Making Your Case for
Technology Funding:
Educational technology
effectiveness
As
long as technology has existed in education, it has been studied, evaluated,
and criticized. Parents, legislators, educators, and tax-payers make reasonable
demands when they ask what learning benefits children receive from using
classroom technology.
Your knowledge of recent findings on technology effectiveness will serve you in several ways:
Planning instruction for your students using appropriate technology
Ensuring that your students successfully achieve the state and national technology standards
Communicating to parents the importance of technology in your classroom
Working with administrators to acquire the best technology for your students
Writing successful grants to enhance your students’ technology access
Leading and mentoring so children in other classrooms will have technology-using teachers
Demonstrating the technology knowledge and skills you will need for recertification and National Board Certification
Technology/Information
Literacy Standards
Recognizing the importance of technology for
today’s learners as tomorrow’s workers, the following organizations have
developed guidelines for educators:
U.S. Department of Education/U.S President: Four Pillars of Technology Literacy http://www.ed.gov/Technology/
International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE): National Education Technology Standards for Students
http://cnets.iste.org/
ISTE Recommended Foundations in Technology for All
Teachers
http://www.iste.org/Standards/index.html
American Library Association: The Nine Information
Literacy Standards for Student Learning
http://www.ala.org/aasl/ip_nine.html
Technology
Effectiveness Resources
Use the following Web and print resources on
technology effectiveness to gather information appropriate to your teaching
situation. Consider the questions below as you explore.
Questions to consider:
How is technology beneficial for content
learning?
What skills does technology develop?
What affective benefits do students receive by using technology?
How will technology provide future benefits to students as they leave school?
In general, what improvements or increases are your students likely to experience by using technology?
What educational drawbacks or disadvantages of using technology have been identified? (Not financial, personnel, etc.)
What specific technologies (hardware, software, telecommunications) have been found to be effective?
What specific educational approaches with technology have been found to be effective?
Web Resources:
The Costs and Effectiveness of Educational Technology
http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Plan/RAND/Costs/costs.html
Technology: How Do We Know It Works? http://www.ed.gov/Technology/TechConf/1999/whitepapers/paper5.html
The Debate on Technology’s Effectiveness http://www.ets.org/research/pic/dic/dicone.html
Conclusions About Technology Effectiveness http://www.cosn.org/resources/cradler.html
Findings on Technology in Education http://www.fwl.org/techpolicy/refind.html
Effectiveness of Educational Technology http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR682/ed_ch2.html#RTFToC13
Plugging In: Choosing and Using Educational Technology http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/edtalk/toc.htm
Technology Counts http://www.edweek.org/sreports/tc98/
The Benefits of Educational Technology http://ericir.syr.edu/ithome/digests/edoir9804.html
Using Technology to Improve Student Achievement http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te800.htm
Technology in America’s Schools: Seven
Dimensions for Gauging Progress from Milken (http://www.milkenexchange.org)
The Balanced View: Educational Technology from
NY State Education Dept. (http://ww.nysed.gov/rscs/edtech.html)
Technology and Education Reform Report Executive
Summary from US DOE (http://www.ed.gov/pubs/SER/Technology)
Tech LEARNING, http://www.techlearning.com/intervie.shtml
From Now On research topic, http://fromnowon.org
Technology Assessment Links, http://www.tnellen.com/school/proof.html