Module 7: Technology and education

In this section:

Teacher Training
Curriculum Integration
Adaptive Technologies For Persons With Disabilities

Teacher Training

As a tidal wave of students rushes into America's schools, the necessity of preparing teachers to meet the diverse needs becomes ever more apparent. The new generation of students is not only more culturally diverse than previously, but requires sophisticated skills and knowledge if they are to succeed in the next century. The complexity of meeting this challenge requires new methods of professional development for teachers.

Let's examine two ways that technology comes to play in this role of teachers--how technology can facilitate teachers learning their art, and how teachers can be instilled with the ideas needed to incorporate technology into their classroom teacher.

First, technology can help during a teacher education program by promoting interactivity between teachers and a variety of human and informational resources. Student teaching can be facilitated by connecting student teachers with supervisors, mentor teachers, and subject specialists. A recent description of a project using email to connect student teachers with supervisors is Email Communication and Clinical Supervision.

There are also great resources for specific needs. For example, a California teacher may want to obtain credentialing information from the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing. Other useful school information is available at sites like US Department of Education, Calif. Department of Education, and a site that has the entire education code for California, California Law. Other sites are dedicated to connecting teachers for mutual assistance, like Teachers Helping Teachers or Well Connected Educator.

Second, if we expect teachers to infuse technology into their classrooms, they need to be exposed to master teachers using technology, see concrete examples of viable methods for infusing technology into their classrooms, and be guided in their practice. On the Internet, a variety of curriculum and lesson plans that meet their local classroom needs exist, such as SCORE, Collaborative projects or NASA Interactive Projects.

Other technology integration ideas exist within web sites of professional organizations, such as National Council of Teachers of English, National Council for the Social Studies, National Science Teachers Association, ESL Teacher Connection or American Psychological Association.

Why is technology integration important? Some say it's because the students of today will need a variety of technological skills in the future, and therefore it's a school's obligation to train them in these skills. Although there is merit in this statement, there's a more fundamental need. Bringing technology into the classroom allows students to reach beyond the four walls via telecommunications; to learn to manipulate text and numbers and build knowledge through analysis and synthesis of information; to be given the power to create with new worlds and experiences! But how, when, and where should this information be taught to students? In a computer class?

Curriculum Integration

Researchers have repeatedly found that when material is learned in context, and with real-world relevancy, there is a higher likelihood that the material will be transfered beyond the classroom walls than material that is learned out of context or through rote memorization. Does this also apply to the use of technology? You bet! Teachers who find ways to integrate technologies in their curriculum not only find ways to expand what their students accomplish, but also model how technologies can be used to accentuate their livelyhood.

There are many approaches to curriculum integration. Connecting classes via the Internet on common projects crossing subject lines is becoming common practice (see WWW schools registry or Classroom Connect), ranging from individual students retrieving data from Internet sources to more elaborate forms of interaction like chats with experts or MOO experiences. Virtual field trips can be used to supplement many subject areas like DEN Interactive Projects and Field Trips and Turner Learning projects. Key pals are rapidly replacing pen pals in writing assignments, as with Global schoolmate. Besides Internet-based projects, there are many computer applications and programs that lend themselves to cross-curricular projects. Students can collect data and manipulate them in a database to meet the goals of various subjects. CD ROM programs like Encarta provide students with vast arrays of data to explore. Simulations like Sim City and games like Carmen Sandiego can involve students in productive experiences relative to various course assignments.

There are also many programs that incorporate curriculum integration and are not dependent on technology but often include technological components. Service learning is popular; having students design and coordinate projects of real value to the local community. Such projects are planned so that the curricular requirements of several subjects are addressed in the project. In other words, service learning projects are not seen as "add-on" subjects, but rather as a means of achieving existing curricular goals more effectively.

An example

To help make the idea of technology integration more concrete, let's look at an example. For our subject domain, we've decided on environment education projects. The National Consortium for Environmental Education and Training offers a description of some Key Principles of Environmental Education as it is practiced in the United States:

1. Environmental Education (EE) includes a human component in the exploration of environmental problems and solutions. Environmental solutions are not only scientific--they include historical, political, economic, cultural, and many other perspectives. This also implies that the environment includes not only pine trees and coyotes but also buildings, highways, and ocean tankers.

2. EE rests on a foundation of knowledge about social and ecological systems. Knowledge lays the groundwork for analyzing environmental problems, resolving conflicts, and preventing new problems from arising.

3. EE includes the affective domain: the attitudes, values, and commitments necessary to build a sustainable society. The role for educators in addressing the affective domain is not always easy, but it should include clarifying that differing personal values exist, that these values make it difficult to derive the facts, and that controversy is often motivated by differing value systems.

4. EE includes opportunities to build skills that enhance learner's problem-solving abilities. These skills may include:

Does this topic stretch across subject domains? Of course. Would there be ways to infuse technology into teaching this subject? Lots. In the following section (Apply), you will be provided with a number of web sites that illustrate how environmental education can be used as a focus for curriculum integration. But before we leave the Connect section, let's explore one final related topic.

Adaptive Technologies For Persons With Disabilities

As pointed out in Session One, the application of educational technology in schools can be viewed from a positive or negative point of view. The development of adaptive technologies for persons with disabilities is less controversial. Technology has increasingly offered disabled persons freedom of movement and access to educational and vocational opportunities.

As an educational leader, it is important to be aware of technologies that have application to school employees, parents, and students with disabilities. In the Apply section, we provide links to many of the places you can learn about this topic. And if this topic interests you, you may want to incorporate it into your Apply activity.

 

Page authors: David Georgi and Donn Ritchie
URL: http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/EDTEC596R/session7.connect.html
Last updated: February 13, 1998