Also from today's Benton Headlines... -ac
MAKING SURE BRAND-NEW TEACHERS KNOW TECHNOLOGY
Issue: EdTech
The Washington-based CEO Forum (http://www.ceoforum.org) -- made up of
executives from Apple Computer, America Online, Discovery Communications,
IBM and others -- is trying to improve technology training for teachers at
the source: colleges and schools of education. "A line ought to be drawn in
the sand, and no young person ought to graduate not knowing how to use
technology," said Ken Kay, the CEO Forum's executive director. The group
created the Teacher Preparation School Technology and Readiness (STaR)
Chart, a self-evaluation tool for institutions that train teachers. The STaR
Chart (http://www.ceoforum.org/downloads/tpchart.pdf) rates each
institution's ability to prepare technology savvy teachers by asking schools
to rate themselves in such areas as the quality of computer facilities and
technology use in the curriculum. One goal of the chart is to introduce
business concepts into education. The chart is a way to guide the colleges
and schools in their planning and rate the success of those plans, much as
companies would.
[SOURCE: CyberTimes, AUTHOR: Rebecca Weiner]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/00/05/cyber/education/17education.html)
THE INTERNET AND SCHOOLS: A VISION AND THE REALITY
Issue: EdTech
The promise and performance of introducing computer and Internet technology
to the classroom. Feder thinks schools are in over their collective head:
"the investment in technology is often Plan B, the option that politicians
and administrators go for when no one can figure out how to get the money
needed to recruit more and better teachers, reduce class size and repair
crumbling schools. Unfortunately, using computers and the Internet
effectively is a truly daunting management challenge -- a lesson that
corporate America relearns daily at frightful cost." Both teachers and
students need more training to make best use of technology; privacy and
safety issues must be addressed; and as Jeremy Rifkin says in his new book,
_The Age of Access_, the Internet may link students to a wider world, but
life online needs to be surrounded with physical activity connected to it.
Feder concludes: "The challenge of getting that balance right is why new
technology cannot, in the end, compensate for a shortage of creative,
motivated and well-trained teachers and administrators."
[SOURCE: New York Times (A21), AUTHOR: Barnaby Feder]
(http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/regional/051700lessons-edu.html)
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Andy Carvin
Senior Associate
Benton Foundation
andy@benton.org
http://edweb.gsn.org/andy
http://www.DigitalDivideNetwork.org
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