Teacher: Technology Fundraising Blog

Technology Fundraising Blog

Technology Fundraising Blog

Technology Enhances Learning

Dear Parent,

First of all, thank you and Welcome. Thank you for your tireless support of your child and welcome to our newest blog. Through fundraisers, parent-teacher meetings, school sports, after-school activities, and everything else that happens in the course of a school year, you have shown your commitment to giving your child the best possible education. As we partner with you here for the education of your child, I want you to know, that your commitment does not go unnoticed.

The reality is that we are raising money to simply continue the great programs we have been able to offer in the past and to help with fundraising efforts for more computers and technology in our classrooms. Some parents may not think technology has validity because they only see games on the computer but in reality, Society’s increasing dependence on technology to communicate information means that students must learn the skills to use information technologies effectively (Roblyer & Doering, 2010).

Means, Blando, Olson, Middleton, Morocco, Remz, and Zorfass (1993) note that technology can engage students in challenging, authentic learning:

"Teachers can draw on technology applications to simulate real-world environments and create actual environments for experimentation, so that students can carry out authentic tasks as real workers would, explore new terrains, meet people of different cultures, and use a variety of tools to gather information and solve problems." (p. 43)

Research on classrooms that have put constructivist teaching and learning models into practice also indicates that technology can enhance student engagement and productivity. More specifically, technology increases the complexity of the tasks that students can perform successfully, raises student motivation, and leads to changes in classroom roles and organization (Baker, Gearhart, & Herman, 1994; Dwyer, Ringstaff, & Sandholtz, 1990; Means & Olson, 1995).

Didactic technology applications are based on a transmission rather than constructivist model of instruction. For this reason, although they have found their place in education and have the greatest rate of adoption of all types of technology within schools thus far, they are unlikely to serve as a catalyst for restructuring education. The focus of drill-and-practice computer-assisted instruction (CAI) on basic skills allows little room for the presentation of complex tasks, multistep problems, or collaborative learning. Intelligent computer-assisted instruction (ICAI), on the other hand, has the potential to deal with complex domains, to provide models of higher-order thinking, and to probe students' understanding, but it is seldom well integrated into a school's mainstream curriculum (Schofield, 1995).

Today, educational researchers are calling for very different uses of technology. They promote classroom learning activities in which students work in small groups rather than in isolation or as a whole class. The technologies used in the classroom are not those designed explicitly to teach basic skills, but rather are real-world applications that support research, design, analysis, composition, and communication.

Technology has tremendous power to help students obtain, organize, manipulate, and display information. Students can use technology tools (such as word processing, database, design, and graphing software) in the same ways as do professionals in business, communications, and research. Such practical uses of technology contrast sharply with the more didactic technology applications designed explicitly for instruction. Using technology for meaningful activities also helps integrate a variety of disciplines, more closely resembling activities that people undertake in the world beyond the classroom. For example, word processing is real-world technologies that can help students develop writing and thinking skills. Using the computer, students write longer, more complex sentences and are more willing to revise and edit their work; they are able to concentrate on the thoughts they want to express rather than the mechanical skills of penmanship, spelling, and grammar (Hornbeck, 1990).

Many changes will be necessary if our school is to provide such exciting, technology-supported activities for all students. Time, effort, and resources are needed to bring students to a level of computer literacy. School facilities must be upgraded to support technology networking. To make technology-supported activities manageable, classrooms generally need at least one computer for every four students. With fewer computers in a classroom, individual students are unlikely to get enough time to benefit from using the technology or to have it make any significant impact on their learning. If the regular classrooms have only a few computers or if the school's computers are clustered in a separate lab, most teachers may have little opportunity to integrate technology into their instruction and indeed may feel less responsibility for doing so.

When students in small groups share the computer, teachers must make sure that all individuals have equal opportunity to do each specific task. Some teachers define particular roles for technology use (for example, the composer, the keyboard user, and the editor) and specify that students must rotate the roles at reasonable intervals.

We must develop and support technologies and models of instruction for which learning is interactive and generative; learning contexts are more focused on knowledge building; students are engaged in authentic, challenging tasks and have more control over their learning; teachers serve as facilitators, guides, and co-investigators; and schools can access distributed resources the world over. More distance education programs use interactive and networked designs. These designs use computers, telephones, video by telephone, facsimiles, audio, graphics, and other technologies. Some particularly exciting systems allow students and teachers to take "electronic" expeditions. One example is the JASON series, a portfolio of satellite-based projects that follow the scientific activities of the world-renowned oceanographer and archeologist, Robert Ballard. Ballard takes cameras into oceans, caves, rain forests, coral reefs, and the Mayan ruins of Belize. Students and teachers can communicate directly with him, his scientific teams, and other project participants via videoconferences and computers. The JASON series provides bulletin boards, software to download text files and data from project sites, instructional materials, challenging problems, biographical information about the Argonauts, and information about procedures for using the various technology components (Fine & Friedman, 1991).

I want to end this letter by thanking you again. Thank you for taking the time to read it, and whether you are able to give or not, know we deeply appreciate your dedication to your child and the future of our students.

We welcome your concerns and responses.

Sincerely,

Teacher Joanna Sheehan

DISCLAIMER:  This blog is an assignment for an educational technology course at National University.  

It is not a real fundraiser blog.

References

Baker, E. L., Gearhart, M., & Herman, J. L. (1994). Evaluating the Apple classrooms of tomorrow. In E. L. Baker H. F. O'Neil, Jr. (Eds.), Technology assessment in education and training (pp. 173-197). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Fine, C.S., & Friedman, L.B. (1991). National Geographic Society's Kids Network in Iowa (An     evaluation report). Oak Brook, IL: North Central Regional Educational Laboratory.

Hornbeck, D.W. (1990, April 29-May 2). Technology and students at risk of school failure.            Paper commissioned for the Chief State School Officers' 1990 State Technology Conference, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Means, B., Blando, J., Olson, K., Middleton, T., Morocco, C.C., Remz, A.R., & Zorfass, J. (1993, September). Using technology to support education reform. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. http://www.ed.gov/pubs/EdReformStudies/TechReforms/

Roblyer, M.D., & Doering, A.H. (2010). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. 5th   edition. Boston: Allen and Bacon/Pearson.

Schofield, J. W. (1995). Computers and classroom culture. New York: Cambridge University Press.