2001 Conference Proceedings
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EXPECT MORE ... ACHIEVE MORE
Don Johnston, CEO
Don Johnston Incorporated
Educational computer technology holds the promise of
educational achievement for all students, especially students
with special education needs. Since the early 1980’s,
schools have invested in hardware and software. With the
explosion of the internet, schools are becoming wired and linked
across great distances.
Students are surrounded by technology but have limited
successful experiences using computers in the learning process.
Students with special needs can achieve more and faster when they
are matched with interventions that match their learning styles.
Students achieve more when educators expect more of them.
Students achieve more when the technology and learning are
integrated throughout the educational process.
Critical elements that enable schools to achieve educational
success for all students include:
- integrating technology and learning
- investing in professional development so teachers to use
technology to foster learning
- dealing with systems change
Some have viewed the goal as getting technology into classroom.
However, curriculum needs to be the driving force for selecting
and using the technology. The real goal is learning and how
technology can make learning happen. Repeatedly, schools are
identifying professional development as a critical need.
Successful schools invest as much as 50% of the technology budget
on staff training and on-going support. The typical approach of
teaching educators how to use products doesn’t work because
educators leave the training enthusiastically but really do not
know how to, when to or why to use what they just learned.
Educators need to acquire a foundation of learning strategies to
apply to the use of technology.
Integrating technology is more than finding a space for it.
Successful technology integration means system-wide change in the
way teaching and learning happens. Technology integration has to
permeate the entire educational process and every learning
environment. The system needs to understand the change process in
order to face the dramatic challenges of resistance and change.
At the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Understand how to integrate technology with sound educational
pedagogy
- Identify their professional development needs
- Understand the change process and how it applies to
technology integration
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