"Boards of education need to recognize that technology integration is as much about change as it is about technology. How board members feel about change and their attitudes about people’s ability to change or not change are crucial." (NSBA's, Leadership and Technology). This section will identify reasons for the integration of technology.

What is Technology?

A broader definition of technology is used to mean a tool or instrument which helps us to organize and accomplish specific tasks and goals. Old technologies in school include: learning spaces, learning schedules, learning frameworks (subject areas), learning assessments.

For technology to serve the purposes of change, it must be tied to a coherent, school-wide instructional agenda. Barbara Means, Kerry Olson, Ram Singh (article in Kappan, September 1995; SRI Report for OERI, April 1993)

Why Integrate Technology in Our Schools?

For education professionals computer networking creates a professional bond between teachers and administrators, ends isolation.

For students a new system of knowledge will enhance collaborative learning; alternative assessment; and individualized learning.

Does research verify the need for technology and systemic change?

Case study findings identify the need for:

• A shared schoolwide instructional vision.
• Consensus around instructional goals.
• A shared philosophy concerning the kinds of activities that would support those goals.
• A planned and support snowball effect that endorses the early adopters and gives them incentives to spread the word such as computers for their personal use and compensation and recognition for designing beneficial instructional uses of technology.
• The distribution of equipment throughout regular classrooms:
• • Only effective if there is a critical mass of machines in each room (6-8)
  • Mobile lab
  • Incremental roll-out (adequately equip first some rooms, then others)
  • School-within-a-school
• Time for teachers to become acquainted with the technology so that they can become comfortable and proficient with continued use.

"We recommend that schools interested in technology begin by thinking about education reform - articulating their activities around the needs of students and a set of instructional principles. From there, careful consideration can be given to the contribution that technology can make." (page 72)

The above-referenced quotes are from article in Kappan, September 1995)

"Teachers who are familiar and comfortable with technology tools are stimulated to think about challenging tasks that mimic authentic uses of the technologies in nonschool settings. Such tasks transcend the boundaries of specific academic disciplines, class periods, or even school years. The complexity of the activity invites working in heterogeneous collaborative groups and defies attempts to measure that has been learned through traditional multiple-choice tests." (SRI Report, pages 2-3)

"The successful transformation of student learning and accomplishment in the next decade requires effectively bringing together three agendas - an emerging consensus about learning and teaching, well-integrated uses of technology, and restructuring." Howard Mehlinger, "School Reform in the Information Age" (Kappan, February 1996)

"Good technology planning does not stop with the submission of the first plan, many participants agreed. Planning should be an ongoing process that involves evaluating current technology programs, keeping abreast of new applications, assessing new needs, and modifying plans accordingly."

How can we assess implementations in technology?

• Student demonstrations
• Portfolio assessment
• Student products
• Digital portfolios

How can we promote change?

In a Department of Education educational forum of 1995, 400 educators, parents, interested community members, and business leaders, established the following roles of technology in promoting change.

• Access to New Sources of Information
• Information Transfers
• Professional Development
• New Learning Experiences

Promotion plays an important role, but technology alone will not result in the kind and degree of change necessary. Keep in mind that it helps to:

• Access new sources of information.
• Provide information transfers (supports new ways for teachers and their students to present and disseminate their research and analyses as well as their creative products.)
• Encourage teacher networking and collaboration, professional development through networking.
• Demonstrate new learning experiences (students as producers and creators of multimedia, not just passive recipients.)

In the educational forum, the following elements of success were also identified:

• A well articulated vision of change with a primary focus on engaged learning and empowered teaching.
• Attention to professional development and user support.
• Active participation in the change process by all stakeholders including learners, teachers, parents, administrators and others from the community.
• Technology plans that are open and growable.
• Funding plans that clearly establish costs/benefits and are both reasonable and sustainable.
• A plan that addresses:
  • Network - How the information gets there
  • Hardware - What equipment you need to manipulate this information
  • Software - The programs and configurations to use this
  • System Admin - The people/training to support the equipment
  • User Support - The people training to solve the task at hand using the technology. This includes: training, on-site training, tutorials, help-desk support
  • Content - The content specific information that is the specific reason to use the technology
  • Organization change - The organizational support and changes to utilize the technology well.

Systemic change seems overwhelming. How can we possibly keep track of all of this?

Information and communication technologies can help. According to the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory, "Part of the problem [with prior change efforts] is that we have not used information and technology to support policy development as an integrated part of a systems approach to solve the complex issues facing both society and our education system."

Barbara Means and Kerry Olson "Supporting School Reform with Educational Technology" SRI International April 1993 outlines a student-centered approach to systemic change which emphasizes the role that technology plays as a crucial tool to making such change possible.

Take a look at the following resources to get more answers to this question:

Richard E. Clark, "Reconsidering Research on Learning from Media" http://www.educom.edu/program/nlii/articles/clark.html

Expert Learning Communities research Program at Brigham Young University Technology and change in Education

http://cougarnet.byu.edu/acd!/ed/elc/

In this section:

In the Toolkit: