- Connectivity. This term refers to the capacity of
technology to access rich resources both within
and beyond the school. "Last-mile connections" from schools to
telecommunications sources must be in place if
schools are to access the wealth of free and low-cost resources
on the Internet.
- Ubiquity. Enough computers, printers, media
technologies, and other equipment must be readily
available within the district and school so that all teachers and
students can access them to solve problems,
communicate, collaborate, and exchange data.
- Interactivity. This term refers to the interaction
that occurs when students and teachers
communicate and collaborate in diverse ways (e.g., exchanging
data in different formats, publishing).
- Equity of Use. Educational technology should provide
all students with access to rich and
challenging learning opportunities and instruction that is
interactive and generative.
- Interoperability. This term refers to the capacity of
technology to easily exchange data with and
connect to other hardware and software in order to provide the
greatest access for all students.
- Open Architecture. This feature allows users to
access data using different (third party) hardware
and software; it also allows users to modify the system,
- Transparency. A technology is "transparent" when
users are essentially unaware of the procedures
used by the hardware and software for changing programs and
multitasking (i.e., allowing users to work on
several tasks at once).
3. Organization of Resources
- Distributed Resources. Organizations assume (1) that
intelligence does not reside in individuals
but is socially constructed through collaborative efforts and (2)
that the resources that shape and enable
activities (to build socially constructed knowledge) are
distributed across people, environments, and situations
(Pea, 1993, p. 50). This feature allows users to access
resources from anywhere in a local system (i.e., local
area networks) or from external sources, such as the Internet.
- User Contributions. Users can contribute information,
products, and services to a system from
multiple sources in order to share common data sets or problem
spaces. Such systems have "distributed logic" -
the logic of preparing documents and artifacts for the systems
resides in the user who must comprehend and
build links within and among documents or data sets. Thus, users
must understand how the resources are
distributed. In such as system, users control when they make
contributions and what those contributions are.
- Collaborative Projects and Co-Investigations.
Examples of this capacity include on-line conferences
and bulletin boards with asynchronous communications capability,
access to remote files and joint products, and
the ability to communicate synchronously with two or more
computers that are accessing the same file at the same
time. All of these examples also promote collaboration. Other
examples include programs that help groups form
consensus, brainstorm, outline, develop plans, schedule meetings,
monitor programs on group objectives, and
develop joint products. Such systems inherently afford the user
the opportunity to examine data, problems, and
decisions from multiple perspectives.
- Provide Challenging Tasks, Opportunities, and
Experiences. The system has the capacity to:
- Present complex problems and cases, links to challenging
curricula, and unique repositories from museums
and libraries as well as opportunities to examine contrasting
events or data sets
- Access experts, peers, community members, and/or other
learners who can guide, mentor, tutor, mediate,
broker, share, inform, and involve users in productive and
- Use the richest media resources (e.g., images, audio, video,
3-D, virtual reality) for data manipulation
and for presentations
- Provide tools for interactive browsing, searching, and
- Learn by Doing. Tools that use authentic, goals-based
scenarios; problem-based learning; problems
anchored or embedded in challenging narrative situations; or
simulations allow users to develop expertise using
real-world problems and resources. Such tools let the user plan,
reflect, make decisions, experience the
consequences of actions, change directions, and examine
alternative solutions and assumptions.
- Guided Participation. Some software uses Socratic
questioning, intelligent tutoring, and diagnosis
and guided analysis of errors. Such systems often respond to
student responses by customizing their content
to the particular interests or learning style of the student.
These tools allow the learner to anticipate
problems, subsequent events, and others' thoughts.
- Just in Time and Just Enough. Systems such as
Hypertext call for nonlinear learning and thinking,
and they provide multiple points of entry so that users can
quickly access specific chunks of information.
These systems also may be customized for users with different
levels of expertise by adapting information
access, help commands, and user control. For example, a system
can be designed so that people with little time
and immediate problems have easy access to simple, useful
information, while people with time for reflection
and exploration can access more complex information.
5. Ease of Use
- User Friendliness and Effective Help. Technologies
with these characteristics are truly informative,
well organized, and context specific.
- Speed. Systems that process information quickly and
provide feedback about delays are easier to use
than systems that are slow and do not provide such feedback.
- User Control. This term refers to a user's ability to
access tools, information resources,
experiences, and opportunities on demand and use them to solve
problems, make decisions, and create products.
These features motivate users and promote exploration.
- Training and Support. Users must be trained to use a
technology to solve problems, create products,
and so on. Further, training and support should be available
both on- and off-site.
- Multimedia Technologies. Students and teachers should
have access to equipment such as color
printers, video cameras and editing equipment, facsimile
machines, audio recording and editing equipment, and
- Generic Tools. Students and teachers should also
learn to use such basic or generic tools as
databases, spreadsheets, and word processing systems.
- Project Design and Implementation. The most
"functional" software helps users to set goals and
benchmarks, create and monitor budgets, conduct research and
development, prepare analyses and presentations,
develop dissemination skills, and market.
- Tools That Create New Tools. Some tools, such as
wizards and Mosaic, help users to develop
programming and authoring skills so they can create new programs
and tools for others to use. The development
of these abilities contrasts sharply with traditional approaches
to technology in which students learned
outmoded programming languages.
Excerpted and summarized from Designing Learning and
Technology for Educational Reform, by Beau Fly
Jones, Gilbert Valdez, Jeri Nowakowski, and Claudette Rasmussen
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