Brad Johnson

Brad Johnson, a teacher at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley, Minnesota, describes how his high-school students used several different types of technology--including geographic information system (GIS) software, the Internet, and e-mail--to propose a plan to build a sustainable city on undeveloped land in their county. Excerpted from the Captured Wisdom CD-ROM Library, Grades 9-12, No. 2, Planning a Town (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, 1997).

"Better use of technology in the project involved GIS locators so that we could take the information we're collecting in the field and put it into the GIS software position appropriately. It involved the internet for research, and for outreach, we had many students using email to send email to individuals they found around the planet. They were working with similar kinds of issues, and the response back to our students was very strong, very likely that they would get something back from someone in the college or business that was looking at the issue."

This Critical Issue was adapted from a manuscript written by Margaret Honey, director of the Center for Children and Technology, Katherine McMillan Culp, assistant director for research at the Center for Children and Technology, and Robert Spielvogel, senior scientist at the Center for Children and Technology. The Center for Children and Technology is a division of the Educational Development Corporation.

Development and production of this Critical Issue were supported in part by the North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium.

Date posted: 1999