpose is determined, select the appropriate technology and develop the curricula. Create a plan for evaluating students' work and assessing the impact of the technology.
Co-ordinate technology implementation efforts with core learning goals, such as improving students’ writing skills, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning, and problem-solving skills.
Collaborate with colleagues to design curricula that involve students in meaningful learning activities in which technology is used for research, data analysis, synthesis, and communication.
Promote the use of learning circles, which offer opportunities for students to exchange ideas with other students, teachers, and professionals across the world.
Encourage students to broaden their horizons with technology by means of global connections, electronic visualization, electronic field trips, and online research and publishing.
Ensure that students have equitable access to various technologies (such as presentation software, video production, Web page production, word processing, modeling software, and desktop publishing software) to produce projects that demonstrate what they have learned in particular areas of the curriculum.
Encourage students to collaborate on projects and to use peer assessment to critique each other's work.
In addition to standardized tests, use alternative assessment strategies that are based on students' performance of authentic tasks. One strategy is to help students develop electronic portfolios of their work to be used for assessment purposes.
Ensure that technology-rich student products can be evaluated directly in relation to the goals for student outcomes, rather than according to students’ level of skill with the technology.
Create opportunities for students to share their work publicly through performances, public service, open houses, science fairs, and videos. Use these occasions to inform parents and community members of the kinds of learning outcomes the school is providing for students.
Learn how various technologies are used today in the world of work, and help students see the value of technology applications.
Participate in professional development activities to gain experience with various types of educational technology and learn how to integrate this technology into the curriculum.
Use technology (such as an e-mail list) to connect with other teachers outside the school or district and compare successful strategies for teaching with technology.
Administrators sometimes fail to budget enough funds for hardware, software, maintenance, professional development, on-site technical support, and the services of an educational technologist to provide support for integrating technology into the curriculum. Careful planning is essential to develop a technology budget that provides for all such factors.
When new technologies are adopted, learning how to use the technology may take precedence over learning through the technology. "The technology learning curve tends to eclipse content learning temporarily; both kids and teachers seem to orient to technology until they become comfortable," note Goldman, Cole, and Syer (1999). Effective content integration takes time, and new technologies may have glitches. As a result, "teachers' first technology projects generate excitement but often little content learning. Often it takes a few years until teachers can use technology effectively in core subject areas" (Goldman, Cole, & Syer, 1999).
Educators may find impediments to evaluating the impact of technology. Such impediments include lack of measures to assess higher-order thinking skills, difficulty in separating technology from the entire instructional process, and the outdating of technologies used by the school. To address these impediments, educators may need to develop new strategies for student assessment, ensure that all aspects of the instructional process--including technology, instructional design, content, teaching strategies, and classroom environment--are conducive to student learning, and conduct ongoing evaluation studies to determine the effectiveness of learning with technology (Kosakowski, 1998).
There may be expectations that technology will solve all the school's problems with student learning and achievement. To be effective, however, technology must be used to promote new learning goals and teaching strategies that are student-centred, collaborative, engaging, authentic, self-directed, and based on development of higher-order thinking skills.
Different Points of View Some educators make extensive use of integrated learning systems as a means to improve student learning. Keeping an emphasis on teacher-directed instruction, they view integrated learning systems as helpful for teaching isolated skills and for individualising learning. They also value the built-in assessment measures that demonstrate student progress on tasks performed over time and the research base backing such learning systems. They may consider other technologies to be expensive toys for students.
Some educators and parents remain skeptical about the need for technology in schools. They may argue that for centuries, students have been effectively educated without the use of electronic tools.
Some educators and parents question the focus on technology at the expense of other student needs. They see funds being reallocated to buy new technologies when students are in need of materials for reading instruction; they see arts and other noncurricular areas receiving fewer resources because of the expense of technology. Finally, some educators view technology as important to schooling but only as something to be learned as a discrete skill. Emphasising the use of technology as a job skill, they focus on teaching students how to use various types of software or programs that are likely to be encountered in business or technical work environments. This approach to technology use focuses on acquisition of practical skills rather than the skills of critical thinking, interpretation, and synthesis.