Technology
Indicators
1. Access
- Connectivity. This term refers to the capacity of
technology to access rich resources both within and beyond the
school. "Last-mile connections" from schools to telecommunications
sources must be in place if schools are to access the wealth of
free and low-cost resources on the Internet.
- Ubiquity. Enough computers, printers, media
technologies, and other equipment must be readily available within
the district and school so that all teachers and students can
access them to solve problems, communicate, collaborate, and
exchange data.
- Interactivity. This term refers to the interaction that
occurs when students and teachers communicate and collaborate in
diverse ways (e.g., exchanging data in different formats,
publishing).
- Equity of Use. Educational technology should provide
all students with access to rich and challenging learning
opportunities and instruction that is interactive and generative.
2. Operability
- Interoperability. This term refers to the capacity of
technology to easily exchange data with and connect to other
hardware and software in order to provide the greatest access for
all students.
- Open Architecture. This feature allows users to access
data using different (third party) hardware and software; it also
allows users to modify the system, sometimes dramatically.
- Transparency. A technology is "transparent" when users
are essentially unaware of the procedures used by the hardware and
software for changing programs and multitasking (i.e., allowing
users to work on several tasks at once).
3. Organization of Resources
- Distributed Resources. Organizations assume (1) that
intelligence does not reside in individuals but is socially
constructed through collaborative efforts and (2) that the
resources that shape and enable activities (to build socially
constructed knowledge) are distributed across people, environments,
and situations (Pea, 1993, p. 50). This feature allows users to
access resources from anywhere in a local system (i.e., local area
networks) or from external sources, such as the Internet.
- User Contributions. Users can contribute information,
products, and services to a system from multiple sources in order
to share common data sets or problem spaces. Such systems have
"distributed logic" - the logic of preparing documents and
artifacts for the systems resides in the user who must comprehend
and build links within and among documents or data sets. Thus,
users must understand how the resources are distributed. In such
as system, users control when they make contributions and what
those contributions are.
- Collaborative Projects and Co-Investigations. Examples
of this capacity include on-line conferences and bulletin boards
with asynchronous communications capability, access to remote files
and joint products, and the ability to communicate synchronously
with two or more computers that are accessing the same file at the
same time. All of these examples also promote collaboration.
Other examples include programs that help groups form consensus,
brainstorm, outline, develop plans, schedule meetings, monitor
programs on group objectives, and develop joint products. Such
systems inherently afford the user the opportunity to examine data,
problems, and decisions from multiple perspectives.
4. Engagement
- Provide Challenging Tasks, Opportunities, and
Experiences. The system has the capacity to:
- Present complex problems and cases, links to challenging
curricula, and unique repositories from museums and libraries as
well as opportunities to examine contrasting events or data sets
- Access experts, peers, community members, and/or other learners
who can guide, mentor, tutor, mediate, broker, share, inform, and
involve users in productive and meaningful ways
- Use the richest media resources (e.g., images, audio, video, 3-
D, virtual reality) for data manipulation and for presentations
- Provide tools for interactive browsing, searching, and
authoring
- Learn by Doing. Tools that use authentic, goals-based
scenarios; problem-based learning; problems anchored or embedded in
challenging narrative situations; or simulations allow users to
develop expertise using real-world problems and resources. Such
tools let the user plan, reflect, make decisions, experience the
consequences of actions, change directions, and examine alternative
solutions and assumptions.
- Guided Participation. Some software uses Socratic
questioning, intelligent tutoring, and diagnosis and guided
analysis of errors. Such systems often respond to student
responses by customizing their content to the particular interests
or learning style of the student. These tools allow the learner
to anticipate problems, subsequent events, and others' thoughts.
- Just in Time and Just Enough. Systems such as Hypertext
call for nonlinear learning and thinking, and they provide multiple
points of entry so that users can quickly access specific chunks of
information. These systems also may be customized for users with
different levels of expertise by adapting information access, help
commands, and user control. For example, a system can be designed
so that people with little time and immediate problems have easy
access to simple, useful information, while people with time for
reflection and exploration can access more complex information.
5. Ease of Use
- User Friendliness and Effective Help. Technologies with
these characteristics are truly informative, well organized, and
context specific.
- Speed. Systems that process information quickly and
provide feedback about delays are easier to use than systems that
are slow and do not provide such feedback.
- User Control. This term refers to a user's ability to
access tools, information resources, experiences, and opportunities
on demand and use them to solve problems, make decisions, and
create products. These features motivate users and promote
exploration.
- Training and Support. Users must be trained to use a
technology to solve problems, create products, and so on. Further,
training and support should be available both on- and off-site.
6. Functionality
- Multimedia Technologies. Students and teachers should
have access to equipment such as color printers, video cameras and
editing equipment, facsimile machines, audio recording and editing
equipment, and various graphics.
- Generic Tools. Students and teachers should also learn
to use such basic or generic tools as databases, spreadsheets, and
word processing systems.
- Project Design and Implementation. The most
"functional" software helps users to set goals and benchmarks,
create and monitor budgets, conduct research and development,
prepare analyses and presentations, develop dissemination skills,
and market.
- Tools That Create New Tools. Some tools, such as
wizards and Mosaic, help users to develop programming and authoring
skills so they can create new programs and tools for others to use.
The development of these abilities contrasts sharply with
traditional approaches to technology in which students learned
outmoded programming languages.
References
Excerpted and summarized from Designing Learning and Technology
for Educational Reform, by Beau Fly Jones, Gilbert Valdez, Jeri
Nowakowski, and Claudette Rasmussen (NCREL, 1994).
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