Educators face a great challenge to instruct the students of the 21st century, that is, the HOW of incorporating technology as part of effective lesson planning. According to the article Are we there yet?, "schools still face challenges in using technology to improve student achievement." The article states that schools do not take full advantage of technology partly due to it's lack of use. It emphasizes that it is not enough to have computers and to join the digital age, which many schools have done, but to know how to use technology. Teachers are not prepared to integrate technology into their daily instruction.
Researchers conducted a variety of surveys that indicated how the Internet is used as a research tool intead of as a tool for interactive teaching, learning, communication, and/or collaboration. It predicts that the traditional classroom will soon be extinguished in order to give life to a more interactive classroom, where students are active learners at all times. Moreover, the surveys predicted that within three years, about 28% of students will receive online learning.
I truly like this article because it provides percentages based on real surveys conducted in schools about the use of technology.
Percentages of:
- Students receiving one-third of instruction online
- District teachers who use the internet for instructional purposes
- Subjects for instructional uses of the internet
- Students providing tech support in the district and with what are they helping
- Districts providing students formal technology training
- Teachers' skills and knowledge necessary to integrate the Internet into instruction
- among others...
The National School Boards Foundation published this article at http://www.nsbf.org/thereyet/fulltext.htm. To conclude, this article includes a list of guidelines for school leaders and communities on how we can use technology to help students achieve.
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