EDUC 682 Technology Enhanced Learning Environments
Dr. Mike Charles

Placing technology in K-12 schools can be expensive, both in terms of money and the time it takes for faculty, staff, and students to learn to use these tools. What reasons are typically given to justify this effort? Anne Bednar at Eastern Michigan University has suggested that there are generally three rationales given for the use of technology in schools. Her description of those reasons are:

1. Student learning/motivation: Use of instructional technology can increase student learning and/or motivation to learn over other teaching methods.

• e.g. Richard J. Coley's September 1997 article that evaluates the impact of technology in the schools, largely in terms of its ability to increase student achievement, though acknowledging the better learning environment that technology can provide as well.
  

2. Tech to work: Already more than 75% of all jobs require use of a computer in some capacity. Students who are skilled in using technology in accomplishing tasks in school will be better prepared for the world of work.

• e.g. an article written by the Education World publication's "tech team" that answers the question, "Should kids in primary grades use computers?" In interviewing teachers who have successfully used technology in the classroom, these educators give many reasons, but the "real-life skill that will carry them throughout their entire lives" is a strong and repeating theme.
  

3. Student centered learning environments: Use of instructional technology facilitates development of a student-centered learning environment rather than a teacher-centered classroom.

• e.g. Seymour Papert's October 1996 article about computers as agents of change in the school.
  

One important note: I would suggest that each of these rationales can "stand on their own," but in practice they are often woven together.  Nevertheless I would suggest that a careful analysis of any argument for using technology in the schools can be reduced to one or more of these three reasons.

• Concept map showing some possible reasons why one might argue for using technology in the schools generated by the January 2005 EDUC 436/537 course.
• A link to an article about technology from the United Nations Cyberschoolbus which is based on an additional possible rationale--technology as a tool for global equity.