Panel on Educational Technology

By Stacy Cholewinski

A panel report prepared for President Clinton March 1997, Use of Technology to Strengthen K-12 Education in the United States, has recently been published.

The panel stated that a "a large-scale program of rigorous, systematic research on education in general and educational technology in particular will ultimately prove necessary to ensure both the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of technology use within our nation's schools." However, they revealed the alarming statistic that in 1995, less than 0.1 percent of our nation's expenditures for elementary and secondary education was invested in research to determine which educational techniques actually work. This statistic is most telling in the fact that educational efficiency is simply no receiving adequate investments. And if it is invested in, as is the case with technology integration, the money is most often misplaced. For example, with the use of information technology in the classroom the panel found that not enough money is being spent to educate teachers on how to use this equipment, and most importantly on how to integrate technology into their curriculum. The idea here is not to strictly teach K-12 children how to use technology, but rather how they can incorporate it into their lives. In this manner, the students learn through application, while they are developing higher level critical thinking.

The question then posed by this panel is, with a lack of funding for education, particularly in the use of technology in education, how can we expect future generations of Americans to compete in the global market? The panel stated that "the Administration should continue to make the case for educational technology as an unusually high-return investment (in both economic and social terms) in America's future, while seeking to enhance the return on that investment by promoting federally sponsored research aimed at improving the cost effectiveness of technology use within our nation's elementary and secondary schools."

In summary, this is what the report covers: The report begins with a brief introductory section, followed by a section which discusses the problems facing elementary and secondary education in the United States. Incorporated into this section is the role of technology in relieving those problems. The third section deals with a survey of logistics involving the computing and telecommunications hardware and the equally important infrastructure and technical support that will be needed. In the fourth section, the panel considers how information technology is used in schools, and identifies a number of challenges related to computer software, educational content and pedagogical methods. The fifth section of the report focuses on the role of teachers within a technologically-rich educational environment, their professional development and the needs of their ongoing support.

Current projected costs associated with the introduction and continued use of technology within all of the nation's schools are estimated in the sixth section. The issue of equitable access is examined in the seventh section. The point here is to review and analyze current and anticipated disparities based on socioeconomic status, race and ethnicity, geographical factors, gender, educational achievement and special student needs, and to consider some of the policy tools that might be used to minimize the extent and impact of these disparities.

The issue of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the integration of technology into the classroom is examined in section eight — are there better, more effective alternatives? Current federal programs in educational technology are reviewed in section nine, with special attention to the directions in which those efforts might profitably be extended and expanded. The panel summarizies its findings and makes it recommendations in section ten.

This report, along with the full list of panel member is available at: URL: http://www.whitehouse.gov/WH/EOP/OSTP/NSTC/PCAST/k-12ed.html