Active Learning Consultants, Richard Bernato Ed.D.

COMPUTERS IN THE CLASSROOM? PROMISE, PREMISE, REALITY.

From the ERIC database: Teacher Competencies and Technology Integration
Bernato, Richard; Fenter, Robert; Johanson, Dale; Mangano, Thomas

School systems typically characterize themselves about their commitment to using all aspects of technology to prepare their students for the "twenty first" century. The truth is that few school systems have welded all the components necessary to make technology an integral and meaningful part of the learning process. Fewer have demonstrated that using technology has had any major impact on improving student achievement.

Active Learning proposes the premise of Technology Embedded Instruction, (TEI); i.e. a system for integrating technology into Standards, Assessments, and Curricula so that technology, all aspects of it, computers, printers, scanners, cameras, video, Internet, software, etc. exist FOR the curriculum, NOT as stand-alones, not as Las Vegas flim-flam.

Naturally any school or school system, indeed any organization that seeks to make technology an essential factor in enhancing its core mission would therefore need to develop a strategic plan for its full implementation, and more importantly, a plan for continuous improvement and capacity.

Such a plan would be multi dimensional; i.e. consist of establishing the infrastructure needs, the hardware, the software, the peripherals, the Internet access, that it envisions as the engine that will enable the organization to meet its mission. It would also encompass a curriculum component. This dimension would chart out the sequential, programmatic step by step goals, and activities to meet those goals that will train the organization's learners / stakeholders, to meet the organization's key mission. Such a training model might look like this:

But the infrastructure and the curriculum modules would exist in a vacuum unless an extensive, ongoing program for training co-exists. ALC training would consist of hardware and software applications and most importantly curricular applications that have embedded the use of the infrastructure into the training targets.

Only then will a TEI model take hold and have effect over time. ALC trainers can help you devise all aspects of your Technology Action Plan with a special emphasis on developing and implementing curricula where technology will exist for the students' mastery and achievement of content, concepts, and skills. ALC will also help you develop longitudinal evaluative devices that will justify over time, student mastery of state and National Standards in tandem with mastery of Internet, Hardware, and Software tools.

For more information, contact us at richber1@optonline.net