Readings

The following are recommended to you for reading over the course of your studies. These are not required, but are excellent sources of information related to advancing learning through the use of information technology in the classroom.

Teacher Pedagogical Beliefs: The Final Frontier in our Quest for Technology Integration
Although the conditions for successful technology integration finally appear to be in place, including ready access to technology, increased training for teachers, and a favorable policy environment, high-level technology use is still surprisingly low. This suggests that additional barriers, specifically related to teachers' pedagogical beliefs, may be at work. Previous researchers have noted the influence of teachers' beliefs on classroom instruction specifically in math, reading, and science, yet little research has been done to establish a similar link to teachers' classroom uses of technology. In this article, I argue for the importance of such research and present a conceptual overview of teacher pedagogical beliefs as a vital first step. After defining and describing the nature of teacher beliefs, including how they are likely to impact teachers' classroom practice, I describe important implications for teacher professional development and offer suggestions for future research.
http://blog.lib.umn.edu/cehd/teri/ertmer_2005.pdf

The Paradoxical Future of Digital Learning
What constitutes learning in the 21st century will be contested terrain as our society strives toward post-industrial forms of knowledge acquisition and production without having yet overcome the educational contradictions and failings of the industrial age. Educational reformers suggest that the advent of new technologies will radically transform what people learn, how they learn, and wherethey learn, yet studies of diverse learners’ use of new media cast doubt on the speed and extent of change. Drawing on recent empirical and theoretical work, this essay critically examines beliefs about the nature of digital learning and points to the role of social, culture, and economic factors in shaping and constraining educational transformation in the digital era.
http://gseweb.oit.uci.edu/person/warschauer_m/docs/paradox.pdf

Beyond the 'Digital Natives' Debate: Towards a More Nuanced Understanding of Students' Technology Experiences
The idea of ‘the digital natives’, a generation of tech-savvy young people immersed in digital technologies for which current education systems cannot cater, has gained widespread popularity on the basis of claims rather than evidence. Recent research has shown flaws in the argument that there is an identifiable generation, or even a single type of highly adept technology user. For educators, the diversity revealed by these studies provides valuable insights into students’ experiences of technology inside and outside formal education. While this body of work provides a preliminary understanding, it also highlights subtleties and complexities that require further investigation. It suggests, for example, that we must go beyond simple dichotomies evident in the digital native debate to develop a more sophisticated understanding of our students’ experiences of technology. Using a review of recent research findings as a starting point, this paper identifies some key issues for educational researchers, offers new ways of conceptualising key ideas using theoretical constructs from Castells, Bourdieu and Bernstein, and makes a case for how we need to develop the debate in order to advance our understanding.
http://ro.uow.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2330&context=edupapers 

Towards Technology Integration in the Schools: Why it isn't Happening
Research in the past decade has shown that computer technology is an effective means for widening educational opportunities, but most teachers neither use technology as an instructional delivery system nor integrate technology into their curriculum. This qualitative study examined the classroom practice of 30 "tech-savvy" teachers who used computer technology in their instruction, how much they used it, the obstacles they had to overcome to succeed in its use, and their general issues and concerns regarding technology. Participants were volunteers from two elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. All identified by their schools as being proficient with technology. The study found that the teachers were highly educated and skilled with technology, were innovative and adept at overcoming obstacles, but that they did not integrate technology on a consistent basis as both a teaching and learning tool. Two key issues were that their students did not have enough time at computers, and that teachers needed extra planning time for technology lessons. Other concerns were outdated hardware, lack of appropriate software, technical difficulties, and student skill levels. Results suggest that schools have not yet achieved true technology integration. There are implications for teachers, administrators, and teacher educators.
http://my.ccsd.net/userdocs/documents/1469569759.pdf

The Integration of Instructional Technology into Public Education
Will instructional technology (IT) ever be integrated into public schools? An interesting question—or rather a series of related questions of interest to educators and parents: What do we mean by “instructional technology”? What is integration? What is the current status of IT in classrooms? Are there constraints or barriers to integration? What are the effects of preservice teacher preparation and inservice professional development? How does one proceed with technology integration? How do we apply the lessons learned from “older” technologies to the “newer” technologies of the last two decades? This article will address each of these questions in order to help us to grasp the prospects for the integration of instructional technology into public education as well as to consider the promises and challenges of such a venture.
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic87187.files/Earle02.pdf

Through the Looking Glass: Examining Technology Integration in School Librarianship
http://www.academia.edu/8360929/Through_the_Looking_Glass_Examining_Technology_Integration_in_School_Librarianship