Unconnected Classroom

The primary goal in the Lower School computer classes is to help the students become technologically literate. This is achieved by exposing students to a wide variety of hands-on computer experiences which includes programming, simulations, information gathering, and working with applications and subject area software. By providing a broad range of computer experiences, we help students understand how computers can facilitate learning in all subject areas.

"The first and most important ramification was that students used the XOs more than they used the laptops, which means they spent more time doing research, wrote more, revised more, and published more. The second ramification was that the students took much more responsibility for the XOs than they did for the laptops, which means that they that they did not begin work only to find there were missing parts or that the battery was dead. And a third ramification was that the students were less likely to lose their work, not only because they always used the same machine but also because the XO has an automatic save feature that takes the user back to where he/she left off. Because of this, the students felt that they did not spend nearly as much time searching for, saving, moving, or reconstructing previous work as they did when working on the laptops."

Mind/Brain Learning Principles

Tharp, Estrada, Dalton, and Yamauchi (2000) propose the Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy as critical for improving learning outcomes for all students, and especially those of diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic, or economic backgrounds. The Five Standards are: * Standard I - Teachers and Students Producing Together Facilitate learning through joint productive activity among teacher and students. * Standard II - Developing Language and Literacy Across the Curriculum Develop competence in the language and literacy of instruction across the curriculum. * Standard III - Making Meaning; Connecting School to Students' Lives Contextualize teaching and curriculum in the experiences and skills of students' homes and communities. * Standard IV - Teaching Complex Thinking Challenge students toward cognitive complexity. * Standard V - Teaching Through Conversation Engage students through dialogue, especially the Instructional Conversation. These standards are discussed extensively in Teaching Transformed: Achieving Excel

The rub in all this is: at what point in time are students going to be exposed to these tools so that they can use them effectively? Curriculum's are already bursting at the seams with 'required content' making setting aside time to engage students in useful technology a great challenge.

# The greatest need related to this topic is for existing knowledge and information to be delivered to the relevant people in charge of ICT in education initiatives in LDCs, as well as those (in donor agencies, NGOs and the private sector) who advise or contribute to such initiatives. Short workshops could be delivered to target countries preparing to scale up ICT in education initiatives to transmit such lesson learned. # What are successful examples of how ICTs have been introduced and maintained in schools? # What types of information must be provided to schools to aid in the introduction and maintenance of ICT-related equipment and to promote ICT-related instruction?

# At first glance, content issues related to ICT use in education might seem to some to be of minor importance. After all, access to the Internet (to cite one example) means access to an entire world of educational resources. Access to the Internet provides access to seemingly endless sets of educational resources -- and indeed it does. However, experience shows that there is a dearth of educational resources in a format that makes them easily accessible and relevant to most teachers and learners in LDCs, especially as they relate to a given country's current curriculum. # Experience tells us that, unless electronic educational resources are directly related to the curriculum, and to the assessment methods used to evaluate educational outcomes (especially standardized testing), lack of appropriate and relevant educational content is actually an important barrier to ICT use in schools.

This handbook helps decision makers improve their abilities to: * Understand the complex relationships between ICT use, professional learning, the change process, types of TPD and classroom implementation so as to aid the development of requests for proposals (RFPs) that address these issues Recognize best practices and essential supports in the use of ICTs for TPD in order to evaluate proposals of national, regional, and local scale * Propose types of TPD and ICT implementations that can achieve specific objectives in relation to educational improvement * Identify cost considerations, potential partnerships, evaluation requirements and other factors essential to the planning of effective ICT-enabled TPD * Communicate effectively with researchers, representatives of NGOs, policymakers, donor-agency personnel, and others about the roles played by TPD and ICTs in educational reform

Key questions: * How are ICTs currently being used in the education sector in Africa, and what are the strategies and policies related to this use? * What are the common challenges and constraints faced by African countries in this area? * What is actually happening on the ground, and to what extent are donors involved?