Digital' carries the potential to improve learning. But, potential alone won't sell district management on bringing it into schools. New technologies are most likely to be adopted when decisions are made at the school, when schools are given autonomy.
Today's youth are more different from each other and from previous generations than at any time in history. The nation's still standardized model of learning isn't working for nearly half of them. Customizing learning opportunities will. And today's fast-changing technology platform already shows how effective on-line and computer-centric learning can be – and how it changes the role of educators in amazing ways.
Clayton Christensen, business professor at Harvard Business School, says: Improvement requires states to make room for disruptive innovation in public education.
This paper explains the 'how' of achieving greater innovation with Information Technologies in schools. The problem is one of structure, and requires both a redesign of schools and of the system. Recommendations are made for states and the federal government.
Modern technologies, if applied properly, can personalize the process of learning without increasing labor costs. Before this can happen educators must understand there are distinct ways that technologies can be applied. "Type I" applications use technology to make traditional teaching more efficient; "Type II" makes possible teaching and learning in new and fundamentally different ways -- allowing for personalization.
This article discusses the role of large corporations such as Microsoft in partnering with independent entrepreneurs in the classroom. Entrepreneur Bob Bilyk, has created an application LodeStar that, with the aid of Microsoft's Class Server, enables teachers to more effectively customize learning materials to meet students' individual needs.
A summary of available literature reporting student attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors regarding digital technology, particularly for learning. Describes our nation's increasingly tech-savvy students, the ways in which they use technology, and their frustrations with our text-dominated schools. Students suggest how education policy and school designers could better meet their needs.
George Young, in 1981 superintendent of St. Paul, foresaw technology as a tool not to replace teachers, but to help them do their jobs. Using technology to individualize education can reform a system where students are lumped into grades and instructed as a group regardless of their learning style and abilities.
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