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3 January 2003 Workshop
Pages 35-71

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From page 35...
... Barbara Allen and Darryl LaGace described the LemonLINK project for integrating computers into instruction in the Lemon Grove School District in California. Steve Rappaport of Advanced Networks and Services discussed some of the requirements for using technology to improve student learning.
From page 36...
... Allen and LaGace proceeded to summarize the multiple organizational, technical, and economic obstacles their community faced and the strategies they adopted to overcome them. First, Allen identified six challenges to integrating cheap, fast, robust computers into instruction for every student: reducing the cost of ownership; preparing teachers with high-quality, ongoing professional development; providing ready access to educational software linked to standards; involving parents and providing home access, including subsidized access; involving the people and organizations in the greater community whose buy-in is critical to achieve the vision and goals of the learning community; and, perhaps most importantly, justifying the cost of the effort by demonstrating the impact of the project on gains in student learning and achievement.
From page 37...
... First, there is no consensus or even a shared vision for what effective use of education technology looks like. Businesses producing technology have not understood the culture of schools well enough to adequately address their needs in the products and services they offer to the education community.
From page 38...
... Finally, higher education institutions, including the University of California, San Diego, helped to round out their partnership strategy. Until the market provides ready access to a costeffective model for computer use, other school districts may find it worthwhile to pursue such partnerships as well.
From page 39...
... Technical support staff participate in professional development meetings so they understand the realities of employing information technology in classroom settings. However, many technical support problems can be solved remotely.
From page 40...
... During each year of the installation period, approximately 20 percent of the teachers were provided with 100 hours of initial training, including short workshops on applications, teacher-to-teacher collaborations, observation, and hands-on use of technology in classrooms. Additional professional development is provided on an ongoing basis at the building and district levels.
From page 41...
... One indicator is that these new teachers are themselves more technologically savvy, being able to pick up on the technology and move to a functioning level quickly in 6 months compared with the 18 months for teachers who had participated in the 100-hour professional development program. Their interview process also emphasizes candidate compatibility with the technology-rich environment.
From page 42...
... Planning for Two Transformations in Education and Learning Technology In the view of Steve Rappaport of Advanced Networks and Services, the transformation involved with integrating cheap, fast, robust computers into instruction for every student in America and ensuring that technology is integrated in ways that dramatically improve K-12 teaching and learning presents not one but two challenges. The first challenge is making technology widely available in schools and ensuring that the conditions for its effective use exist, especially technical support and professional development for teachers.
From page 43...
... For example, technology can offer significantly improved means of assessment, such as diagnostic instruments on handheld devices that allow ongoing formative assessment in classes in ways and at levels that simply cannot be achieved without technology. In addition, technology makes possible the aggregation and analysis of assessment data and hence evaluations of student performance at the school, district, state, and national levels, as well as the ability to disseminate information to parents and other stakeholders.
From page 44...
... While the tendency is to focus on technology and ask whether its use is improving student achievement, it is educational practices and processes that determine how well students learn. He emphasized that technology is not a process but a tool through which educational practices are mediated.
From page 45...
... . 45 practices in essentially their current forms and develop ways to employ technology to Increase student achievement on standardized tests, or whether the nation instead wants to take this opportunity, made possible in part by technology, to transform education in ways that will achieve dramatic improvements in student learning.
From page 46...
... 46 TWO TRANSFORMATIONS IN EDUCATION AND LEARNING TECHNOLOGY that his best-performing students had mastered the content of his course in a linear fashion that followed the textbook but missed the big ideas and unifying concepts that were his focus. To remedy this problem, the Connexions Project was designed to stimulate authors of instructional materials to develop curriculum modules that represent individual concepts, with links included to show how the concepts interrelate.
From page 47...
... However, they all reflect how technology has changed society. Lemke then discussed the misalignment between traditional measures of student learning and 21st century skills.
From page 48...
... She contended that the community involved with these transformations has failed to build a compelling case for how technology and 21st century skills can increase student achievement. One aspect of building that case is developing the capacity to assess these 21st century skills, an issue raised by a workshop participant.
From page 49...
... She reemphasized Barbara Allen's conclusion that it is not sufficient for students to have the opportunity to be taught to use technology to enhance their learning or to acquire 21st century skills because they happen to be in Ms. Tones' classes and not Mr.
From page 50...
... These laptops are on a wireless network and could be operating immediately if the teachers could figure out what to do with that capacity. The issues of professional development are critical and Bussey commented that LemonLINK's phased 20 percent per year rule is an admirable way to approach this need.
From page 51...
... Another version focused on the importance of making the case to teachers that technology can add value to their own work practices, not only by directly improving the performance of their students but also by helping them prepare lessons, interact with colleagues, and manage routine student work flow. A third version of this key enabler focused on combining these arguments about research evidence and the value of using technology for teachers to build a case for policy makers and industry officials about the types of technology use that can improve K-12 education.
From page 52...
... Robert Tinker of the Concord Consortium discussed the importance of applied research and innovation in education technology and proposed a funding outline for a balanced research agenda. After these presentations, there were additional comments by Nora Sabelli of SRI International and David Vogt of the New Media Innovation Center.
From page 53...
... And third, he discussed the type of institutional arrangements that would be necessary to bring about these changes in both research and practice. With regard to IT capabilities that could improve learning, Gomez first talked about the need to develop a "supportive integrated information infrastructure." This sort of information infrastructure would relieve teachers of the burden of some routine tasks and therefore allow them to focus more of their time on the activities that form the core of their work.
From page 54...
... As an example of such a system, he discussed the Chicago Urban Systemic Partnership (CUSP) , a city-wide system of coordinated in-service teacher professional development.
From page 55...
... JANUARY 2003 WORKSHOP 55 FIGURE 3-1 Changes related to IT hardware and services. for problem solving; (5)
From page 56...
... The declining cost of the technology will allow a one-to-one computerstudent ratio with learning environments that can adapt to the learning needs and styles of individual students from tacit or explicit assessments of their needs. These personalized capabilities also will allow on-demand professional development support for teachers.
From page 57...
... Such joint work will make it possible to develop more coherent approaches to the development of education technology, and it will allow the end users of that technology to make more strategic decisions about what they purchase, how they use it, and what type of professional development support they provide in conjunction with it. One critical outcome of deeper partnerships will be in encouraging a stronger focus on "use-relevant" research, which Donald Stokes originally propounded in his book Pasteur's Quadrant (1999~.
From page 58...
... In addition to research on the development of expertise, How People Learn also describes what research in the learning sciences has revealed about the features of powerful learning environments. Pellegrino summarized this in four points.
From page 59...
... He then described different capabilities of education technology that allow it to map onto the various aspects of powerful learning environments. Technology can enable the production of new curricular materials and instructional resources that are more focused on the key knowledge constructs that educators want students to learn.
From page 60...
... In addition to improving student learning, such embedded formative assessment offers the possibility of reengineering current models of assessment so that information is obtained from performances proximal to the teaching and learning process. Under some scenarios in which technology supports the integration of teaching, learning, and assessment processes, it may no longer be necessary to divert attention away from ongoing teaching and learning activities so that students can prepare to be tested on external accountability or so-called drop-in-from-the-sky measures of achievement.
From page 61...
... First, he stressed the importance of the progress in the learning sciences over the past few decades. This work has not yet been effectively exploited by education in general or education technology in particular, leaving a huge opportunity for educational gains.
From page 62...
... Such systems also offer the possibility of incorporating ongoing formative assessment that would reduce the need to devote large portions of classroom time to student testing. Finally, technology offers capabilities for complex simulations, exploratories, and clip models.
From page 63...
... Education Transformations Enabled by Technology Robert Tinker of the Concord Consortium focused his presentation on applied research and innovation that meld work in technology, the learning sciences, and educational practice. He argued that these form a crucial missing link between the earlier stages of basic research in cognitive science and new technology and the later stages of dissemination and professional development.
From page 64...
... Tinker concluded his remarks by outlining the level of funding that he believes would represent a balanced research agenda for research related to education technology. This research agenda would span the range from basic cognitive research to innovation in technology, software and curriculum, implementation research, a set of education accelerators, to human resource development at all levels.
From page 65...
... Two-thirds of the proposed funding would foster curriculum innovations and different types of implementation research that focus on the use of that technology in classrooms. Tinker finished his presentation by noting that this level of funding is small compared with the size of the education enterprise itself, and it is about the same order of magnitude as the current efforts being spent to implement, disseminate, and provide professional development for innovations that already exist.
From page 66...
... KEY ENABLERS FOR THE SECOND TRANSFORMATION As was done for the first transformation, four breakout groups developed lists of key enablers after the presentations dealing with the second transformation. Participants then voted for their top two candidates.
From page 67...
... Some of the discussion mentioned the potential to use IT-supported tools to assess more complex 21st century skills, which would in turn allow greater emphasis to be placed on those skills in the curriculum. Creating a Functioning Market for Education Technology Several groups included key enablers addressing issues about the market for education technology that prevent research from being translated into goods and services.
From page 68...
... In addition, Smith suggested that the National Academies could conduct design projects related to important areas, such as English-language learning, to describe how existing IT capabilities could be combined to meet pressing educational needs. Milton Goldberg spoke about the importance of disseminating information from existing National Research Council reports that relate to the use of IT to improve learning.
From page 69...
... As one example, he suggested the question of defining the teacher's role in an educational environment that takes full advantage of technology's ability to personalize the learning experience for students. 21In many ways, the coming together of researchers, IT developers, teachers, and parents, focused on improving learning opportunities for special education students, exemplifies the kind of community building that the committee hopes can be applied in other efforts to employ technology to advance student achievement.
From page 70...
... Rogers commented on the wide gulf separating the expectations of practitioners and industry representatives for education technology products. He argued that it would be helpful for the National Academies to carefully investigate this market failure and to broker a new understanding between industry and K-12 education about their respective needs.
From page 71...
... In general, the comments discussed during this final session of the workshop indicated that participants believe there is an important ongoing role for the National Academies to play in helping to bring about the two transformations in the use of information technology to improve learning in K-12 education. These comments share an agreement that the convening power of the National Academies can bring clarity to a number of difficult issues related to the use of IT in K-12 education.


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