0.2 Newell, p. (march 2010). technology disconnected: teacher  (Page 10/10)

Although many technologies in the 20 ^th century have grabbed public attention and been imagined as potentially transformative of education, few show the potential of the personal computer connected to the Internet. With a computer being able to engage students’ interests and link them through the Internet to a world of information, it is easy to imagine information technology as a silver bullet to many educational problems. Its promise drove Governors and Presidents to include it as the focus of their educational reform policies. However, a survey of technology-using schools reveals that information technology cannot serve as a panacea for educational problems. Its success depends on a school-wide plan to integrate it into the core curriculum (Means et al., 1995). By allowing the issue of funding for teacher development that was included in Clinton’s original Executive Order to fade from policy and funding strategies, the key link to including technology in the classroom was ignored and the entire enterprise left lacking.

The heart of the problem which in many ways has been ignored by politicians, teachers, educational administrators, students, and community members is that technology, specifically the Internet, is a very powerful learning tool: it provides students with the ability to access a tremendous amount of information. Unfortunately, as was noted early on in the wiring initiatives, while the Internet does provide access to vast sources of intimation, availability of information in schools was not a problem (Bakstad, 1995). While it does provide access to information, the Internet does not teach a child how to use that information. The key to “the logic of the classroom” lies in teaching: teachers (particularly those now facing the high stakes of NCLB) seek to teach students from curricula that provide content and analytical tools which allow students to learn. Placing computers in the classroom, while it did satisfy the business community’s interest of making certain students could gain access to a computer, does not integrate them into the process of education. Although it is unparalleled as a self-directed learning tool, information technology can be problematic as a teaching tool within the current school structure and the current education funding model. Until a concerted effort is made to include the training of teachers to incorporate information technology into the classroom in a concerted fashion in all schools, the goal of revolutionizing education with technology will remain an unrealized ideal.

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