FNO: Introducing Technologies to the Regular Classroom

[Jamie McKenzie <mckenzie@FROMNOWON.ORG>]

           From Now On
         The Educational Technology Journal

         ----------------------------------------------------------
                        Special Summer Article - 1998

                    Ending the Siege:
                      Introducing Technologies to the Regular Classroom

                                                by Jamie McKenzie

                   Note: This article  first appeared in  the April, 1998
                        issue of The School Administrator. =A9  1997,
                        Jamie McKenzie, all rights reserved.  Paper copies
                     may be made and distributed within schools, but all oth=
er
                     duplication and distribution by any other means
                        requires explicit permission from the author.

                For the full hyperlinked version visit http://fromnowon.org

        (This an opening excerpt)

                Many districts are finding out with
                considerable pain that it is not enough to
                install an expensive network tying all
                classrooms to the Internet. It is not enough
                to place a laptop in the hands of each
                student. After all that money and all that
                planning, some schools districts find
                themselves suffering from the screensaver
                disease.

                We are talking about the educational
                equivalent of Red Ink . . . the observable
                failure of schools to actually use their
                network or computers to any meaningful
                extent because they are not seen as part of
                the school's primary mission and teachers
                are ill prepared to integrate them into
                their classrooms.

                After two decades of effort and billions of
                dollars, computers and new technologies
                remain peripheral (read "tangential" or
                "irrelevant") to life in the typical
                American classroom. Except for a hardy group
                of pioneers who have shown what is possible,
                the bulk of our teachers lack the support,
                the resources, or the motivation to bring
                these intruders into the classroom core.
                These technologies remain for the most part
                "outside the walls of the city" like the
                Greek armies surrounding Troy.

                We do not need a Trojan Horse to end this
                siege. New technologies will be welcomed and
                used daily by the vast majority of teachers
                when schools pay attention to a few simple
                lessons we have learned in districts which
                have been successful.

                   * Make learning goals very clear
                   * Identify the classroom opportunities
                   * Provide extended funding and commitment
                   * Emphasize robust staff development,
                     adult learning and the creation of a
                     supportive culture
                   * Combine rich information with powerful
                     tools
                   * Match rigorous program assessment to
                     learning goals and student outcomes

                (For an explanation of the above elements,
                visit http://fromnowon.org)

Jamie McKenzie
Editor - "From Now On - The Educational Technology Journal"

mckenzie@fromnowon.org            http://fromnowon.org

901 Twelfth Street
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 647-8759
"The question is the answer."  "Hits are not Truth."

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