May 1996 — Features

Print this article

Click here to receive your FREE subscription to T.H.E. Journal

The School Design Model at Brewster Academy: Technology Serving Teaching & Learning

DR. ALAN BAIN, Assistant Headmaster, Brewster Academy, Wolfeboro, N.H

Calls for the meaningful integration of technology into the curricula of American schools echo from the days of instructional television. Since this time, technology has brought us the satellite antennae, VCR, microcomputer, multimedia and the Internet, in addition to a host of other innovations. Each has been offered as a potentially defining educational force for the improvement of student learning and ultimately to increase achievement. Much of this potential remains unrealized, and it may seem to many that the faces of technological innovation change but the song remains pretty much the same.

For technology to really "move the needle" in terms of the performance of schools, teachers and students, the challenge seems to be to find ways to embed it into the curricular life of the school, making it accessible to the whole community. This is clearly a complex matter that requires building sophisticated connections between technology and the curriculum, culture and conditions of schooling. A need exists for a clearer understanding of the relationships within and between teaching and learning, curriculum, personnel policies, physical space, professional development and school evaluation, to name a few.

To use technology in a way that demonstrates an improvement in what students know and are able to do requires not just a technology plan, but a comprehensive model and implementation plan that addresses the total functioning of the school and emanates from a focus on student learning.

Brewster Academy

Brewster Academy, an independent college–;preparatory boarding school located on the banks of Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire, is attempting to build the connections necessary to "move the needle."

Prior to 1992, Brewster, like many public and independent schools, had a computer lab with Macintosh Plus and SE models. A number of faculty with a personal interest in technology owned and used personal computers, while a like number of students also brought their computers to school. As recently as the mid–;1980s, a student was refused permission to use a computer in the dormitory because, as an "appliance," it represented a fire hazard.