January 15, 2008

Beyond Hype and PR: Technology that Works and Inspires

Lord willing, over the next several weeks I will be posting a series of articles titled Beyond the Hype and PR, Technology that Works and Inspires. The title is intentional. Too much of our technology is peripheral to the curriculum rather than being integrated as a natural and ubiquitous tool of instruction and learning. More often than not, we have purchased technology (primarily computers) for marketing reasons (parents expect it); not because we have made a research-based assessment of its pedagogical potential nor thought deeply about the theological implications for technology (at least not beyond the problem of pornography).

I intend to write a series rather than a long article because shorter articles are easier to read on a computer, can be updated frequently, and are easier to share with others. The tentative plan is to write short articles on the following topics (I may decide to add sub-topics as well):

  • 21st Century Skills: What They are and Why They Matter for the Christian School
  • What is technology integration?
  • Why Technology Integration Matters
  • Technology Standards
  • The Current State of Technology in our Schools
  • Examples of Technology Integration
  • Increasing the Marginal Value of our Schools through Technology
  • Technology Planning
  • Sample Resources

You may find the following video thought provoking. What will school be like if textbooks can be completely customized on the fly by experts from all over the world?


See example Chemistry text: http://www.college-cram.com/study/chemistry/presentations/509

Connexions Site: http://cnx.org/

Technorati Tags: ,

2 comments:

dmaher said...

Dr. Mosbacker - I appreciate that you're addressing the topic of technology on your blog. Here in the early education office at ACSI in Colorado Springs we are busy exploring the topic. In fact, our summer issue of Christian Early Education magazine will address this subject. If, in your short blogs, you discuss the interface of young learners and technology, we'd love to read your thoughts and direct our readers to your blog. We're especially focused on this question: what is the responsibility of the digital immigrant in educating the digital native?

Thanks for creating a place for dialogue!

Dr. Barrett L. Mosbacker said...

Excellent suggestion. I will look into including related to this matter in the article. Feel free to let me know if you have very specific questions/issues related to the topic that you would like to have addressed.