More and more, students need technology skills in order to "make it" in the workplace and in higher education.

The demand for high-skilled workers is rising much faster than the demand for low-skilled workers, and workplaces where computers are used account for much of this increase. According to one source, by the year 2000, more than half of all jobs in the nation will require some level of skill in computer and network use.

Businesses are also looking for a different kind of worker than in times past. In today's economy, businesses constantly need to redesign their products and services and to create new, more innovative ones. They need employees who can work collaboratively to solve problems, workers who are flexible, innovative, and self-directed. Used in the right ways, educational technology helps to build these traits and skills.

Technology is a Great Teaching Tool

The most effective teaching engages students in explorations and problem-solving activities that are meaningful to their lives. Technology can contribute to active learning by offering ideas and activities from thoughtful scientists, teachers, mathematicians, writers, and other specialists around the world. For example, the Internet website of the Franklin Institute Science Museum includes a link to a "virtual plant cell." This fascinating interior view provides electronmicrographs of a plant cell. The viewer can focus on a portion of the cell and move through more and more detailed pictures of its components. These intricate pictures of life can speak to a youngster who has never glimpsed that "small world."

For a look at bigger subjects, students could try the site entitled A Wormhole in the Cosmos (http://intothecosmos.com/ -- Site no longer working 08/01/2002). This collection of pictures, explanations, and resources reports current news of the cosmos and provides commentary on such topics as wormholes, black holes, supernovas and neutrinos. It also offers a bulletin board for questions about astronomy that range from a 7-year old's query "What is the tenth planet?" to a high school student's request "What happens to a star when it becomes a Red Giant?" This mixture of posted information and active exchange between readers and experts shows why the Internet has been described as a living, everchanging resource.

Technology Enhances Communication and Collaboration

As well as connecting students with adults, the online network links young people around the world through email or World Wide Web connections. Kids can join in conversations with other kids, contribute to student-generated research projects, or compare their mathematics prowess with other young scholars. For example, every week the Math Forum, an interactive site on the Web sponsored by Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, posts challenging problems for elementary, middle school and high school students.The responses, including students' explanations of their strategies, are displayed on the site. The Forum is essentially an international discussion group for young mathematicians.

Technology can also support informal conversations that can enhance students' understanding of others. The traditional pen pal experience enters the electronic age with the benefit of kid discussion groups and online bulletin boards. The Global Schoolhouse project connects schools around the world for classroom topics as well as friendship.

Other two-way technologies such as interactive television and video conferencing create opportunities for classes to "meet" electronically in a live (synchronous) situation. In fact, some students earn complete programs and certificates "at a distance." Information about distance learning can be obtained from the U.S. Distance Learning Association site,

or contact:

U.S. Distance Learning Association
1240 Central Boulevard
Brentwood, CA 94513
(925) 513-4253

Technology Erases Barriers of Distance and Geography.

A teacher in rural Arkansas says, "We have kids here who've never been past Pine Bluff and now the Internet has put us in touch with the world." Students in Arkansas, or anywhere for that matter, can take a virtual trip down the Nile through Learning Outfitters, an Internet site that sponsors adventurers in various remote and exotic regions throughout the world. The travelers record their journey through pictures and comments that are displayed on the Web. They provide journals of their daily experiences and connect to classrooms, responding to students' questions about their surroundings. The Nile is only one destination for this adventurous group--trips to Mount Everest, the Mayan ruins in Central America, a retracing of Magellan's world-circling voyage, and an Arctic adventure to the North Pole are also presented through pictures and text.

Another kind of international exploration is offered by the thousands of museums, libraries, discovery centers, aquaria, and other educational organizations that provide parts of their collections and exhibits online. Selected paintings and sculptures from the Louvre in Paris, the University of Texas' map collection, the Library of Congress' photos from the Civil War, exhibits from London's Natural History Museum--these give us a look at the world's intellectual treasures through digitized images and commentary from historians, librarians, curators, and archivists.

Technology allows teachers access to help they might need.

In addition to the multitude of instructional resources available online, educators can use the Internet as a source for professional enrichment and a way to connect with other educators. Many teachers participate in electronic discussion groups where they can get quick answers to technology-related questions or discuss lesson plans and instructional issues with other teachers. See, for example, Internet Connections at the Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory's web site, or the professional support materials for mathematics and science teachers at the Eisenhower National Clearinghouse site.

Online training regarding technology use and other topics is also increasingly available. Video links can be used for staff development as well as for distance learning classes using new software tools such as eSchool Online, a product of ACTV, Inc.

Technology can save schools time and money, helping them to run more efficiently.

The priority for technology in schools should be instructional use. But technology also can provide administrative support. E-mail offers a convenient, reliable way for school staffs to keep in touch. Electronic enrollment, attendance-taking, grade-reporting, ordering and other record-keeping procedures can streamline paperwork and save precious resources. For example, one administrator reports substantial savings by generating purchaseorders online rather than by the traditional, pencil-and-paper methods.

The Internet is another great research tool for administrators who want to plan, or just need advice. There are many Internet sites that provide information for ways to improve administrative support of a school or school district.

This is a movement that won't go away. The longer you wait, the more catching up you'll have to do.

In 1995, schools nationwide added a million computers. Almost two-thirds of all public schools are now linked to the Internet. With so much activity on the Internet, plans are being made for Internet II. Federal and state incentives for technology use are piling up. The idea that "this, too, shall pass"--a reality for so many educational fads and trends--simply does not apply to technology and telecommunications.

Beginning January 1, 1998, the Snowe-Rockefeller-Exon-Kerrey provisions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, part of President Clinton's initiative to connect all schools to the Internet by the Year 2000, will serve as an impetus for schools to join the electronic age. Discounts for telecommunications services that make the Internet and distance learning accessible (called universal service discounts or "e-rate") will thereafter be made available to schools, libraries, and public and non-profit rural health care facilities from Alaska to Florida. Educators can no longer wait and watch--they must now act and make a commitment to implement technology into school settings. Information on the e-rate is available from your state education agency. The Schools and Library Corporation, which manages applications for the e-rate, has compiled an extensive collection of forms, documents, and advice on its Internet site: http://www.sl.universalservice.org/.

Virtual Plant Cell
http://www.life.uiuc.edu/plantbio/cell/

The Math Forum
http://mathforum.org/

Global Schoolhouse
http://www.globalschoolnet.org/GSH/

Learning Outfitters
http://www.learningoutfitters.com/
(Link inactive as of 12-05-02)

The Louvre
http://www.louvre.fr/espanol.htm

University of Texas, map collection
http://www.lib.utexas.edu/

Library of Congress American Memory collection
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/

Natural History Museum of London
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/

Mid-Continent Regional Educational Laboratory
http://www.mcrel.org/topics/topics.asp?topicsid=10

Eisenhower National Clearinghouse
http://www.enc.org

eSchool Online
http://www.actv.com/

Jones, B.F., Valdez, G., Nowakowski, J., Rasmussen, C. (1995). Plugging in: Choosing and using educational technology. Washington, D.C.: Council for Educational Development and Research.

Means, B. & Olson, K. (1997). Technology and education reform. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Software Publishers Association. (1997). Report on the effectiveness of technology in schools, 1990-97. Washington, D.C.: Author.

U. S. Dept. of Education. (1996). Getting America's students ready for the 21st century: Meeting the technology literacy challenge. Washington, D.C.: Author.