Week 1 Reading Passage

BA IN ELT
UAS
Educational Technology
and the Internet
Study Guide Week 1
creatiga
U N I V E R S I D A D A U T N O M A D E S I N A L O A
BA in ELT Study Guide 2
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

2006 Universidad Autnoma de Sinaloa

UNIVERSIDAD AUTONOMA DE SINALOA

BA in ELT

STUDY GUIDE



Unit 1 Educational Technology

In this unit

1.1 What is Educational Technology?
1.2 Why Integrate Technology in Our Schools?
1.3 A Vision for Technology in Education: Learning in the 21
st
Century
1.4 Technology impact on education and Learning.
1.5 Building Schools of the Future
1.6 What are the advantages and disadvantages of using technology in language
teaching and learning?

1.1 What is Educational Technology?
Before looking at what Educational Technology is and what it does for us, lets start with
you and your own knowledge about it.

Try to describe the following terms.

Education __________________________________________________

Technology _________________________________________________

You probably found yourself a good definition for education. According to some
dictionaries education is.....
the process of teaching and learning in a school or college, or the
knowledge you get from this (Cambridge Learners Dictionary,
2001, CUP)
the study of methods and theories of teaching (Cambridge
Dictionary of American English, 2000, CUP)
What survives when what had been learnt has been forgotten
(B.F. Skinner in New Scientist, 1964)- Cambridge International
Dictionary of English, 1995, CUP)
The activity of educating people in schools, colleges, and
universities, and all the policies and arrangements concerning this.-
...someones experience of learning or being taught.-...the process
of providing people with information about an important issue
(Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners of American
English, 2002, Macmillan)

Education
Technology
A definition of technology is used to mean a tool or instrument which helps us to
organize and accomplish specific tasks and goals. Old technologies in school include:
learning spaces, learning schedules, learning frameworks (subject areas), learning
assessments.
For technology to serve the purposes of education and change, it must be tied to a
coherent, school-wide instructional agenda. Barbara Means, Kerry Olson, Ram Singh
(article in Kappan, September 1995; SRI Report for OERI, April 1993)

Now, combining the terms. How could you define Education Technology?

How do you think education technology affects teaching and learning a language?

In order to help yourself to expend your ideas about Education Technology lets now
read something about it. After reading, you might want to go back and make some
changes to your responses previously given.

Overview of Technology and Education Reform
In the past, application of technology to education was often motivated
by a desire to implement "teacher proof" instruction. Technology was
viewed as a "black box," something that could be bestowed on schools
and classrooms from above. An increasing body of literature on
technology implementation efforts suggests that this goal was not only

unrealistic but also fundamentally misguided. To be effective,
technology and teachers must work together to provide challenging
learning opportunities. Technology serves the goals of education
reform by contributing to:
Student learning through involvement with authentic, challenging
tasks
New roles for students and teachers
Professionalization of teachers
Creation of a culture that supports learning both in the classroom
and beyond the school walls
Of great concern is the use of technology as a catalyst for changing
schools in ways that better support the acquisition of higher-order skills
by all students. Such uses of technology can have a particularly
significant impact on the schooling of economically disadvantaged
students, whose educational experiences frequently have stressed
repetitious rote drill on lower-order skills, with relatively little attention to
the areas of comprehension, problem solving, composition, and
mathematical reasoning that will support both higher education and
effective functioning in the real world.
Complete the next statements according to what you have read:
In the past, technology was considered
Nowadays, it is believed that technology contributes educators to
The use of technology can impact those classrooms where
Reflect on your own experience. List some of the effects technology has had on
your own development.

Are you impressed of your own reflection? Well, now we will look at what some
researchers have found on the impact that technology has had in learners. This will
probably help you include some aspects you didnt considered.

1.2 Technology impact on education and learning.
The process of learning in the classroom can become significantly richer as students
have access to new and different types of information, can manipulate it in ways never
before possible, and can communicate their results and conclusions in a variety of media
to their teacher, students in the next classroom, or students around the world.
Technology impact on education
Technology is making a significant impact on education nowadays. How learners are
been affected by technology is a question we would like to answer.
It is important for you to know that:
Education technology has been found to have positive effects on student
attitudes toward learning and on student self-concept. Students felt more
successful in school, were more motivated to learn and have increased self-
confidence and self-esteem when using computer-based instruction. This was
particularly true when the technology allowed learners to control their own
learning.
Positive changes in the learning environment brought about by technology are
more evolutionary than revolutionary. These changes occur over a period of
years, as teachers become more experienced with technology.
Courses for which computer-based networks were used increased student-
student and student-teacher interaction, increased student-teacher interaction
with lower-performing students, and did not decrease the traditional forms of
communication used. Many students who seldom participate in face-to-face class
discussion become more active participants online.
Are you familiar with some of these issues?
The next section will provide you with some information on the impact that technology
has on learning.
Technologys impact on learning
Where do we see the results of our students learning? Do we just have to focus on how
they do in their exams? From a US Department of Education 1995 forum, some
panelists contended that rather than debating the connections between technology-
based instruction and test scores, schools should focus on the most obvious and
compelling reason form implementing technology-namely, that students need strong
technology skills to succeed in the world of work.
Many people state that technology offers the opportunity to change the roles that
teachers and students have traditionally played. Interested in the topic I have done some
research. I found the article below but some words and phrases are missing. Read it and
complete it using the words from the box:


teachers skills communicate advance computing
different achievement information
schools technology learning
*See additional resources 1b to check your ideas.
How Does Technology Enhance Student Achievement?
We know that successful technology-rich schools generate impressive results for
students, including improved achievement; higher test scores; improved student attitude,
enthusiasm, and engagement; richer classroom content; and improved student retention
and job placement rates.
Of the hundreds of studies that show positive benefits from the use of technology, two
are worth noting for their comprehensiveness:
The first, a U.S. Department of Education-funded study of nine technology-rich schools,
concluded that the use of technology resulted in educational gains for all students
regardless of age, race, parental income, or other characteristics.
The Costs and Effectiveness of Educational Technology
"Through the use of ____________________and telecommunications
technology, learning can also be qualitatively _____________. The process of
_______________ in the classroom can become significantly richer as students
have access to new and different types of ______________, can manipulate it on
the computer through graphic displays or controlled experiments in ways never
before possible, and can ______________ their results and conclusions in a
variety of media to their teacher, students in the next classroom, or students
around the world. For example, using ________________, students can collect
and graph real-time weather, environmental, and populations data from their
community, use that data to create color maps and graphs, and then compare
these maps to others created by students in other communities. Similarly, instead
of reading about the human circulatory system and seeing textbook pictures
depicting bloodflow, students can use technology to see blood moving through
veins and arteries, watch the process of oxygen entering the bloodstream, and
experiment to understand the effects of increased pulse or cholesterol-filled
arteries on blood flow."
"We know now - based on decades of use in_____________, on findings of
hundreds of research studies, and on the everyday experiences of educators,
students, and their families - that, properly used, technology can enhance the
____________________ of all students, increase families involvement in their
childrens schooling, improve _______________and knowledge, and improve
school administration and management."

The second, a 10-year study supported by Apple Computer, Inc., concluded that student
provided with technology-rich learning environments continued to perform well on
standardized tests but were also developing a variety of competencies not usually
measured. Students explored and represented information dynamically and in many
forms; became socially aware and more confident; communicated effectively about
complex processes; became independent learners and self-starters; knew their areas of
expertise and shared that expertise spontaneously.

Technology has improved students success by:
Rising scores on state tests
Improving student attendance
Increasing student comprehension
Motivating them
Changing their attitude to learning
Improving parent and teacher support
Below there is a list of aspects on how technology influences students learning. What
category do they belong to?
1-Basic Skills Instruction 2-Advanced Skills Instruction
3-Assessment of Student Progress 4-Student Motivation
Distance learning - at least as effective as traditional methods of instruction
Computer assisted instruction to drill
Video and audio technologies - bring material to life
Improved School Administration and Management
All forms - develop new skills related to use of technology itself, necessary in
workplace
Interactive educational technologies, including:
Computer-generated simulations
Videodiscs
Internet
CD-ROM
Electronic portfolios


They like it better
Students learn to: organize complex information, recognize patterns, draw
inferences, communicate findings
Increased family involvement
Multi-media software - teach to a variety of learning styles
Videodiscs - strengthen basic skills
Improved teachers skills
Learn better organizational and problem-solving skills
More comprehensive with multimedia
Assessments which require students active participation

Classrooms of Tomorrow
How can you visualize a classroom in twenty years from now?

As technology is introduced in our classrooms they tend to change and a new
environment is perceived in them. In 1986 Apple Computer, Inc. launched a project call
Apple Classrooms of Tomorrow (ACOT). The project began with seven classrooms
representing what was intended to be a cross section of K-12 schools. Each
participating student and teacher received two computers: one for home and one for
school. The goal of the project was to see how the routing use of computers would
affect how students learn and how teacher teach."
One issue the project hoped to confront was the possibility of any negative effects from
prolonged exposure to computers. Some critics have worried that students who use
computers extensively will become brain-dead or less social from looking at the
computer screen all day. At the end of two years, the investigators learned that some of
their worst fears had been groundless.
Teachers were not hopeless illiterates where technology was concerned; they
could use computers to accomplish their work.
Children did not become social isolates. ACOT classes showed more evidence of
spontaneous cooperative learning than did traditional classes.
Children did not become bored by the technology over time. Instead, their desire
to use it for their own purposes increased with use.

Even very young children had no problem becoming adept users of the keyboard.
With very little training, second- and third- graders were some typing 25 to 30
words per minute with 95% accuracy - more than twice as fast as children of that
age can usually write.
Software was not a major problem. Teacher found programs - including
productivity tools - to use in their classes.
Standardized test scores showed that student were performing as well as they might
have been expected to do without the computers; some were doing better. Most
interesting, however, is that classroom observers noticed changes in the behavior of
teachers and students. Students were taking more responsibility for their own learning,
and teachers were working more as mentors and less as presenters of information.
By the end of the fourth year, ACOT classrooms had change; teachers were teaching
differently, though they did not all teach alike. Each teacher seemed to have adjusted his
or her own style to the computer-rich environment, but all the teachers were aware of the
changes that had occurred in their own professional outlooks.

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