Clayton Haliburton's List: Technology Improve Literary Skills

• • Freedom to express their views, personalities, and identities
   
  • Ability to customize and personalize technology to their own tastes
   
  • Ability to dig deeper, finding whatever information they want
   
  • Honesty in interactions with others and with organizations
   
  • Fun to be part of learning, work, and socialization as well as entertainment
   
  • Connecting to others and collaborating in everything
   
  • Speed and responsiveness in communication and searching for answers
   
  • Innovation and change, not settling for familiar technologies but seeking and using what is new and better
• • reading Web sites;
   
  • using search engines;
   
  • using map searches;
   
  • accessing videos, podcasts, and feeds;
   
  • evaluating Web resources;
   
  • researching on the Internet;
   
  • e-mailing, chatting, texting, microblogging;
   
  • using social sites;
   
  • visiting virtual worlds;
   
  • blogging and using wikis; and
   
  • using message boards, newsgroups, and VOIP (Skype).

• A new research study reports that pre-K students who used age-appropriate technology with progress monitoring over six months made significant improvements in both math and early literacy skills on externally-administered, standardized tests.
• “iStartSmart technology was chosen for this study because it includes two critical factors that make technology a valuable tool for early education: 1) developmentally appropriate, interactive and sequential content; and 2) accurate, consistent performance data that supports guidance and intervention,” said Dr. Dale McManis, Research Director for the study.

• Students who gather information from   the Internet can be self-directed and independent.
• Students can   work through a computer-based activity at their own pace.
• Rather than 25 individuals working together on one activity,   technology allows independent completion of work. Those   who begin to fall behind can receive an instructor's individualized   attention while others can begin to tackle more complex   tasks.
• Computer software   can mix text, pictures, sound, and motion to provide a variety   of options for learners.
• Students can   build on their own understanding by using computers as resource   tools, as work stations for individual learning, or as communication   channels to share their ideas with other learners.
• Computers can   be used to assist active experiences--gathering data and   resources, conversing with colleagues, struggling through   a challenging puzzle or application--or they can assist   in reflection.
• For example, while an on-line conversation   through e-mail is an active event, such discussions usually   prompt reflection. They help us think about ideas and check   our understanding.
• Introducing technology   into the learning environment can encourage cooperative   learning and student collaboration.
• Classroom activities that   are structured so that computers encourage collaboration   build on learners' desire to communicate and share their   understanding.
• Beyond the classroom,   computer networking allows students to communicate and collaborate   with content experts and with fellow students around the   globe.
• Assistive technology such as voice   recognition systems, dynamic Braille displays, speech synthesizers,   and talking books provide learning and communication alternatives   for those who have developmental or physical disabilities.
• Technology enables   students to manipulate information in a manner that accelerates   both understanding and the progression of higher-order thinking   skills. As students gather more real-world data, share their   findings with learners beyond their school, and publish their   findings to the world, their role broadens from investigators   of other products to designers, authors, purveyors, and publishers   of their own work.

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• Technology as tools to support knowledge construction: 
   
  • for representing learners’ ideas, understandings, and beliefs
   
  • for producing organized, multimedia knowledge bases by learners
• Technology as information vehicle for exploring knowledge to support learning by constructing: 
   
  • for accessing needed information
   
  • for comparing perspectives, beliefs, and worldviews
• Technology as authentic context to support learning by doing: 
   
  • for representing and simulating meaningful real-world problems, situations, and contexts
   
  • for representing beliefs, perspectives, arguments, and stories of others
   
  • for defining a safe, controllable problem space for student thinking
• Technology as social medium to support learning by conversing: 
   
  • for collaborating with others
   
  • for discussing, arguing, and building consensus among members of a community
   
  • for supporting discourse among knowledge-building communities
• Technology as intellectual partner (Jonassen, 2000) to support learning by reflecting: 
   
  • for helping learners to articulate and represent what they know
   
  • for reflecting on what they have learned and how they came to know it
   
  • for supporting learners’ internal negotiations and meaning making
   
  • for constructing personal representations of meaning
   
  • for supporting mindful thinking

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