Tthazen's List: The Digital Divide

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• Teachers are more likely to use technology in ways that promote student engagement, inquiry, and self-directed learning after receiving in-depth and sustained professional development in technology integration (Law and Yuen, 2006 (7); Innovative Teaching and Learning Research, 2011 (8); Bebell and O'Dwyer, 2010 (9); Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010 (10))
• uccessful schoolwide technology integration ultimately requires a schoolwide cultural shift in which good teaching means using technology effectively (Ertmer and Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010; Levin and Wadmany, 2008 (15)).
• Account for all possible ways that technology can go awry, and be prepared with an alternative way of pursuing the goal.
• Learning is a process, and flexibility and customization are often necessary.
• The principles of universal design (16) ensure maximum accessibility to learning materials. From creating simplified presentations that reduce information overload to ensuring information can be accessed in multiple ways, universal design for learning benefits everyone.
• o not assume kids know very much about using technology just because they have grown up with technology. Research indicates most kids cannot discriminate between high- and low-credibility sources and do not know how to critically evaluate information on the Internet (Livingstone, 2008 (20)).
• In addition, 43 percent of students report that they feel unprepared to use technology as they look ahead to higher education or their work life (Moeller and Reitzes, 2011).
• In addition, a higher parental education, being male, and being white or Asian American has been associated with higher levels of Web-use skill (Hargittati, 2010 (22)).
• Designing projects and systems that require or allow for collaboration is a key challenge for teachers who wish to integrate technology effectively.

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• schools like many across the country that get the computers, the network, and the latest digital teaching tools, but don't have anyone at the school -- or in some cases, the school district -- to get it all up and running, fix it when it breaks, or show teachers how to use it.
• Nearly half of educators surveyed by the National Education Association said insufficient support impacted their use of technology. The result: Tech support may be setting the speed limit for how fast new technology makes it into classrooms.
• In schools lacking even a single support person
• the result is that teachers simply don't use technology -- not just the advanced stuff, but basic items like classroom computers.
• Concerns exist about leaving tech support to the teachers, too. If having good tech support allows teachers to focus on lessons, then adding extra duties to already busy teachers isn't idea
• Ultimately, the tech support must be there for schools to move forward with new programs and ways of educating, including online classes and one-to-one computing.
• In Virginia, a state mandate calls for two technology positions per 1,000 students in grades K-12, with one to fix hardware and network problems and the other to work with teachers on incorporating the latest educational tools.
• What's going on at Gunston is, in many ways, the ideal tech-support situation, blending the official support mandated by the state with tech-savvy teachers, including the school librarian, who maintains the school's Web site and offers Internet help, and Costner, who troubleshoots and helps teachers use video and other multimedia in their instruction.

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• For example, classroom teachers are required to be able to run a specific piece of software. They are dependent on all the computers working. The school IT staff is dependent on the manufacturer. The manufacturer is dependent on a third-party service organization and parts suppliers. In a surprising number of cases, schools are putting up with epidemic failures of laptops, in which 100 percent need to be replaced. (This problem has affected many major laptop providers.) The net result of these complications is that the teachers are left without access to technology.
• Another example involves professional development: A software publisher knows that professional development, or training, is required to effectively use the product. The publisher is dependent on the school leadership to see that training occurs, but many schools fail to do so.
• n schools with low success rates, often the individual in charge -- such as the principal, the IT director, or the superintendent --
• As the number of computers in schools increases and the ways in which students use computers change, more and more bandwidth will be needed.
• It is unlikely, however, that many schools are budgeting for such as massive increase, although technology directors are generally aware of the challenge.
• Skimping on teacher and administrator professional development generally leads to failure. "ADS 2006" shows that schools that have implemented one-to-one computing think differently about professional development than do schools in the preliminary stages of a one-to-one implementation.
• Professional development is perhaps the single largest factor in the success or failure of a digital school.

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