Student – centered Technology

By: Daniel Dodson

Student directed learning

• The emphasis is on placing the technology into students’ hands. Students increasingly want to be able to direct their learning.

Teacher as Facilitator

• Increasingly, teachers are going to be seen not as instructors but as facilitators.

Internet Filter

• Teachers may not need to be teaching kids what to learn but how to go about filtering the information that is available on the internet and in print resources.

Professional Development w/Technology

• The way in which professional development is conducted in school systems must increasingly be technology focused.

Search tools

• Students want to have search tools are at their fingertips. Paper textbooks do not provide instantaneous search results that students are accustomed to.

Textbook Adoptions

• The creation of digital textbook readers, often called e-readers, requires large amounts of plastic and electronic parts. Once the e-readers are constructed there will be a significant drop in the demand of paper in the world because students will download textbooks. Textbook adoptions will be significantly smoother.

E-readers

• Rather than shipping truck loads of textbooks to districts throughout the state, the Texas Education Agency will have the ability to provide digital updates to districts via web access. Districts will sync e-readers to servers and update textbooks at the click of a button. Not only will paper consumption be reduced, but oil consumption will be reduced as well due to the fact that textbook production, transportation, and maintenance will be significantly reduced.

Social Networking

• Our students are increasingly social on the internet.

Social Networking

• Rather than restrict the use of digital social networking, I believe that educators should harness the creative potential of organizations like facebook and use the natural student attention to create profound learning environments.