Cover Story
Are You Ready?

High-Tech teaching--students latch on to it, the law will require it, and educators are taking it beyond the computer lab.

Photo by Paul Hartmann

Not so long ago, if you knew how to word process your reports, file grades electronically, and pull together a Microsoft® PowerPoint® presentation, you were tech-savvy--or at least tech-adequate. Yet, these skills didn't really affect the way you taught. Now educators are looking at the range of technology available and integrating it into their teaching--using technology as a tool to facilitate learning, just as the blackboard did generations ago.

And in today's classrooms, educational technology encompasses much more than desktop computers. Teachers have access to laptops and pocket PCs, digital cameras and microscopes, Web-based video equipment, graphing calculators, and even weather-tracking devices.

It's a good thing, since new laws require teachers to show greater ability to integrate technology into their lessons.

Students have high-tech expectations for their teachers as well. For students, technology has become a part of their everyday existence, and they've come to expect the same from their educational environment.

For Nebraska fifth-grade teacher Tony Vincent, technology has become as commonplace as textbooks and chalk.

Every student in Vincent's classroom at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha has a personal handheld computer--pocket-sized computers that look more like Nintendo® Game Boys than education tools. But under the guidance of their teacher, students use the portable devices to compose and edit essays for language arts, diagram the parts of a cell for science, complete a spelling quiz their teacher "beams" to them, and even animate long division problems.

Animate long division problems?

Using a computer program called Sketchy, which functions like a digital flip book, students create short cartoons that show each step they take to solve a math problem. They move the numbers around the screen as they solve a problem and add "thought bubbles" to explain their work. Students find the programs so engaging they watch their cartoons, and ones created by their classmates, repeatedly. The process of creating the product and reviewing it reinforces the thought process students should use to solve the problems, Vincent says. As a result, a lesson that used to take two weeks now takes just three days for students to comprehend.

Having the handheld computers in class gives students immediate and regular access to the technology. And Vincent no longer has to structure his lessons around the availability of the school's computer lab. As a result, students spend more time composing and revising projects, collaborating on group assignments, and building their problem-solving skills. Students even take the small portable computers home to complete assignments.

"Now that I've had a taste of the classroom that I've always imagined, where students each have their own computer and collaborate and work together, I can't imagine teaching without them," Vincent says.

But teaching without technology is no longer an option for any teacher under new federal and state requirements.

States Setting Technology Requirements
While previous federal educational technology programs focused more on increasing student access to technology, the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) includes provisions about how teachers and students use it. The technology component of the law, known as the Enhancing Education Through Technology (Ed-Tech) initiative, focuses on three goals:

• improving student academic achievement through the use of technology,
• assisting students in becoming technologically literate by the time they finish eighth grade, and
• ensuring that teachers can integrate technology into the curriculum.

Under the federal law, states must develop technology plans that include strategies for accomplishing these goals. The requirements have given many states an incentive to re-evaluate the role technology plays in their classrooms, says Lynn Nolan, director of professional development services for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).

ESEA"is motivating people," Nolan says. "[States] need to show improvement in the content areas. They need to show eighth-grade technology literacy and teacher proficiency with technology. So the emphasis is on technology integration because it meets several needs."

Increasingly, states require teachers to demonstrate their technology proficiency for licensure and certification. Idaho, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Virginia, for example, require some form of computer literacy from candidates seeking a state license. South Carolina expects teachers to obtain graduate credit in instructional technology for recertification. And states such as Hawaii, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Oregon, and Texas expect their teacher education programs to equip future educators with essential technology skills.

Most often, states refer to ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards, a set of standards outlining core technology competencies that students, teachers, and administrators should meet.

So far, 32 states have adopted, adapted, or otherwise referenced the National Educational Technology Standards for teachers in their state technology plans or other state education documents. Many tie these standards to their licensure and recertification requirements.

Some states require students to meet certain technology standards as well, which means teachers need those high-tech skills to prepare their students. Twenty-five states have incorporated the National Educational Technology Standards for students into their curriculum or technology plans. Some, like Virginia, test students or require them to demonstrate their skills.

But even as states establish additional technology requirements for students and teachers, many K-12 schools still struggle to incorporate technology effectively into their curriculum.

"One of the big myths out there is that students have good access to computers and high technology. That's not really true," says Randy Bell, professor of science education at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. "Most computers are in labs, not in classrooms. So even if a teacher has the inclination and ability to do creative things with computers, he or she doesn't have good access."

Despite the fact that the average school now has more than 100 computers, the average student gets only 20 minutes of computer time each week, according to researchers at Curry. Consequently, when teachers do use computers with their students, they focus on business applications, such as word processing, or searching the Web for reference information, Bell says.

Instead, students need regular, spur-of-the-moment access to technology, which they may not be able to get.

Creating Tech-Savvy Teachers
But access alone won't solve the problem. Although 99 percent of schools have access to the Internet, only about one-third of current teachers describe themselves as "well-prepared" or "very well-prepared" to use computers or the Internet for instruction, according to the Center for Education Statistics.

At the same time, students use computers and surf the Web more and more on their own. Consequently, many develop skills and a comfort with technology that surpasses their teachers' abilities. A survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project found that more than 78 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds go online, often for help on their schoolwork. Those same Internet-savvy students, though, say their in-school exposure to technology is not as engaging. So teachers need the skills to develop interesting and relevant technology-based lessons if they want to keep their students' attention--or just keep up.

"Professional development is the key," says Nolan of ISTE. "It's no longer about professional development on basic computing skills, but more professional development on technology integration."

Tony Vincent, in Nebraska, agrees. When Vincent began using handheld computers in his classroom two years ago, he found few resources to help him develop effective teaching strategies with the palm-size computers. So, Vincent researched software programs and tried different activities on his own. Since then, other educators have turned to Vincent for guidance on using the pocket PCs. He posts information and resources on his class website and even teaches a graduate class about teaching with handheld computers.

Under ESEA, states must document the strategies they plan to use to prepare educators to teach with technology. The law also designates some funding for professional development. Through ESEA's Ed-Tech initiative, states receive federal education technology grants based on the amount of Title I funding they receive. While states and school districts can use the funds for several purposes, including purchasing equipment, recipients must use at least 25 percent of the grant funds for professional development. The program includes formula-based and competitive grants.

Tomorrow's Teachers
While school districts are training in-service educators to teach with technology, teacher education programs are preparing future teachers to work with more than word processing programs.

At the Curry School of Education, preservice teachers begin their instruction with a basic technology course that covers how to use programs such as PowerPoint. But they then progress to a course on educational technology where they develop technology-based lessons.

In addition, professors use technology and model effective teaching strategies in each of the content area methods classes. Some professors also require preservice teachers to incorporate technology-based lessons into their student teaching or other field experiences.

For instance, elementary education majors participate in a computer tutoring program at a local school--they teach the children about Webpage design and PowerPoint. Students enrolled in the secondary math education program partner with a local school teacher to integrate technology into the teacher's curriculum.

The program encourages preservice teachers to use technology to enhance learning and discourages them from using it simply to attract students' attention.

"They want us to use technology in an effective way," says Karen Walker, an NEA Student Program member enrolled in Curry's two-year postgraduate master's of teaching program, "because if the students are just watching images on a screen, then they might as well be watching television."

Peabody College at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, takes a similar approach. All education students complete an introductory educational technology course, where students learn how to incorporate instructional software into lessons. Students also develop their own websites and electronic portfolios.

The school integrates technology into the methods classes as well. In the reading methods class, for example, students work with Web-based video case studies as part of their curriculum. Meanwhile, students in an educational psychology class use weekly Web-based discussions to ponder the ways technology impacts student learning.

The University of San Diego in California has partnered with the Chula Vista Elementary School District to offer preservice teachers a weekly "multimedia academy." Staff from a local elementary school and former student teachers show the college students how to work with a variety of media, including scanners, laserdiscs, the Internet, music CDs, graphics, clip art, and video systems, in an education setting. When preservice teachers begin their own student teaching assignments, they conduct a multimedia project with students from the school district.

Teachers Still at the Head of the Class
While technology has advanced to a stage where it can truly enhance a teacher's ability to teach, in the end, it remains just a tool. The teacher remains the key to conveying information to students.

"I'm not a believer in using the technology or a gadget just because it's there," says Vincent in Nebraska. "I think you should use the best tool and sometimes the handheld computer is the best tool, but sometimes paper and pencil and manipulatives are the best way to get the job done.

"I'm all about the teaching. The technology is definitely cool, but the teaching comes first."

--Kristen Loschert

Teaching with Technology

Are you looking for ways to integrate technology into your curriculum, but don't know where to start? Check out how these educators use technology with their students.

Elaine Insinnia, an eighth-grade language arts teacher from Berkeley Heights, New Jersey, uses Internet research to help her students understand the novels they read for class. Using leading questions, Insinnia directs students as they research a book's author, time period of the story, and key historical events related to the plot. Insinnia and her students used to conduct similar research in the school's library, which often took several class periods. With the Internet, "you can get the same amount of information in 25 to 30 minutes," she says. "It saves you lots of time and the kids pay attention."

The project lets students take control of their learning as they explore websites and information that interests them, Insinnia says. The project also teaches students how to evaluate the validity of information they find on the Web.

After they complete their research, students share their findings in an online chat room. "When you are in a classroom discussion, the same kids dominate the discussion," Insinnia says. "In the chat room everyone gets a chance to answer and they are engaged."

The chat room discussion also provides a record of each student's contribution, which Insinnia can review later, she adds.

Dan Phelon, a technology support teacher in Windsor, Connecticut, worked with his district's math coordinator to develop an Internet-based probability project called Heads Up. During the project, students predict the number of times a penny will land heads-side up during a short series of flips. To provide students with additional experimental data, Phelon created an automated website where schools across the country could register to participate in the project. On a designated day, students in each participating classroom flip a penny 100 times and record the number of times the coin lands heads- and tails-side up. Students then submit their findings through the website, which other classrooms can access to analyze the data. By evaluating a larger sampling of results, students see that although flipping a head and flipping a tail are equally likely, in experimental trials the results may differ.

Sixth-grade teachers Leo Lyvers and Debra Teets used a Web camera and net-conferencing software to team teach a language arts lesson last year. The two Kentucky teachers had their students read the same short story. Then the students participated in a joint class discussion over the Internet. The students took turns standing in front of the Web camera asking and answering questions about the book. The technology allowed the classes to see each other on monitors and communicate in real time, even though the two schools were several miles apart. In addition, using the technology encouraged students to participate in the discussion.

"It was a great learning experience for them because they all really enjoyed it," says Lyvers, who now teaches sixth-grade social studies and science. "The students were eager to get in front of the camera and ask or answer a question."

Want more ideas? Visit the Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) at www.thegateway.org/. GEM offers one-stop access to high-quality lesson plans, curriculum units, and other education resources available on the Internet. The site includes education resources from the Smithsonian American Art Museum, NASA, UNICEF, numerous universities, and other organizations. You also can find lesson plans based on ISTE's National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) at http://cnets.iste.org/search/s_search.html.