• The Cardinal Rules
• Introduction to Technology Integration
• Welcome to the Information Age

The Cardinal Rules of Technology Integration:

1. Technology use in the classroom must help accomplish curricular goals.

Technology use must be a natural and transparent part of instruction. In this age of high stakes tests and accountability, classroom time needs to be focused on meeting the goals of the curriculum.

2. Technology use must make it possible for students to:

• A. Get more work done in the same time (improve efficiency).

• B. Get higher quality work done in the same time (improve quality)

• C. Do things they could not do before.

We will look at these two rules in detail with examples to make clear their meaning.

Before looking at the rules in deatil, we will examine the context from where these rules arise.

Introduction

How do we best integrate the technology that we find in our classrooms into our curriculum? This is more difficult than it sounds for a number of reasons:

1. our curriculum doesn’t stay the same from year to year,
2. technology is also changing very rapidly,
3. technology use doesn’t always address Washington State standards (or curricular standards), and
4. teachers often perceive technology to be additional work for little perceptible gain.

To integrate technology into curriculum requires then, addressing all these concerns. We must make something that is rapidly changing fit into something that is changing as well. We must show how to make the use of technology address the standards. We need to show where technology fits naturally into curriculum. It is difficult, but it isn’t impossible, if one is armed with an abstract method that allows the application of any technology to any curriculum while following the cardinal rules of technology integration above. We will learn that abstract method in this course.

It is impossible to integrate technology into curriculum without understanding both the technology and the curriculum. The curriculum (and the assessment of the curriculum) dictate our classroom practices, which, in turn, affect the manner in which we may use technology. In order to fully understand the nature of the technology integration problem we need to explore the forces that shape our curriculum and to examine the effects of the pace of change in technology.

Definitions

Technology - this includes computers, digital cameras, digital display devices, scanners, and printers.

Integration - in this context we mean the use of technology in the classroom curriculum that addresses the GLEs and Washington State standards (or any set of curricular standards).

Curriculum - what we want our students to know and be able to do. As teachers, we adjust our teaching methods and our theories of teaching and learning to better fit the curriculum as it changes.

Why IT needs to be in the classroom

Computers are often referred to as Information Technology. This is often shortened to the acronym “IT”. At this point, no one in the business world thinks of information technology as optional or unnecessary. However, the debate still goes on in K-12 education. Teachers are understandably unwilling to use technology if it is viewed as added work with little or no perceived benefit. If there is a high stakes test the students must take, and the test does not allow the use of technology, why should students use technology in the classroom? Questioning technology use is an intelligent response to the current social, polital, and cultural realities.

In the early 90s the business world had the same debate, before the use of IT lead to large gains in productivity. Clearly, in K-12, we are still casting about looking for the correct use of IT that will lead to a similar gain in student “productivity”. We are still not sure how to best use technology in our educational system.

Read some of the book Oversold and Underused by Larry Cuban (at right). Also, explore the EdTechNot web site (link on the right).

Given the context of the Information Age, it is clear that if a student has no access to technology and does not view a computer as a means of communication and a source of information, the student will be less able to be successful in the world we see today. In 10 years, not understanding how to use technology may indeed be crippling.

Next: Welcome to the Information Age!

These statements summarize this concept. We will be addressing each of these in turn as we move through the course.

To integrate technology into curriculum, one must understand both technology and curriculum.

The Information Age is driving changes in technology; technology is driving the Information Age.

The Information Age, school reform, and political efforts are driving curriculum change.

As curriculum changes, so does classroom practice.

As classroom practice changes, so does the manner in which technology may be used in the classroom.

The connection between technology and curriculum is information and information skills.

When the information in a unit of instruction is identified, opportunities for technology use are identified as well.

Naysayers:

Arguments against computer use in schools -

Oversold and Underused by Larry Cuban

EdTechNot Site
Here