February 2000 — Features
Print this articleClick here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal
New Insights on Technology Adoption in Schools
The WEB Project stresses using online conversation to engage in dialogue about works of literature and current events, as well as for improving student products and performances in the arts and humanities. Along with the student/teacher forums, there are a number of forums that connect participating teachers, mentors, resident artists, musicians and other experts in a community of learners. Through these online conversations, teachers share ideas, common interests and concerns, and strategies for solving complex problems of practice. They also exchange messages of mutual support. As a result, The WEB Project community spans the classroom, the school, and the community-at-large, rather than being limited to a specific district or set of classrooms.
As instructional technology continues to evolve and to pervade educational institutions, our model, too, is evolving. When trends in the cross-case analysis of The WEB Project were compared with the original model of the Learning/Adoption Trajectory, it became clear that participants in The WEB Project had progressed beyond the teacher as co-learner and teacher as reaffirmer/rejecter stages. The traditional role of the teacher was being restructured. Professional networks of participating teachers were expanding, and teachers were sharing their ideas beyond the bounds of their schools and districts. They were creating and sharing standards and rubrics rather than simply following them. Expert teachers began to institute trainer-of-trainers programs at their schools or amongst their online learning networks, using students and peers as assistants and co-trainers.
Thus, in contrast with findings from earlier instructional technology projects, a fifth stage must be added to the model as it applies to The WEB Project: teacher as leader. In Table 1, effective strategies for the teacher as leader stage are added to the strategies for the other four stages.
In The WEB Project, the various strategies listed above served as facilitators for the teachers as they became more familiar and more comfortable with the use of technology for teaching and learning. The particular factors that facilitated adoption varied, depending upon the stage of implementation. For example, the types of professional development and support needed changed as teachers became more comfortable. On-site support became less important than online support. Similarly, curriculum integration was difficult at first as teachers struggled to learn technical skills, but then became more important in making long term decisions about adoption.
Organizational factors also played key roles. Administrative support and availability of time to experiment and develop lessons or units, as well as rubrics for assessment, influenced adoption and integration, as did the sheer accessibility of equipment. Technology plans and support within the school and the larger community also served as significant facilitators.
It appears that the sheer number of strategies being used influences student impact and project sustainability as well. In general, technology planning tends to emphasize the strategies that are appropriate for the first two stages. However, as teachers mature into co-learners and reaffirmers, and as their students begin to develop technological expertise, new strategies must be added to the traditional type of professional development afforded by schools and districts.
