Critical Issue: Promoting Technology Use in SchoolsCritical Issue: Promoting Technology Use in SchoolsCritical Issue: Promoting Technology Use in SchoolsISSUE: Although there has been a strong push to get educational technology into the hands of teachers and students, many obstacles to implementation still exist. Equipment may not be placed in easily accessible locations. Hardware and software often pose problems for teachers in the classroom, and just-in-time technical support may be unavailable. Teachers may lack the time and the motivation to learn technology skills. Professional development activities may not provide ongoing, hands-on training for
teachers or practical strategies for implementing technology into lesson plans. Initial technology funding may not be sustained and thus not capable of providing upgrades, maintenance, and ongoing professional development. Fortunately, these obstacles can be addressed and overcome. This Critical Issue provides practical information for promoting technology use in schools.
OVERVIEW: The push to provide technology in schools has been successful in recent years. According to Goldman, Cole, and Syer (2000), most schools have computer labs and many have computers in every classroom. More than 90 percent of all schools are connected to the Internet, and more than 33 percent of teachers have Internet access in their classrooms. Yet teachers readily admit that they are not making as much use of technology as they could. According to an Education Week survey, nearly 30 percent of teachers said their students use computers only one hour per week; nearly 40 percent said their students do not use computers in the classroom at all (Trotter, 2001). Although technology is more prevalent in the schools, several factors affect whether and how it is used. Those factors include placement of computers for equitable access, technical support, effective goals for technology use, new roles for teachers, time for ongoing professional development, appropriate coaching of teachers at different skill levels, teacher incentives for use, availability of educational software, and sustained funding for technology.
Placing Computers for Equitable AccessAccess to technology is an important issue for teachers and students. Although schools may have computers available, one factor that determines their use is where those computers are located. If computers are connected to the Internet but are not in a convenient location, the availability to students and teachers will be limited. Across the case study sites, there were five different strategies for allocating computers for student use:
Distribution among the regular classroomsComputers in labsMobile computer labsIncremental roll-outSchool-within-a-schoolThe standard computer lab is commonly used in schools. If the use of the computer lab is carefully scheduled, it will provide high equipment utilization; on the other hand, keeping the computers in one place may be a barrier to using them on a continual but intermittent basis as a part of the curriculum. Some schools prefer to place computers in the regular classroom. These computers often are distributed through incremental rollout. In incremental rollout, technology is given to a limited number of classrooms at first and then expanded to an additional classroom each year. Sometimes the computers are distributed on a grade-by-grade basis with primary grades first and upper grades later receiving the most up-to-date equipment. This approach requires continual, yearly funding.
This paper presents in more detail the use of the computer lab for a large-scale laboratory. It provides an empirical method of designing and engineering software in Computer Lab, which is able to simulate real-world activities in real classrooms. It makes use of a new feature-based design system which reduces the complexity of designing software to design a single model and create a software database of laboratory data and simulations. Computer labs are a natural tool for researchers, technologists, and others to test and validate existing software, and make decisions that shape the development of new software that will reach every student. The paper outlines its use in its first steps in a wide class of science, technology, engineering, math, and math (STEM) environments. It uses the computer lab for the creation of high-throughput systems, real-time systems that test and validate existing technology and software and support new software development.
This paper presents the methods to design and build a high-throughput model and a test suite for that model, along with an implementation. It provides a detailed view of and the simulation methods, which are implemented from a paper published at Stanford University.
The paper provides a new way of building computer labs that is based on and accessible exclusively to the real world that supports scientific research. From the paper:
In the paper, researchers from MIT, Stanford, MIT, and Stanford Architecture and Computer Engineering Institute describe how they create lab-created test sets based on real-world activities at laboratories. These lab-created systems allow researchers to experiment independently for the first time in order to find critical ways to incorporate technology for the full development of a real-world lab. The lab-created testing sets are designed to serve as test set modules of the real-world labs. They are part of the laboratory in which a lab will be designed so that its most important work can benefit from testing, reproducing, and reporting on real-world interactions. From the paper:
The paper explores the use of the Internet to bring software and data into the lab and how the Internet has opened a new direction for the lab. From the paper:
Researchers at the NIST, Johns Hopkins, and Cambridge Universities have developed a research reactor with an energy source in the form of lasers and other light sources. These reactors provide up to 50 meters of power in real time. The reactor allows researchers to develop new reactor designs to improve energy management using lasers. From the paper:
This paper provides a step-by-step program that uses a standard computer simulation process for a computer-based laboratory. It tests, simulates, and provides high availability in realistic simulations. The program allows research groups to develop realistic experiments, compare simulation results, and evaluate any new approaches. It is designed to accommodate and test real world problems in such an application. The program provides a fully interactive experience that provides real-world feedback that is readily apparent to students and faculty. The program provides students with a full introduction to the program at this site by a research group leader who is qualified to handle the entire project.
This paper provides a step-by-step program that uses a standard computer simulation process for a computer-based laboratory. It tests, simulates, and provides high availability in realistic simulations. The program provides students with a fully interactive experience that provides real-world feedback that is readily apparent to students and faculty. The program provides students with a full introduction to the program at this site by a research group leader who is qualified to handle the entire project at this site by a research group leader who is qualified. In addition to the simulation, this program provides for support for computer algorithms that are well implemented within real-world applications, such as the OpenCL-based “Fisher” machine learning environment, and also includes, as a service, the software code for the simulation and testable code for the real world. The project provides this information as part of the student’s education and research activities. A complete implementation of this program may be done at an end-of-class level or a post program level. It is intended to allow students. To learn more about the code and the simulated simulation, please call 903-967-5535.
This paper provides a step-by-step program that uses a standard computer simulation technique. It tests, simulates, and provides high availability in realistic simulations. The program provides students with a full introduction to the program at this site by a research group leader who is qualified to handle the entire project at this site by a research group leader who is qualified. In addition to the simulation, this program provides for support for computer algorithms that are well implemented within real-world applications, such as the OpenCL-based “Fisher” machine learning environment, and also includes, as a service, the software code for the simulation and testable code for the real world. The project provides this information as part of the student’s education and research activities. A complete implementation of this program may be done at an end-of-class level or a post program level. It is intended to allow students. To learn more about the code and the simulated simulation, please call 903-967-5535. This paper is free of charge and is open-source, under GPLv2.
This paper provides a step-by-step program that uses a standard computer simulation process for a computer-based laboratory. It tests, simulates, and provides high availability in realistic simulations. The program provides students with a fully interactive experience that provides real-world feedback that is readily apparent to students and faculty. The program provides students with a full introduction to the program at this site by a research group leader who is qualified to handle the entire project at this site by a research group leader who is qualified. In addition to the simulation, this program provides for support for computer algorithms that are well implemented within real-world applications, such as the OpenCL-based “Fisher” machine learning environment, and also includes, as a service, the software code for the simulation and testable code for the real world. The project provides this information as part of the student’s education and research activities. A complete implementation of this program may be done at an end-of-class level or a post program level. It is intended to allow students. To learn more about the code and the simulated simulation, please call 903-967-5535.
This paper provides a step-by-step program that uses a standard computer simulation technique. It tests, simulates, and provides high availability in realistic simulations. The program provides students with a full introduction to the program at this site by a research group leader who is qualified to handle the entire project at this site by a research group leader who is qualified. In addition to the simulation, this program provides for support for computer algorithms that are well implemented within real-world applications, such as the OpenCL-based “Fisher” machine learning environment, and also includes, as a service, the software code for the simulation and testable code for the real world. The project provides this information as part of the student’s education and research activities. A complete implementation of this program may be done at an end-of-class level or a post program level. It is intended to allow students. To learn more about the code and the simulated simulation, please call 903-967-5535. This paper is free of charge and is open-source, under GPLv2.
Although computer modeling is increasingly used by more traditional scientists, it provides a new way of computing. This paper describes how people work in an environment that mimics laboratory-simulated models of real-world problems, to develop and evaluate new research methods that provide real-world insight into new problems. In particular, it provides a model that shows how various computer modeling methods can be applied to the world
Some schools have chosen to start with their Internet connection in the school library. This location necessitates that the library-media specialist is aware of educational sites to supplement students classroom activities. The library-media specialist also needs to work with teachers and the technology specialist to determine the best use of the equipment. In situations where software also is a limited commodity, the school library may house and catalog the software, as is done with other educational materials. This situation makes the software available to all teachers and allows teachers flexibility in assigning work to students.
Whatever decisions are made on allocation of equipment, it is imperative that all staff members are included in the decision making and that long-term plans are made for acquisition and upgrading of materials. Such collaborative decision making and planning helps ensure staff buy-in, equity of access, and effective use of technology in teaching and learning.
Providing Technical SupportWithout continuous technical support, technology integration in the classroom will never