The Webliography of Technology Education2/25/09

Jeffrey Barnes

Rational:Technology Education is rapidly changing and advancing field of study. The following is a list of available Internet resources that can be used by any teacher or student in the field of Technology Education. These sites include journal publications, national and international websites, state websites, and private websites. These links provide teachers or students with reliable information that will help gather valid information regarding the scope of technology, concepts and activities related to technology, professional publications in various fields of technology, state, national, and international learning standards, and assistance in implementing technology into the classroom.

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Journal of Technology Education

http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/

Description: This website is an online journal publication primarily from Virginia Tech. It is a bi-annual publication that discusses many various topics in the field of technology and education. There is a great deal of information that may be used and reproduced by teachers and has been used by many educators in Technology since the late 1980’s. The most recent volume (spring 2008) targets the notion of green technologies, their need, uses, and alternatives.

Comments: This is a tremendously helpful website for obtaining information regarding current advances, problems, and concepts in technology world wide. Though it does not provide many direct links to help gather more in depth details, it is extremely reliable and provides all of the sources of authors and editors that have created each document. Though it is a very helpful site, it would be helpful to have more volumes published in a twelve month period.

*****Science Technology Engineering Mathematics Education Coalition (STEM)

http://www.stemedcoalition.org/

Description: STEM supports programs for teachers and students in the various fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. This site is developed by using information from over 600 groups that represent the differing fields in the technological world. This includes but is not limited to workers, educators, students, scientists, engineers, technicians, and technologists.

Comments: This is a great site that provides an abundance of direct links to external sources in all of the field of technology, but more importantly, the supporting fields such as math, science, and engineering. Though it is not necessarily targeted toward teachers for the purpose of student education, teachers and students alike may use this resource to gather information on a specific topic and allows a great opportunity for “triangulation” of sites to validate an ever changing discipline.

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New York State Technology Education Association(NYSTEA)

http://www.nystea.com/

Description: NYSTEA is a professional association of Technology Education teachers. This site is directed toward the development of technological literacy amongst all students. NYSTEA is also focused on developing opportunities and professional development of Technology teachers. This organization is developed in correspondence with the New York State Board of Regents and the New York State Learning Standards.

Comments: Though this is a very valuable website, especially as an educator, it is limited in that it specifically targets New York State. Its information is vast and reliable, but the limits put on it by the regulations of New York State Learning Standards prevent the user from obtaining a broad enough perspective, especially in a world wide discipline of constant change.

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International Technology Education Association (ITEA)

http://www.iteaconnect.org/

Description: ITEA is an international organization developed by professionals for technology, innovation, design, technological literacy, and engineering teachers. The goal of ITEA is promote technological literacy for students and educators by teaching technology concepts and developing professional development. It uses international, national, and state legislature, professional publications and includes classroom lesson guides and activities.

Comments: This organization provides a website targeted to not only local state and national concepts but broadens its scope on a world wide basis. It uses sources from all different organizations and publications to provide a widened understanding of technological goals and achievements and their contexts to an international audience. This site does require a membership for the comprehensive collection of information but allows for great detail of data collection as an independent user.

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How Stuff Works – Learning How Everything Works!

http://www.howstuffworks.com/

Description: How Stuff Works is a website developed to allow teachers and students to research how different technological artifacts and scientific phenomena perform. This site works in a search engine type format that allows the user to search specific topics and provides supporting detail with links to external sources. It provides intricate animations and graphics that help support the learning process and allows the user to study their research in a particular context relevant to the desired learning outcome.

Comments: This site is a great resource, especially for students, to gather a more detailed understanding of information that may not be formally instructed or discussed. Students and teachers alike can quickly and effectively find thorough information with well documented sources. Though it is a great tool, it sometimes is lacking in specific detail. The site does partially compensate for

this by providing the references where information was gathered and sometimes direct links to the source.***

International Society for Technology in Education(ISTE)

http://www.iste.org/

Description: ISTE is a society that has developed a site to improve teaching, learning, and school leadership by advancing the effective use of technology in PK–12 and teacher education. This society is comprised of world wide professionals and is a trusted source for professional development, knowledge generation, advocacy, and leadership for innovation.

Comments: This site provides a very broad amount of information and services regarding all technology in education. It is a not for profit membership site that can assist educators with resources, career information, and support in most educational technologies. Though it is a very helpful site, it tends be very “text” filled and not extremely easy to find the specific information one is looking for. Also, the site does state it abundance of professional resources, but finding the direct source of information can sometimes be cumbersome.

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Technology in Education Resource Center(R*TEC)

http://www.rtec.org/

Description: R*TEC is a program that was developed in 1995 to assist states, schools, and districts implement low and high technologies to help escalate the abilities of teachers and students to obtain a high level of achievement. This site focuses on promoting professional development, planning and evaluation, implementing technology in the classroom, teaching strategies, and student objective outcomes.

Comments: This site offers a sort of happy medium between local and world wide understandings of technological concepts. Because it is broken up by U.S. national regions, one can focus a particular interest in a confined search while not being isolated for the larger spectrum of information. This site also does a

particularly good job at offering assistance for planning, teaching, assessing, evaluating, and offering general suggestions for developing authentic learning experiences through the use of activities and projects.

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New Horizons for Developing Technology in Education

http://www.newhorizons.org/

Description: This website is designed to target teachers, school administrators, professors and students of education, parents, policy makers, and media professionals. It is one of the broadest websites available and has recognition by many well respected educational associations and societies. It offers the dynamics of teaching and learning strategies, technological transformations, special needs students, upper level learning, and much more. Though this site is no longer an active updated website (1980 – 2006) the site is still operational and offers a large perspective on many topics and concepts.

Comments: This is a valuable asset to all individuals and groups in connection with technology in education. Though it is no longer updated, it still provides detailed understanding of the described disciplines. It also provides great documentation regarding the sources of information and where the sources can be found.**

American Society for Engineering Education

http://www.engineering-goforit.com/

Description: This site offers the opportunity for teachers and students to develop a general understanding of the available careers in various fields of engineering. Although the site does require the user to purchase the full version of the document, it is helpful for persons in education to understand and critique the vast field of engineering and the requirements of technological competencies necessary to obtain a career in engineering. This site is presented in a way that is friendly to the lowest level of education but details the necessary information for someone interested in perusing an engineering career.

Comments: Though this site does offer the description of the fields of engineering, it is quite lacking in specifics of what education is required, the various job descriptions in each field, and the overall scope of each engineering discipline. This site certainly provides adequate information, however, has many gaps in vital details specific to each career.

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New York State Math, Science, and Technology Learning Standards

http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/ciai/mst.html

Description: This site offers the web version of New York States learning standards for Math, Science, and Technology as listed by the developers in Albany, NY. The document has been developed to articulate the individual leaning standards in each discipline and provides structured layout of how each is a supplement for the maximum develop of the student in each subject and how they support one another. This document includes but is not limited to, content standards, performance indicators, and learning objectives in each discipline.

Comments: This site is a valuable resource for all teachers in Math, Science, and Technology educators in NY, as well as administrators. Though this site is a great resource, it does not offer valuable sources for students and parents. It specifically targets what each discipline should target to adequately prepare students in each field. It does not offer any suggestions as to how teachers should implement the standards or how students and parents can supplement what is taught in the classroom.