Sites reviewed by Shirley Quintero

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE)
www.ncate.org/projects/ech/tech.htm
Technology and the New Professional Teacher:
Preparing for the 21^st Century Classroom (1997)

This report comes out of NCATE’s Task Force on Technology and Education’s meetings to consider how it could provide leadership and support initiatives to meet the technology challenges facing teacher education programs. The report talks about the impact of technology on teaching, what teacher education programs must do to prepare future teachers to use technology, and makes recommendations for using technology to improve the accreditation process.

Two million new teachers will be hired over the next decade, the report notes. Because classroom teachers hold the key to using technology effectively to improve learning, it is essential that they be trained properly.

The report outlines five ways teachers must adapt in order to take advantage of technology for instruction:

 
1. Understand how technology has changed the nature of work, of communication and their understanding of the development of knowledge;
2. Employ a range of technological tools and software, and recognize that information is acquired from many sources other than textbooks and teachers;
3. Help students pursue their inquiries, using technology to help them find, organize, interpret and evaluate information quality and sources;
4. Participate in formal and informal learning with other professional who share their interests; and
5. Acquire a fearless attitude in the use of technology, take risks, and become lifelong learners.

To meet the challenge of preparing technologically competent teachers, teacher education programs must

 
1. create a vision of what their programs could become if they took advantage of information technology;
2. create a plan;
3. determine the knowledge, skills and attitudes students will acquire from education programs so that they can perform successfully in P-12 classrooms, and;
4. experiment with applying technology.

President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology
Panel on Education Technology

Report to the President on the
Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education
in the United States
March 1997

The Panel on Educational Technology was organized in April 1995 to advise the President about how technology, particularly interactive computer- and network-based technologies, could be applied in K-12 education.

The Panel’s report notes that in the next century workers will be required not only to acquire a wide array of facts, but the capacity to quickly acquire knowledge, solve problems and employ critical thinking skills. To facilitate these future skills, the report suggests that a more effective use of technology, networking and other technologies to improve K-12 education may prepare these future workers.

The panel made six recommendations for K-12 education:

 
1. Focus on learning with technology, not about technology, to facilitate learning   about any subject.
2. Emphasize content and pedagogy, and not just hardware.
3. Give special attention to professional development to help prepare teachers to more effectively integrate information technologies into their teaching.
4. Budget realistically and earmark at least five percent of educational spending in the United States for technology expenditures, with schools incorporating technology spending in their operating budgets.
5. Ensure equitable and universal access to technology despite socioeconomic status, race, gender, ethnicity, geographical factors, and give special attention  to special needs students.
6. Engage in experimental research in general and educational technology, and increase research expenditures from 0.1 percent to 0.5 percent annually.

Emotional Intelligence
Building student self-awareness and cooperation skills
The George Lucas Educational Foundation
http://glef.org/features/emotional.html

The George Lucas Educational Foundation’s web site includes information and links to web sites and organizations that support and promote the emotional and social health of children and adults. Children can be taught to resolve their anger, how to resolve their problems and their conflicts without resorting to violence. The article quotes a Dr. Daniel Goleman (Emotional Intelligence, Bantam, 1995) who defines emotional intelligence as a "different way of being smart," a way that includes "self-awareness and impulse control, persistence, zeal and self-motiviation, empathy and social deftness."

The site links to ten organizations interested in developing moral and civic character in youth, and promoting social and emotional learning.

Raising the Bar on School Technology
Technology  Counts '99
September 23, 1999
www.edweek.org/sreports/tc99/articles/up-intro.htm

Although Americans continue to invest heavily in technology for schools, the latest data on school technology show that much needs to be done if computers are integrated into the curriculum and used in sophisticated ways. Often, schools must rely on out-of-date equipment, teachers lack training and the confidence to include computers in their teaching, and the teachers who are using the technology may not be using it to their full potential.

Nineteen percent of computers in schools are old models, such as Apple IIs and 386-processor PCs or slower. Computers with newer technology represent fewer than half of instructional computers in public schools.

While 50 percent of schools have fast Internet connections, such as T1 lines or cable modems, approximately a third still rely on slower dial-up connections.

The digital divide is pronounced in students' homes. Eighty percent of students who live in households with  incomes above $75,000 use a computer at home; only twenty percent of students in households that earn less than $30,000 use computers in the home.

Only 20 percent of teachers feel well prepared to integrate technology into their teaching.

The article cites other barriers to integration  of technology, including lack of teacher sophistication, lack of or limited training, and inadequate access to technology.