Building a Sustainable Education-Technology Culture in Schools and Institutions

Building a Sustainable Education-Technology Culture

in Schools and Institutions

The world has seen the advancement and possibilities that “modern” technology has provided human beings over the last twenty-thirty years; the popularity of the internet and the worldwide web in the 1990’s led to an increase of professional and home computer use and purchases throughout the United States, Western Europe and Japan (Whittaker, 2010). The use of technology and its relation to education is significant in terms of who uses the internet and the groups that are more comfortable in using it; about 90 percent of adults with a college education use the internet compared to only 22 percent of people without a high school diploma. The age of the user is also a factor; there are cases were grade school youths are more comfortable in using computers than their elder siblings (Whittaker, 2010).

In view of these facts, to insure that the majority of learners and educators are more comfortable and knowledgeable in the use of technology, there needs to be a continued focus on the sustainability of education-technology culture within schools or institutions.

The educator needs educational leadership and the support of a strong professional planning team to establish ed-technology in the schools; the team members usually consist of administrators, faculty developers from various departments/teachers from different subjects, parents active in school programs, and representatives from local businesses or consultants (King, 2002). In order for technology to create change in the teaching and learning process, there has to be a commitment by the administrators to allocate financial resources, provide time to for learning and application, and facilitate a collaborative curriculum development (King, 2002).

There have been large investments made by government for equipping schools with hardware and software, but the integration of computer technologies in the classroom still remain limited. The reason for this is that technology has often been introduced as an addition to an existing, unchanged classroom setting; to bring meaningful innovation to the teaching and learning process, changes are needed in content, organization and management of classroom activity- changes that cannot be accomplished by an educator operating alone (Bottino, Robotti, 2007).

The financial resources being distributed for professional development in educational technology helps in the acquiring of computers and software, however the purchase of equipment does not prepare teachers to use it. Through grants, local and federally funded programs, schools are able to provide faculty development in technology learning (King, 2002). In an article published in 2002, December 13, by Corey Murray, Benton: America’s $40 billion –plus ed-tech investment at risk; the Benton Foundation pointed out in a conference on December 11 that “America, over the past ten years, invested more than forty billion dollars to equip schools with computers and connect classrooms to the internet” (Murray, 2002). The issue, many schools were not using the “new infrastructure” to its potential. According to Norris Dickard, Benton Foundation director of public policy; “Schools need well-trained teachers and [high-] quality curricula that take advantage of the ed-tech investments” (Murray, 2002).

In King (2002), Keeping Pace With Technology: Educational Technology that Transforms, the author states that “Just learning how to use computer hardware and software does not mean that teachers immediately know how to best use technology for educational purposes in their specific teaching content”. According to Bottino, Robotti (2007):

It is pointless from a pedagogical point of view to have computers and educational digital media available in schools if their use is not properly embedded in suitably articulated educational itineraries

in which the whole learning context is taken into account, including the pedagogical and curriculum objectives, the tools and the way in which they are used, the teaching/learning paths, the different actors and their social relationships, etc. (Dias De Figueiredo & Afonso, 2006).

The teachers need training/support, the time to learn how to implement their new ed-tech skills toward developing curriculum for their class, and time to work together in collaborative teams in developing curriculum that build on pedagogical theory and practice (King, 2002). In addition, educators unfamiliar in applying technology towards education undergo 4 stages of the “Journey of Transformation”:

1. Fear and Uncertainty: This stage represents an adult learner who has little experience using technology and is at the beginning stages of learning the possibilities associated with using technology (King, 2002).

2. Testing and Exploration: The adult learner has more confidence exploring and testing the technology, it becomes more familiar to them and they no longer have the nurturing need (King, 2002).

3. Affirmation and Connecting: The learner realizes how technology can be used in the education field, they appreciate that they know more about technology (King, 2002).

4. New Perspective: The teacher makes new connections in combining technology and education. The teacher examines content areas to see if technology can benefit their curricular goals (King, 2002).

The program development/staff development committee is also essential for maintaining an ed-technology culture; if a program has not been designed and prepared properly for your institution, it runs the risk of “derailment” or failure at any point (King, 2002). The Adult Learning model for Faculty Development (Lawler & king, 2000) can guide developers through the stages of:

1. Preplanning: Understanding organizational culture, identify the role of the faculty developer, assessing needs, evaluating resources, and establishing goals.


2. Planning: Selecting a topic, identify a presenter, preparing for delivery, preparing for support and transfer of learning, scheduling event, and beginning the evaluation.

3. Delivery

4. Follow-up

In forming a staff development committee, taking into account the issues of context and needs, and working with a presenter (a person selected to meet the needs of educators, works collaboratively with committee, listens to collegial ideas in forming a program for a school/institution, and develops a professional development program) can lead to a successful ed-technology program in your school (King, 2002).

The technology that is available for educators and learners in the market today is phenomenal; there are always new developments of e-learning software applications, web-sites, and hardware equipment that will sustain the education-technology culture in our schools/institutions for years to come.

The expectation of increased use of mobile devices in higher education classrooms has led some developers to speculate that mobile devices will be an “embedded” tool for supporting student learning the same way a pencil, rulers or calculator does (Ogata, Saito, Paredes, San Martin, Yano, 2008). In a study that consisted of one hundred teachers in Palm-equipped classrooms; ninety-percent of the teachers reported handhelds were effective instructional tools with the potential to affect student learning positively across curricular topics and instructional activities (Rochelle, 2003). The handheld devices were used in coordination with a classroom response system to recall students’ answers; allow teachers to create tables, histograms, and graphs to track student performance; create simulation games for students in various subjects; and language learning applications are available to support second-language curricular (Ogata, Saito, Paredes, San Martin, Yano, 2008).

There is a program named ARI@ITALES, it uses a set of tools for building and implementing mathematics e-learning activities at primary and secondary school levels (grade two-eight). The tools created are: the text Editor, the Microworlds, the Solution Sheet, and the Player. These tools are designed to support the teacher in the preparation of digital content for personalized learning, and development of a new learning management system than educators can use to plan and build their own online courses (Bottino, Robotti, 2007).

Reference:

Bottino, R. M., Robotti, E., (2007). Transforming classroom teaching & learning through

technology: Analysis of a case study. Educational Technology & Society, 10 (4),

174-186. Retrieved from http://www.ifets.info/

Dias De Figueiredo, A., & Afonso, A.P. (2006). Managing learning in virtual settings:

the role of context, Hershey, PA, USA: Information Science Publishing.

King, K. P. (2002). Keeping pace with technology: Educational technology that

transforms. Vol. One: The challenge and promise for K-12 educators. Cresskill,

NJ: Hampton Press.

King, K. P. & Lawler, P. A. (Eds.). (2003, June). New perspectives on designing and implementing professional development for teachers of adults, New Directions in Adult and Continuing Education, No. 98. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Murray, C., (2002, December 13). Benton: America’s $40 billion-plus ed-tech investment

at risk. eSchool News. Retrieved from

http://www.eschoolnews.com/2002/12/13/benton-americas-40-billion-plus-ed-tech-investment-at-risk/

Ogata, H., Saito, N. A., Paredes, J. R. G., San Martin, G. A., & Yano, Y., (2008).

Supporting Classroom Activities with the BSUL System. Educational Technology

& Society, 11 (1), 1-16. Retrieved from http://www.ifets.info/

Roschelle, J. (2003). Unlocking the learning value of wireless mobile devices [keynote

paper]. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 19(3), 260–272.

Whittaker, R. (2010, March). Computers and The Internet. Cyber College /Internet

College. Retrieved from http://www.cybercollege.com/frtv/www1.htm