Home PublicationsL&LIssuesVolume 27 (1999-2000) May (No. 8)

The RAC Model^™ helps educators integrate technology, curriculum standards, and higher-order thinking skills.

In 1995, Caroline County (Maryland) Public School System administrators brought together a group of educators to develop a framework for effectively integrating technology with critical-thinking skills to meet required curricular standards. Like many other educators, I and the other group members were well aware of the Internet’s potential as a valuable technological resource for providing our students with information, multimedia resources, and communication links. We also realized the importance of finding appropriate ways to tap the potential of the Internet while supporting teachers in learning how to use it in the classroom despite the usual lack of time for extensive training.

We started by training a small group of teachers in the use of an instructional framework for planning that:

• allowed for efficient and effective use of available computer technology resources,
• was easily incorporated into the performance-based classroom with assessment opportunities, and
• focused teacher planning efforts on addressing required state and/or local curricular standards.

This framework became known as The RAC Model™ (Research, Analysis, and Communication)—our answer to addressing the need for integrating technology into our curriculum.

What Is It?

The RAC Model™ is an instructional framework that integrates technology with curriculum standards through specific research, analysis, and communication skills to teach students and assess their understanding of the required curriculum. It is designed to be used across subjects and grade levels. The model has evolved into a practical, online resource supported by an Internet-based authoring environment that affords teachers the opportunity to create, edit, and revise RAC Lessons™ in a searchable database.

Lessons created using this model may include teacher-developed activities called Internet Learning Activities (ILAs) with links to related Web sites for student research. Students and teachers can search the database of ILAs.

Why Use It?

Teachers using a RAC Lesson™ to integrate the Internet or other technology into the existing curriculum find that it:

• provides for more student-centered learning,
• engages students in critical thinking,
• allows for cross-curricular integration,
• easily incorporates into the performance-based classroom,
• requires students to apply essential skills in the context of meaningful learning experiences, and
• provides opportunities to assess and evaluate student work.

Research, analysis, and communication are skills we all use on a daily basis, whether making a mundane decision (e.g., what to wear in the morning) or completing a more complex task (e.g., planning a summer vacation). Our work and personal lives continually require us to use these essential skills. Our students rely on the need to research, analyze, and communicate as part of their daily school experiences.

A close examination of any national, state, and local curricular standards would reveal the importance of these skills. Students engaged in learning experiences to meet the standards of the required curriculum rely on the application of research, analysis, and communication skills. The nature of using the Internet and other software resources also requires going through the RAC process of researching, analyzing, and communicating information. So the connection between the RAC process and what students need to do as part of their schooling is strong one; this is fundamental to the model.

This process is not new to education. Many of us can easily recall having had to complete a research project or paper in our own schooling. However, what is unique to the RAC Model™ is the authentic nature of the products and performances we now expect of our students. Strong connections among each of the three phases of the lesson are also critical. (The connections are explained later.)

Teacher-developed RAC Lessons™ maintain a consistent thread from one phase of the model to the next. The results of the research phase provide the basis for the analysis where students think about and act on the information gathered during research. Final student products and performances communicate the results of the student’s analysis of the information gathered during research.

Educators in any system can use this model to create their own lessons online at this Web site to meet their own specific curricular standards. They can then send their students to the site to search and execute assigned online ILAs either for completion in class or outside the classroom at home or the local library.

Phase 1: Research

Phase 2: Analysis

Phase 3: Communication

Ensuring Technology Integration

The RAC Model™ provides the framework for teachers to go beyond the mere acquisition of computers for their classrooms to addressing the bigger question: How can computer technology be used to effect change and improve student learning and achievement?

This model allows for the infusion of technology in any one or more of the three lesson phases. A teacher might plan a lesson that guides the students to the Internet or a particular CD-ROM for research and then has them use an application for displaying data in graphical form during analysis. A multimedia software package or word processing application might be the choice of technology for the students to present their final work.

RAC at Work

A close examination of some model lessons clearly illustrates the power of the RAC Model™ as an instructional framework for using any variety of resources, particularly software and the Internet, for addressing curricular standards in the classroom.

This framework allows teachers to incorporate any of the sound instructional practices that have been proved to improve instruction. For example, the use of cooperative learning during the research or analysis phases of a lesson or having students use graphic organizers or other study aids during any one of the three phases of the lesson can greatly enhance the final results for the learners.

I have found that the model has empowered teachers by allowing them to easily and appropriately incorporate technology in their classrooms, even in the case of folks who had never used a computer in their personal lives. When teachers plan to address required curricular standards, we have found that this planning framework inadvertently integrates other standards; thus, without extra thought or planning, teachers find that they are able to cover more curriculum.

Note. Please feel free to contact The Center for Educational Progress to find out more about the RAC Model™. View complete lesson samples at www.cep.cl.k12.md.us. You may also write to Mr. Edward F. Centofante, Director of The Center for Educational Progress, 204 Franklin St., Denton, MD 21629.

Copyright © 2000, ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education). All rights reserved.