Jones, Beau Fly, Gilbert Valdez, Jeri Nowakowski, and Claudette Rasmussen. " Designing Learning and Technology for Educational Reform." North Central Regional Educational Laboratory (1994): p. 1-124. Report.
Jones, Valdez, Nowakowski, and Rasmussen focus this report on the emerging importance of techonology in an educational setting. In addition to examining the ability of educational technology to better engage today’s students, they also rate specific examples of technology based on the degree of technology performance. The expenses associated with purchasing and integrating educational technology are another aspect of this issue that the authors address. Despite the fact that this report was published over fifteen years ago, the challenges of effective technology integration in our classrooms remain significant today.
While few will argue that technology should not be used in today’s classrooms, there is some debate about how decisions should be made in terms of what specific technologies to purchase given a school’s limited resources. One challenge of determining the benefits of educational technology is that it is “difficult to measure the efficiency of some technologies” (Jones 14). Oftentimes new technologies impact numerous aspects of student achievement, so it is a daunting task to track this far-reaching impact. Also, schools are far from being an ideal research setting. The ever-changing variables make it hard to measure the individual impact of one new technology resource.
The authors discuss their opinions that student learning in the classroom needs to be redefined. Three of the key characteristics of classroom learning are students being responsible for their own learning, being energized by learning, and becoming strategic thinkers (Jones 17). Today’s educational technology can significantly impact each of these three characteristics. When the authors published this report in 1994, they were not aware of the breakthroughs that would become common in classrooms such as interactive white boards, online course management systems, and the wealth of Internet resources. Despite the time that has passed, technology continues to engage students in ways that the authors would certainly appreciate and value.
Increasing student engagement in the classroom seems to be a driving force behind this report. Classroom activities that engage students include authentic tasks, collaborative group work, and interdisciplinary projects (Jones 22). In addition, the shifting role of the teacher from dispenser of knowledge to facilitator of learning helps improve student engagement. It is interesting that this changing role of the teacher that was suggested fifteen years ago still remains a hurdle in many schools even today. A couple of the ways technology can play a supporting role in increasing student engagement are by allowing more opportunities for collaboration within and outside of their own classroom and providing access to a vast array of authentic tasks.
As the authors suggested, high performance technology can lead to more engaged learners. They explored the following variables in order to determine what technology was “high performance:” access, operability, resource organization, engagement, ease of use, and functionality (Jones 29). Technology scoring well in the majority of these variables would be considered “high performance,” while technology scoring poorly in many of these would be labeled “low performance.” Judging technology is challenging due to the varied priorities teachers and students place on specific characteristics of hardware and software. While one teacher may find a specific software application to be excellent, another teacher might think the opposite due to the diverse teaching and learning styles in our schools. Also, without proper training many technologies can be underutilized or misused. Identifying high performance technology continues to be an area of weakness in our education system. If teachers and administrators were given more guidance as to what are the best technology tools available, and time to formally examine the available technology before making purchase decisions, our students would receive greater benefits from technology than is the case right now.
Some of the areas of need mentioned by the authors have seemingly been addressed since the release of this report. For example, their frequent mentions of distance learning technologies have become a distinct reality. Course management systems, such as Blackboard, MMS, and Moodle, allow today’s teachers to provide students with materials, resources, and venues to collaborate without stepping foot in a school. In addition to providing distance learning, these systems also allow students to be more productive while in the classroom. When properly used, course management systems can lead to differentiated instruction, authentic assessments, and engaging explorations. As the authors mention, “providing training and support services” for both teachers and students is a vital part of maximizing the effectiveness of all forms of technology including online course management systems (Jones 57).
In order to realize the authors’ goal of getting high performance technology in the hands of today’s teachers and students, they suggested some crucial changes that would allow for this reform. Some of their concerns have been largely addressed in the fifteen years since the report was published. For example, the Internet and its vast array of educational resources are largely available in most schools. Unfortunately, the continued importance placed on students’ performance on standardized tests continues to make the authors’ desire that students’ achievement be measured “within this technology-enhanced environment” a goal that we continue to pursue (Jones 41). Finally, the need to better link school work to real-world applications that will benefit students once they are finished with their formal education continues to be a challenge in most of America’s classrooms. Although these suggested changes to our educational system are daunting, significant progress has been made in the past couple decades.
Too often in the world of education we keep doing what we have done already because it is easier, more comfortable, and less controversial. In order to unlock the potential of the ever-advancing technologies that can help our students achieve more, we often need to step out of this comfort zone and try something new. If schools are striving to improve student performance, they must be willing to significantly change how they operate. If technology continues to be used as a separate entity as opposed to being fully integrated into every teacher and student’s life at school, there will continue to be a gap between students’ actual performance and their potential.
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