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Joan was a computer teacher in elementary and middle schools before stepping into academia. She carries out research on how teachers learn about technology, how to teach teachers to teaching using technology, etc.
How people learn, how people teach, curriculum/content knowledge, technology expertise (media/software/hardware)
Definition of educational technology: technology resources leveraged to support educational processes involved in teaching and learning
Generally, nationally, there is equality in student to computer ratio (3:1) but access to technology has inequalities and inequities
This has been shown in FL and TX – low tech use, low tech prep. Teachers in those schools have lower technology integration readiness. Keep in mind that many decisions about technology use in schools are made at the district or state level, not at the individual classroom level. It may be out of the hands of the teacher.
Fully online schools had weaker gains in reading and math. They had 72 fewer reading days and 180 fewer math learning days.
This applies to all SESSocioeconomic Status, SPED, ELLSpecial Education, English Language Learner, and URM Under-Represented Minority students.
In Texas, we have the largest majority of Hispanic students (52%) and 60% of Texas students are economically disadvantaged so we need to pay attention to these inequities.
Passive use vs. active use (each administration creates a national plan of focus)
Passive: unempowered digital learning – tutorials, test prep, worksheets, personal/adaptive learning environments (big tech companies produce these, they can adapt to learning via “quiz” feedback) – teachers are using the technology and students are consuming
Active: empowered digital learning – agency to select/decide. Technology is in the hands of the children vs. the teacher, use tech to engage and learn with others
Question to us: What have we noted in our kid’s schools with passive vs. active
See handout, attached at bottom
Some examples of active technology for the family:
Travel: make digital scrapbook, write stories about your trip, pre-trip research as a group, hiking trail apps, iNaturalist to log what you find in nature, LeafSnap to identify plants, geocaching
Digital painting and art creation, virtual world building, tracking physical activity and health
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