July 2008 — Editorial
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Making Waves
Armed with talking points when we sat down with Secretary Spellings, we
stressed that as technology becomes more prevalent in schools and also more
complex, we must acknowledge the interrelationships and interactions among
these five concepts. Lack of bandwidth will affect students and teachers trying to
use digital content. Lack of teacher training will affect how well teachers use technology,
or even whether students use technology at all.
As you will see in this, our annual special issue devoted to state and district efforts at classroom technology integration, the important interplay of elements is being recognized. A 1-to-1 laptop program in Maine middle schools may have failed without administrative support and sustained professional development. And an elementary school in Oregon may not have improved lagging writing scores without a program that used laptops, projectors, and cameras inside and outside of the classroom.
Our message to Secretary Spellings was the same one we offer to you: Creating the 21st-century classroom is an effort that will involve many steps-- and taking just one may not accomplish much more than taking none at all.
Geoffrey H. Fletcher, Editorial Director of T.H.E. Journal, and Mary Ann Wolf, Executive Director of SETDA
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