EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY:
CHANGING TEACHING AND LEARNING

Educational technology has the following benefits:

• Brings the world to the classroom. No matter what their socioeconomic or ethnic background, and no matter where they live, the learning field for all students can be leveled. Students are introduced to people, places, and ideas they might otherwise not be exposed to;

• Enables students to learn by doing. Studies have confirmed what many instinctively knew -- that children who are actively engaged in learning, learn more. The effects are particularly noticeable among students who were not high achievers under more traditional methods. Networked projects, where students work with others and conduct their own research and analysis, can transform students into committed and exhilarated learners;

• Encourages students and parents with limited or no English skills to learn English, by engaging them in interactive learning;

• Makes parents partners in their children's education by connecting the school with homes, libraries, or other access ports;

• Makes it possible for educators to teach at more than one location simultaneously. Vastly expands opportunities for students in small, remote areas, linking them to students in more diversely populated, urban and suburban areas;

• Enables educators to accommodate the varied learning styles and paces of learning within the classroom. This makes available individualized instruction techniques that are a proven factor in student achievement;

• Encourages students to become lifelong learners, who can access, analyze, and synthesize information from a variety of sources;

• Enables administrators and educators to reduce time spent on administration and recordkeeping, increasing efficiency so they can spend more time with students;

• Makes students proficient in the basic technological skills needed to take their place in society, whether they enter the working world directly after high school or pursue further formal education;

[Source: KickStart Initiative, U.S. Advisory Council on the National Information Infrastructure]

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