From Faculty Academy 2007 Wiki
Flexibility and Diversity in Educational Technology: Lessons from the Public Schools
- George Meadows (Education, UMW)
- Co-Presenter: Holly Plucker (Spotsylvania County Schools)
New technology presents opportunities for faculty who wish to integrate such advances in their teaching. While the faculty of the Education Department is always interested in such integration in our own teaching, we must also prepare our students to integrate technology in their own public school classrooms. This has been something of a challenge given the limits imposed by the level of technology available in most schools. Public schools can rarely afford the frequent upgrades to faster computers, bigger hard drives, and software upgrades that we see at the University level. Our graduates often encounter a level of technology that the university might have abandoned years ago. This situation has seen a great deal of change in the past few years. Hardware and software have become cheaper and easier to learn and to use. Technology has also undergone a revolution in diversity as traditional devices such as microscopes, cameras, and blackboards have become digital and as computers now appear in many different forms. Public schools have embraced this flexibility and diversity in technology. Interactive white boards are now common in elementary schools as are wireless laptops, and classroom sets of handheld computers. This presentation will present examples of flexibility and diversity in technology integration from the public schools and discuss how we might build additional flexibility and diversity into our use of own technology.
