Home ResearchReports The Road Ahead Background Papers (1997)

Projects: Road Ahead
(Overview)

This document is a draft of one of several reports being prepared for The Road Ahead, a program of the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE), a nonprofit foundation of the National Education Association (NEA). The Road Ahead is funded by Bill Gates, co-founder and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, from proceeds from his book by the same name. The program involves 22 school/community partnerships in 15 states using technology-based learning activities that extend beyond the traditional classroom and school day.

This draft is subject to review and revision, and was prepared by staff of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). All statements and opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not represent policies or positions of the NEA, NFIE, ISTE, or Microsoft Corporation.

Foundations for The Road Ahead: An Overview of Information Technologies in Education

Information technologies such as computers, telecommunications, and digital cameras are changing the way we work, play, and learn, as well as what we learn. This paper provides an introduction to some of the instructional uses of the information technologies in K-12 education. It includes:

• Scenarios of current uses.
• An overview of information technology uses in the classroom.
• Goals for using information technologies in education.
• An annotated bibliography.

Links to major headings

• Scenarios
• The Information and Communications Age
• Overview of Instructional Information Technolgies
• Goals for Information Technology in Education
• The Challenge
• Bibliography

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Scenarios

Information technologies are becoming more common in our formal and informal educational systems. The scenarios below illustrate the breadth of current uses in our schools. Each scenario also raises issues for how these uses of technology can be sustained, improved, and integrated into education. Some of these issues, including professional development, assessment, school-community partnerships, and implementing project-based learning, are addressed in companion reports in this series.

• Teams of fourth-grade students develop World Wide Web pages as part of their study of countries around the world. The main focus is on what life is like for children growing up in other countries. Each team uses information from the school's CD-ROMs, the Internet, and the print resources available in the school library. This assignment helps develop each student's ability to retrieve and integrate information from multiple sources. The task also gives students practice working together as a team and learning from each other. The students are especially motivated because they know that their Web pages will become part of their portfolios and will be used by other students-perhaps even some from other countries.

Issues: The quality of information available from different Web sites varies tremendously. Can fourth grade students learn to differentiate between high-quality and low-quality information? Can they learn to deal with huge numbers of sources of information-sources that may well provide contradictory information? How does a teacher assess the work of students who are working in teams, with each team is working on a different project? How do students and teachers learn to develop and work with electronic portfolio materials?

• Students in an ninth-grade microcomputer-based laboratory (MBL) have set up experimental equipment to track a moving object. The tracking device, which is similar to an automatic range finder in a camera, feeds data into a computer. The computer analyzes the data and produces graphs of distance, speed, and velocity. One of the activities has students track their own movements and attempt to move their bodies to produce certain types of graphs.

Issues: The computations and analysis being done by the computer system is beyond the level of mathematics that the student has studied. This is merely one of many possible examples in which computer facilities make it possible for students to carry out experiments and analysis at a much more advanced academic level than would be possible if they were drawing only on their (traditional) academic background. This raises issues such as staff development, student assessment, and articulation with courses that feed into and/or follow from a microcomputer-based laboratory course.

• A student communicates using a voice synthesizer with which she can pick letters and words by using the small amount of movement that she has in one hand. She uses this same equipment to write, look up information on CD-ROMs, and communicate with friends throughout the world using e-mail.

Issues: Adaptive technologies can help many physically challenged students function successfully in regular classrooms. However, this technology is often new to the teacher and to the school's technology support system. The teacher and other students may need assistance learning to work with adaptive technologies and the students using them.

• A sixth-grade class project focuses on how to preserve and enhance the wetlands. Their school has a partnership with a local surveying company. The company is providing both personnel and equipment to assist students during their field trip to a wetlands area. The students are taking video and still-camera pictures; they are recording field notes using tape recorders and laptop computers. They are developing a video and a hypermedia stack on ways to preserve the wetlands. They intend to use these materials in presentations to parents and the City Council.

Issues: Learning to make effective use of such a range of equipment is a challenge both to students and to their teachers. Some schools and school districts may also be challenged by the idea of students and their teachers being engaged in studying and reporting on politically sensitive "real world" topics.

• Teams of students in a third-grade class are building computer-controlled model houses and cars. A model house contains lights and a garage door opener that can be controlled using a computer program that the students are writing. A model car is powered by electric motors and contains sensing devices that tell when the car has run into a wall. The students are writing a computer program that will guide the car through a maze.

Issues: Questions that might be asked concerning this educational environment include: How does this learning environment affect students progress in learning the "basics"? Is this a cost-effective approach to curriculum improvement? Is the teacher receiving adequate support for professional development, curriculum development, and learning to assess student work in this environment?

• Students in a 10th-grade social studies class are studying complex systems such as a city, farm, or rain forest economy. They are making use of computer simulations in which they can "build" objects such as roads, building, parks, airports, and power plants. Goals in these various computer simulations include developing a functional economy, managing growth and change, and making effective use of resources. The computer simulations are interactive and require students to deal with changing economic situations and unforeseen natural disasters. The students solve problems individually and collaboratively, consult each other for opinions and advice, and share their successes and failures.

Issues: What are students actually learning, and how can this learning be assessed? Are the simulations technically and educationally sound? Do the teachers have the knowledge and skills to integrate use of simulations into the curriculum?

• Each of the students in a high school calculus class has a hand-held calculator/computer on loan from the school. Although the device has the look and feel of a pocket calculator, it has many of the characteristics of a complete microcomputer. The calculator is specifically designed for use in math and science settings. It can graph functions, solve equations, and carry out a wide range of tasks that students typically learn to do "by hand" in a calculus course. The course content and assessment are presented to students in a manner that assumes routine access to the calculator/computer.

Issues: How is the use of calculators aligned with students' previous math courses, and with other courses in math and science that the students take now and in the future? What happens if a calculator is lost, stolen, or broken? Has the teacher had appropriate opportunities to learn about instruction and assessment in classes where calculator use is assumed and required?

• All teachers in a secondary school make use of electronic gradebooks. Student records are posted using pseudonyms to ensure confidentiality. Students can monitor their progress, check for missing assignments, and determine how well they are doing relative to the rest of the class. End-of-term reports are quickly produced and sent electronically to the central office. The same electronic gradebook system helps teachers provide individualized written reports to students and their parents at any point throughout the term.

Issues: Do the teachers have access to the needed hardware and software both at school and at home? Who pays for this hardware and software? Is adequate staff development and technical support available?

These scenarios are representative of the changing roles of teachers and students that are made possible by the information technologies. The changes illustrated in these scenarios have already occurred or begun in some schools. They are all part of the increasing use of information technologies in our educational system.

All of the issues center around change and how to facilitate change. Every school is being challenged by issues of professional development, curriculum development, alternative assessment, technical support for students and teachers, and articulation of efforts with the larger school and district programs. Every school is being challenged by the costs of computer hardware and software, as well as by how rapidly such facilities become antiquated.

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The Information and Communications Age

We are now just at the beginnings of an Information and Communications Age. The term cyberspace is used to describe the world of computer networks, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Information highways are linking the world. Multimedia-text, sound, graphics, and video-are combined in documents that are distributed on computer networks. Information retrieval and problem-solving systems are interactive. Artificial intelligence agents and expert systems are increasingly being used to help solve complex problems.

Cyberspace is changing quite rapidly. On a worldwide basis, the total amount of computer-based information-processing power is doubling approximately every two to three years. Fiber optics and wireless networks are being installed throughout the world. People now talk about the "length" of a cyberspace year as being perhaps two or three months. In other words, the pace of change in cyberspace is several times as fast as the pace of change in other parts of our world, such as business, government, and education.

Many people find it helpful to recognize three major changes in human history that have helped to shape education:

1. The development of reading and writing. Rudiments of this date back nearly 10,000 years. Reading and writing are powerful aids to the accumulation, use, and dissemination of knowledge. They are core components of every good educational system.
2. The development of movable type. The work of Gutenberg and others about 550 years ago facilitated the printing of multiple copies of books. More copies of accumulated information could be made, and these could be more widely disseminated. This led to a considerable increase in literacy rates and major changes in the societies of our world.
3. The merger of print, telecommunications, and computers. This is occurring right now, and has two main characteristics. First, technology greatly speeds up the storage, movement, and retrieval of information. People can remotely access the libraries of the world. Second, the computer can help process information and solve problems.

The merger of print, telecommunications, and the computer has advanced to the point that elementary school students are now developing interactive multimedia documents and World Wide Web pages that are being used to communicate with people throughout the world. Both students and teachers are learning how to use computer tools as routine aids to problem solving and personal productivity.

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Overview of Instructional Information Technologies

This section presents an overview of instructional information technologies that are becoming increasingly commonplace in our schools. The diagram below shows three main overlapping categories of instructional information technologies, with telecommunications tying them all together.

Computer Networking

The telecommunications industry was born in 1844, with the construction of the first commercial telegraph system connecting Baltimore to Washington DC. It received a big boost with the development of the telephone in 1876. There has been continual growth ever since. Recent years have seen the development of communication satellites, fiber optics, cellular telephones, and digital information systems.

Global computer networks are growing rapidly in capacity and use.

The Internet is an increasingly important part of the global, digital telecommunications system. Use of the Internet is growing rapidly, as are its capabilities. Large collections of reference materials and databases are being digitized and brought online. Through the use of the World Wide Web and the Internet, people can send and receive documents that include text, sound, graphics, and video. The increasingly interactive and graphical capabilities of the World Wide Web are making possible "virtual" museums, virtual field trips, and other exciting learning opportunities for students throughout the world.

The totality of information accessible through the Internet can be thought of as a global library. The emerging global library already dwarfs by many hundred-fold the libraries available in a typical precollege school. Increasingly, students and teachers have easy access to library materials that used to be available only to scholars living near the great research libraries of the world.

Computer and Information Science

During the past 50 years, computer and information science has emerged as a major discipline of study. In addition to computer programming, major components of computer and information science include databases, networking, human-machine interface, and artificial intelligence (AI). AI addresses such problems as voice input to computer, language translation by computer, and expert systems that can solve complex problems.

Many ideas from computer and information science are now taught at the K-12 level. Some schools specify elective courses, such as programming languages, advanced placement computer science courses, robotics, and electronics. Other schools integrate instruction about computers into noncomputer curricula. For example, some computer programming might be integrated into mathematics courses, while some electronics might be integrated into middle school science.

Information Technology Tools

The computer is a useful and versatile tool. It can be used to help solve the problems and accomplish the tasks that are at the center of many different academic disciplines. Computer tools for education can be divided into three categories:

Generic tools: These are interdisciplinary tools such as word processors, spreadsheets, database managers, and graphics packages. All of the tools in an integrated package such as ClarisWorks or Microsoft Works are examples of generic tools. A student who learns to use these tools can apply them in almost every area of intellectual work.

Subject-specific tools: These are tools that are designed for use in a particular academic discipline. Examples include the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), hardware and software to aid the composition and performance of music, and Computer-Assisted Design/Manufacturing (CAD/CAM).

Learner-centered tools: These are tools that require the user to develop some programming skills, but that focus on learning to learn and on learning specific subjects such as math, music, or science. Most hypermedia authoring systems and all Logo programming environments serve as examples.

Appropriate use of such technology in the curriculum requires a substantial amount of staff professional development, curriculum modification, and support from school administrators and parents. It also requires that educators develop answers to questions such as:

• What should students learn to do mentally?
• What should students learn to do assisted by simple aids such as books, pencils, and paper?
• What should students learn to do assisted by more sophisticated aids such as calculators, computers, and the Internet?

The computer is also a teacher productivity tool. Using a computerized gradebooks, assembling data banks of exam questions, preparing individualized education plans (IEPs) for students, and word processing lesson plans and class handouts are ways teachers can benefit from computer technology. These uses increase the teachers' productivity by improving overall efficiency of effort and saving valuable time. Further increases in productivity occur when networks allow teachers to easily share successful materials.

Both teachers and students are making increasing use of desktop presentation stations. Material that is stored in a computer is projected onto a screen for whole-class or small-group viewing. The system also allows sharing of materials that are generated during class interaction. For example, in a science class, a projection system can display analyses of data generated in experiments conducted by students or teachers.

Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL)

There are a number of ways in which information technologies can be direct aids to learners. The combination of such aids is called Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL). TEL includes:

1. Computer-assisted learning (CAL). CAL includes drill and practice, tutorials, simulations, and virtual realities. Most CAL systems also include record keeping and management systems. CAL can be used as a supplement to traditional instruction, but it can also be used to present entire units or courses of study. Note that CAL also goes by a variety of other names such as computer-assisted instruction and computer-based instruction. A huge amount of CAL materials have been developed, and are widely available in schools. Many schools find such materials to be highly motivating to students and an effective aid to learning.
2. Distance education. There is a steadily increasing number of complete courses and major units of study that are "delivered" electronically from outside the school. Delivery systems include television or video tape, two-way audio and one-way video, two-way audio and two-way video, the Internet, and the World Wide Web. Distance education is increasing the learning opportunities available to students.
3. Electronic access to information. This includes access to information stored on CD-ROMs as well as access to information on the Internet. Increasingly, students and teachers are making use of current information retrieved through use of the Internet, rather than relying on printed books that may be a number of years old.
4. Electronic aids to student and teacher interactivity. Examples of the technology being used include desktop presentation systems, e-mail, and groupware. Groupware is a type of software designed to facilitate a group of people who are connected through a computer network to work together on a task; the participants may be located thousands of miles apart.
5. Productivity tools with built-in "help" features. Modern productivity software such as word processors, spreadsheets, or graphics packages include built-in learning aids, context sensitive help, templates, and other aids to producing high-quality products. These help users learn while doing.

As the use of TEL increases, more and more education will take place at a time and place that is convenient to the needs of the learner. This convenient education and is an increasing component of both formal and informal education. Convenient education helps learners to take increasing responsibility for their own learning.

Just-in-time education is a second important aspect of TEL. Many learning tasks can be completed in a few minutes, a few hours, or a few days-just in time to apply the skills when needed. How rapidly and effectively the learning occurs depends on the background and capabilities of the learner and on the learning environment. One of the driving forces for school restructuring is the goal of helping students gain increased skill in being just-in-time learners. This is an important component of learning to learn and being a lifetime learner.

A third aspect of TEL can be found in the changing capabilities of the informal educational system. Almost all home computers come equipped with a CD-ROM drive. There is steadily increasing access to the Internet and the World Wide Web from home, library, community, and business locations. Just-in-time and convenient education are becoming available to more and more people. As the amount and quality of convenient education materials continues to increase, there is the potential that more and more of the traditional content of formal education will be learned in informal educational settings. The role of formal education-and of the teacher-will change.

We can get a glimpse into potential changes by asking ourselves what the unique characteristics are of a human, face-to-face, "live" teacher, as contrasted with TEL. Although there are many answers, several of the most important ones are:

1. The human-human interface. This aspect of the human teacher is far better than any current human-machine interface. Teachers can read the body language and moods of students and the class. Teachers can know their students and interact with them in a manner appropriate to the needs of human beings.
2. The versatility of the human teacher. A human teacher can facilitate an interdisciplinary discussion that ranges over whatever comes to the minds of the students and the teacher. The human teacher has flexibility and capabilities that far exceed those of any current computer system in this regard.
3. The teacher as a facilitator of the social development of students. Teachers play a major role in helping students gain and improve social skills.

In the future, our formal educational system will concentrate more of its structured efforts on making effective use of the uniquely human characteristics and strengths of human teachers. More of the subject matter content and rote-skill components of the curriculum will be left to TEL. It is clear that the roles of teachers will change. The types of changes that are occurring are often described as having the teacher be a "guide on the side" rather than a "sage on the stage."

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Goals for Information Technology in Education

Essentially all students in the United States have access to computers and other information technologies. A 1995 U.S. Office of Technology Assessment report indicated that the public schools in the United States had an average of about one microcomputer per nine students.

Moreover, about 40% of the households in the United States now have a general-purpose microcomputer. Many of the households that have microcomputers indicate that "education" is one of the main reasons a microcomputer was acquired.

This section lists 12 goals for computer technology in education. These goals have emerged and evolved during the past 15 years as microcomputers have come into common use in schools and as the information highway has developed. These goals are divided into three major categories: Functional Technology Literacy; Independent Lifelong Learning; and Capacity Building. A more detailed discussion on the ideas of this section is given in Effective Practice: Computer Technology in Education (Moursund, Bielefeldt, Ricketts, & Underwood, 1995).

Student Goals: Functional Technology Literacy

The four goals listed in this section serve to define functional technology literacy and provide guidelines to K-12 curriculum developers. Notice the combined emphasis on both basic skills and on higher order, problem-solving skills.

Goal 1: Computer literacy, basic level. All students shall be functionally computer literate. A basic level of computer literacy should be achieved by the end of the eighth grade. It consists of a broad-based, interdisciplinary, general knowledge of applications, their capabilities and limitations, and how they work, as well as the societal implications of computers and other information technologies. Here are six specific objectives that underlie this goal.

A. General knowledge. Students shall have oral and reading knowledge of computers and other information technologies and their effects on our society. More specifically, every discipline that students study shall include instruction about how electronic aids to information processing and problem solving are affecting that specific discipline.

B. Procedural thinking. Students shall have knowledge of the concept of effective procedure, representation of procedures, roles of procedures in problem solving, and a broad range of examples of the types of procedures that computers can execute.

C. Generic tools. Students shall have basic skills in the use of word processing, database, computer graphics, spreadsheet, and other general purpose, multidisciplinary application packages. This also includes basic skills using menu-driven hypermedia software to create hypermedia materials as an aid to communicating.

D. Telecommunications. Students shall have basic skills using telecommunications to communicate with people and to make effective use of computerized databases and other sources of information located both locally (e.g., in a school library, a school district library, or a local community library) and throughout the world. They shall have the knowledge and skills to make effective use of the Internet and the World Wide Web.

E. Hardware. Students shall have basic knowledge of the electronic and other hardware components and how they function sufficient to "dispel the magic." They shall understand the functionality of hardware sufficient to detect and correct common difficulties, such as various components not being plugged in or not receiving power, various components not being connected, and printer out of paper.

F. Computer input. Students shall have basic skills in the use of a variety of computer input devices, including keyboard, mouse, scanner, digital camera, and probes used to input scientific data. They shall have introductory knowledge of voice input, touch screens, and pen-based systems.

Goal 2: Computer literacy, intermediate level. Deeper knowledge of computers and other information technologies as they relate to the specific disciplines and topics one studies in senior high school. Here are some examples:

A. Creating hypermedia documents. This includes the ability to design effective communications in both print and electronic media, as well as experience in desktop publication and desktop presentation.

B. Using computers as aids to problem solving in the various high school disciplines. A student taking advanced math would use computer modeling. A commercial art student would create and manipulate graphics electronically. Industrial arts classes would work with computer-aided design. Science courses would employ microcomputer-based laboratories and computer simulations.

C. Computer-mediated, collaborative, interdisciplinary problem solving. This includes students gaining the types of communication skills (brainstorming, active listening, consensus-building, etc.) needed for working in a problem-solving environment.

Goal 3: Computer-as-tool in curriculum content. The use of computer applications as general-purpose aids to problem solving using word processors, databases, graphics, spreadsheets, and other general purpose application packages shall be integrated throughout the curriculum content. The intent here is that students shall receive specific instruction in each of these tools, probably before completing elementary school. Middle school, junior high school, and high school curriculums shall assume a working knowledge of these tools and shall include specific additional instruction in their use. Throughout secondary school and in all higher education, students shall be expected to make regular use of these tools, and teachers shall structure their curriculum and assignments to take advantage of and add to student knowledge of the computer as a tool.

Goal 4: Information technology courses. A high school shall provide both of the following "more advanced" tracks of computer-related coursework. A. Computer-related coursework preparing a student who will seek employment immediately upon leaving school. For example, a high school business curriculum should prepare students for entry-level employment in a computerized business office.

A graphic arts curriculum should prepare students to be productive in the use of a wide range of computer-based graphic arts facilities. Increasingly, some of these courses are part of the Tech Prep (Technical Preparation) program of study in a school.

B. Computer science coursework, including problem solving in a computer programming environment, designed to give students a college-preparation type of solid introduction to the discipline of computer science.

Student Goals: Independent Lifelong Learning

The three goals listed in this section focus on computer technology as an aid to general learning.

Goal 5: Distance education. Telecommunications and other electronic aids are the foundation for an increasingly sophisticated distance education system. Educators should use distance education when it is pedagogically and economically sound to increase student learning and opportunities for student learning.

Note that in many cases distance education may be combined with computer-assisted learning (CAL, see Goal 6), so that there is not a clear dividing line between these two approaches to education. In both cases students are given an increased range of learning opportunities. The education may take place at a time and place that is convenient for the student, rather than being dictated by the traditional course schedule of a school. The choice and level of topics may be more under student control than in our traditional educational system.

Goal 6: Computer-assisted learning (CAL). Education shall use computer-assisted learning when it is pedagogically and economically sound, to increase student learning and to broaden the range of learning opportunities. CAL includes drill and practice, tutorials, and simulations. It also includes computer-managed instruction (see Objective C). These CAL systems may make use of virtual reality technology.

A. All students shall learn both general ideas of how computers can be used as an aid to learning and specific ideas on how CAL can be useful to them. They shall become experienced users of CAL systems. The intent is to focus on learning to learn, being responsible for one's own learning, and being a lifelong learner. Students have their own learning styles; therefore, different types of CAL will fit different students to greater or lesser degrees.

B. In situations in which CAL is a cost-effective and educationally sound aid to student learning or to overall learning opportunities, it will be an integral component of the educational system. For example, CAL can help some students learn certain types of material significantly faster than can conventional instructional techniques. Such students should have the opportunity to use CAL as an aid to learning. In addition, CAL can be used to provide educational opportunities that might not otherwise be available. A school can expand its curriculum by delivering some courses largely using CAL.

C. Computer-managed instruction (CMI) includes record keeping, diagnostic testing, and prescriptive guides of what to study and in what order. CMI is useful to both students and teachers. Students should have the opportunity to track their own progress in school and to see the rationale for the work they are doing. CMI can reduce busywork. When CMI is cost effective and instructionally sound, staff and students should have this aid.

Goal 7: Students with special needs. Computer-related technology shall be routinely and readily available to students with special needs when research and practice have demonstrated its effectiveness.

A. Computer-based adaptive technologies shall be made available to students who need such technology for communication with other people or for communication with a computer.

B. When CAL with demonstrated effectiveness is available to help students with particular special learning needs, it shall be made available to the students.

C. All staff who work with students with special needs shall have the knowledge and experience needed to work with these students who are making use of computer-based adaptive technologies, CAL, and computer tools.

Educational System Goals: Capacity Building

The five goals in this section focus on permanent changes in our educational system that are needed to support the achievement of Goals 1-7.

Goal 8: Assessment. Student assessment shall reflect the student goals listed above. For example, when students are taught to write and solve problems using the computer as a routine tool, they shall be assessed in that same environment.

Goal 9: Staff development and support. The professional education staff shall have computers to increase their productivity, to make it easier for them to accomplish their duties, and to support their computer-oriented growth. Every school district shall provide for staff development to accomplish Goals 1-8, including time for practice, planning, and peer collaboration. Teacher training institutions shall adequately prepare their teacher education graduates so they can function effectively in a school environment that has Goals 1-8.

This means, for example, that all teachers shall be provided with access to computerized data banks, word processors, presentation graphics software, computerized gradebooks, telecommunications packages, and other application software that teachers have found useful in increasing their productivity and job satisfaction. Computer-based communication is becoming an avenue for teachers to share professional information. Every teacher should have telecommunications and desktop presentation facilities in the classroom. Computer-managed instruction (CMI) can help the teacher by providing diagnostic testing and prescription, access to item data banks, and aids to preparing individual education plans.

Goal 10: Facilities. The school district shall integrate into its ongoing budget adequate resources to provide the hardware, software, curriculum development, curriculum materials, staff development, personnel, and time needed to accomplish the goals listed above.

Goal 11: Long-term commitment. The school district shall institutionalize computers in schools through the establishment of appropriate policies, procedures, and practices. Instructional computing shall be integrated into job descriptions, ongoing budgets, planning, staff development, work assignments, and so on. Every school shall have a goal of increasing the functional computer literacy of its students and shall have appropriate methods for adequately assessing students' computer literacy. The district shall fully accept that "computers are here to stay" as an integral part of an Information Age school system.

Goal 12: Community-wide commitment. The community-the entire formal and informal educational system-shall support and work to achieve the goals listed in this section.

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The Challenge

The 12 goals listed in the previous section are all designed to support the overall goals of education. They bring some new dimensions and new senses of direction to education. They are a change in an of themselves, and they facilitate change throughout the school curriculum.

However, the underlying goals of education remain unchanged. Our educational system needs to help every student meet high standards of academic achievement. It needs to help prepare students for the adult responsibilities that they will face. Finally, our educational system needs to prepare students for life in a rapidly changing Information and Communications Age.

To do this will require a concerted effort by both our formal and informal educational systems. Although adequate access to computer hardware and software remains a major issue, there are other critical problems. These include staff development, education designed to help parents and other community members learn about computer technology in education, curriculum development, and changes to our assessment system. Many of the schools experiencing success in such changes are involved in restructuring efforts that go far beyond computer technology.

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Bibliography

Apple Computer, Inc. (1995). Apple education research reports. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

This is a reprint of the Apple Classroom of Tomorrow research studies, as well as other reports that are based on analysis of the research literature. It is a good source of information about what happens when students have a great deal of access to computer technology, such as computers at home and at school for each student.

 

Austin, T., et al. (1993). The technology advisory council: A vehicle for improving our schools. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

This book contains detailed information about how to establish a Technology Advisory Council (TAC) in a school or district. It identifies key stakeholder groups and discusses some of the needs of these groups. It outlines the types of activities that a TAC can do to help provide technology leadership in a school or school district. The book includes an annotated bibliography and a glossary of key terms.

 

Bangert-Drowns, R. (1993). The word processor as an instructional tool: a meta-analysis of word processing in writing instruction. Review of Educational Research, 63(1), 69-93.

There has been a great deal of research on the effects word processing has on students' learning to write. Computers are a significant aid to students mastering the concept and practice of writing as a process-that is, process writing.

 

Becker, H. J. (1994). How our best computer-using teachers differ from other teachers: Implications for realizing the potential of computers in schools. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 26(3), 291-321.

Becker provides a list and analysis of characteristics of teachers who have been very successful in making instructional use of computers in their classrooms.

 

Braun, L., & Bielefeldt, T. (1995). Celebrating success. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

A number of school sites with successful instructional applications of computer technology are cataloged, along with contact information.

 

Brody, P. J. (1995). Technology planning and management handbook: A guide for school district educational technology leaders. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Educational Technology Publications.

Brody provides a functional approach to the wide range of activities that a school district faces because of technology in education. This book is suitable for people who are just starting to deal with the challenge of integrating technology into the curriculum. It also provides a good summary and overview for schools and districts that are more deeply involved.

 

Educational Software Evaluation Consortium. (1997). The 1997 educational software preview guide. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

This guide is developed each year by the Educational Software Evaluation Consortium, a group of educational software preview centers. The book lists more than 800 pieces of K-12 classroom software that receive high evaluation ratings. It also includes addresses for the publishers of these pieces of software.

 

International Society for Technology in Education. (1993). Curriculum guidelines for accreditation of educational computing and technology programs. Eugene, OR: Author.

A detailed report on the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards for teacher preparation in educational technology. Current and developing guidelines are maintained on the World Wide Web at /Standards/.

 

International Society for Technology in Education. (In press). Foundations for The Road Ahead (series). Washington, DC: National Foundation for the Improvement of Education.

This series of six short reports, prepared as background for The Road Ahead program of NFIE, summarizes the literature and current practices in educational technology. In addition to the present document, the series includes the following titles:

Assessment: Information technologies in the K-12 curriculum.
Computer technology and professional development: Suggestions for schools.
Obtaining resources for information technology in education: A guide for beginners.
Project-based learning and information technologies.
School-home-community connections: Roles of information technologies.

 

Kulik, J. A. (1994). Meta-analytic studies of findings on computer-based instruction. In E. L. Baker & H. F. O'Neil, Jr. (Eds.), Technology assessment in education and training. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Kulik is undoubtedly the world's leader in doing meta-analyses on computer-assisted instruction. This extensive article is a meta-analysis of meta-analyses on CAL. It contains an extensive bibliography and is an excellent starting point for anyone interested in studying the CAL research literature.

 

Means, B., & Olson, K. (1995). Technology's role in education reform: Findings from a national study of innovating schools. Menlo Park, CA: SRI International.

Report from a project funded by the U.S. Department of Education. It examines a large number of schools and gives detailed case studies of nine sites that have taken a constructivist approach to education, with considerable emphasis on project-based learning in computer-supported environments.

 

Moursund, D. G. (1996) Getting resources for technology in education: A guide for beginners. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

A how-to guide to writing proposals and to other methods for obtaining resources for technology in education. Although the main emphasis is on writing proposals, the book also contains chapters on developing partnerships with businesses, fundraising, entrepreneurship, and miscellaneous other ways of obtaining resources.

 

Moursund, D. G. (1996). Increasing your expertise as a problem solver: Some roles of computers. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

 

Moursund, D. G., Bielefeldt, T., Ricketts, R., & Underwood, S. (1995). Effective practice: Computer technology in education. Eugene, OR: ISTE.

Comprehensive summary and analysis of the research literature and other information on effective uses of computer technology in K-12 education.

 

Negroponte, N. (1995). Being digital. New York: Knopf.

A collection of short essays that explore the state of the art of computer technology from a multimedia point of view. Discusses how the ability to store, manipulate, and transmit "bits" of information (the hallmark of the Information and Communications Age) is changing the world.

 

Papert, S. (1993). The children's machine: Rethinking school in the age of the computer. New York: Basic Books.

Papert is well known for his work as a computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is still better known for his work as a computer educator, particularly in the Logo field. His philosophy of education is built on and extends the work of Piaget. The book focuses on hands-on, discovery-based learning by doing and taking advantage of Logo and similar powerful new learning environments.

 

Sarason, S. B. (1990). The predictable failure of educational reform. Can we change course before it's too late? San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

A key component of this book is an analysis of who has the power in our educational system. Sarason argues that school reform movements in the past have failed because there was no change in who was empowered. Sarason argues that students and teachers must be empowered if education is to be improved.

 

United States Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure. (1996). KickStart initiative: Connecting America's communities to the information superhighway. St. Paul, MN: West Publishing Company.

A comprehensive introduction to the Information Superhighway and ways to help a community become connected to it. The report was developed by a large team of people representing business, government, and education.

 

U.S. Congress, Office of Technology Assessment. (1995). Teachers & technology: Making the connection (OTA-EHR-616). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

A landmark study of technology in U.S. schools from the point of view of educators. Provides good insight into the current status and possible futures of technology in K-12 education.

 

 

Prepared for the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education by the International Society for Technology in Education. Subject to review and modification. Principal author: Dr. David Moursund. Contact: Talbot Bielefeldt, Research Associate (talbot@iste.org).