Technology adoption for use in instruction by secondary technology education teachers
20.01.2012By Joe W. Kotrlik and Donna H. Redmann
We have come a long way from using just desktop PCs in the 1980s to using a wide variety of technology for instructional purposes such as the Internet, the iPod, blogging, laptop computers, podcasting, e-learning platforms (e.g., Moodle, Blackboard), interactive whiteboards with video-capture technology, streaming videos, and using iPod as a digital notebook. We have also moved from a local classroom to a global classroom via distance learning technology.
An example of a school system with a 21st century infrastructure is Saugus Union in California. Saugus Union has remained on the cutting edge of technology (THE 2006 innovators, 2006). Examples of their use of technology in instruction include PDAs and interactive whiteboards, podcast lesson reviews via students’ MP3 players, and broadcasts streamed via the Internet. A key component to their success has been technology specialists who deliver ongoing professional development. Saugus Union’s futuristic philosophy has allowed the district to improve communication and collaboration among students, staff, parents, and the community.
Unfortunately, this is not the norm. Not all school systems are operating with this innovative use of technology even though 99% of full-time teachers had access to computers or the Internet somewhere in their schools by 1999, according to a National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study (Roward, 2000). Then, about the same time as the NCES report, Stanford University Professor Larry Cuban bemoaned the status of technology use in education by writing a book entitled, Oversold and Underused: Computers in the Classroom (2003).
Recently, writing in the Phi Delta Kappan, Allen (2008) discussed one of the issues addressed by a Nation at Risk, namely, that schools were not adequately preparing students to address the country’s needs for highly skilled workers in new and evolving fields. Allen implied that although education has spent large amounts of money on technology for instruction, perhaps education has not kept pace with the use of technology in schools over the last 25 years.
- Links:
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Time to move to competency-based continuing professional development
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Research project to focus on the role of technology in innovative teaching and learning
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