Now, bolstered by the prospect of new spending on school technology programs, educators are exploring new ways to weave the computer skills seen as essential to this century's workforce into children's daily lessons. "What's exciting about the Obama plan is not just the money," says Elliot Soloway, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan who studies the effect of technology in education. "He's going to help schools rethink what the kids do on a day-in, day-out basis." Giving more kids Internet access could compel teachers to switch from asking students to Google for answers to questions, to assigning more involved research projects, Soloway says.
Julie Lindsay on 24 Feb 09Those educators among us who are familiar with constructivist and constructionist models of learning understand the impact that social learning theory has had on the field. Likewise those of us who are familiar with the application of new technology in learning understand that customization (or "the user") is what drives every structure, every program, and every software function. It seems, then, that as educators we have a struggle between emphasizing the social nature of learning while maximizing the benefits of each learner becoming more clearly identified in the process. New technology, of course, can help in both aspects, but it is the teaching method that is challenged. I hope that eventually teaching methods will have morphed into a flexible model of instructional design and delivery that I will call "Customized Learner Networks": networks that are both socially constructed and individually driven.
