From Serendip
at http://serendipstudio.org/local/IIT/restart.html
INQUIRY, INTERACTION, AND TECHNOLOGY
A program for students of education at Bryn Mawr College, Haverford College, Swarthmore College, University of Pennsylvania
(Supported by an AT&T Learning Network Teaching and Technology Grant)
Reviewing and Looking Forward
In the fall of 1999, at the beginning of this program, you wrote about your thoughts on the following:
- Information technology is a rapidly expanding feature of our culture. What are your initial feelings (prior to participating in this project) about the potentials and/or problems which information technology creates for education?
With a semester's experiences in the program (as well as with life in general), you should revisit that general question (your earlier answers are available here), perhaps with a somewhat sharper focus: - Can the products of the information technology revolution be used to further educational objectives, and if so, how?
- Is it possible that the information technology revolution actually provides a distinctive, never before available, and uniquely appropriate set of tools to enhance education in an inquiry based, interactive, constructivist mode?
(from the Inquiry, Interaction, and Technology home page)
Prior to the first meeting of the second semester of the program, you should record your thoughts in a new IIT program forum area, where they will serve as the basis for discussion at the beginning of our first meeting. Clicking on the link above will take you to a page where you can both read the thoughts of others and post your own, following instructions on that and additional pages. The new IIT program forum area is publicly accessible, so your thoughts will contribute to the thinking of not only your program colleagues but also others interested in education and technology (we'll talk about the pros and cons of public accessibility as part of our discussion: if you are uncomfortable posting your thoughts you may instead email them to pgrobste@brynmawr.edu). (The responses, as posted, are available here.)
Your own thoughts, based on your own experiences to date, are what's wanted. Here, though, are some relevant links to other things which you may (or may not) find useful in getting your own thoughts in order (suggestions for additional links welcome):
- Learning, Working, and Playing in the Digital Age
- Technology and Instructional Materials, Component VII of Children Achieving, the action design of the Philadelphia School District
- 1999 Report on Philadelphia Schools
- Education and Technology on Serendip
- How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, 1999, by the Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, National Research Council, from the National Academy Press, available on line.
- How People Learn: Bridging Research and Practice, 1999, by the Committee on Learning Research and Educational Practice, National Research Council, from the National Academy Press, available on line.
- Universal Service for Schools and Libraries, from the U.S. Federal Communications Commission
- Universal Access Conversation, from The Markle Foundation
As the semester goes on, we'll be exploring and acquiring experience and expertise with the Web, and visiting and revisiting the question of the significance of the information technology revolution for education. Here are the materials we'll be using in each of our four sessions this semester (and, by the end of the semester, the materials we will have created):
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