APPLICABILITY OF LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES IN K-12 TO UNIVERSITY LEARNING

Are children in K-12 receiving enough instruction in technology to be successful in college?

The Association for Learning Technology defines learning technology as "the broad range of communication, information and related technologies that can be used to support learning, teaching, and assessment."  The history of technology in education dates back to the 19th century when textbooks contained diagrams of newly developed technologies.  In the early 1960's, the STS (technology and science) movement began, which encouraged teachers to link science and technology, fostering student innovation.  30 years later, the International Technology Education Association (now known as the International Technology and Engineering Educators Association) distributed publications including The Technology Teacher, which focused on technology education for K-12 schools.  Today most classrooms utilize technologies such as smart boards, ipads and educational software to teach students.

Introducing learning technologies in K-12 schools is important because the US is falling behind other countries in education.  A 2010 study conducted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development  confirmed that US students ranked from 15 to 25 in science, math and reading. (click here to listen to the audio: )  

Many organizations have been developed to increase technological learning.   Companies such as Revolution K12 utilize technology increase teacher effectiveness and student learning through a series of online courses on topics such as math, college readiness and ACT/SAT prep. The STEM Education Coalition is dedicated to ensuring quality science, technology, engineering and math education at all levels.

According to Compass Intelligence, an IT consultancy and market research firm, K-12 schools in the US will spend more than $20 billion on IT by the year 2012.  Schools and districts are spending substantial amounts of money on learning content, student-teacher-admin portals, video applications and wireless technologies.  If used efficiently, this should correlate to an increased technological proficiency with students by the time they graduate high school.  Students should be better prepared to use the wide range of technologies utilized on college campuses.  But are they?

A 2003 article in the Journal of Research on Technology in Education claims that all of the money spent in US K-12 classrooms on computing technologies has had very little impact on teaching and learning.  Some claim children should not be learning about technology or that teachers are not successfully teaching students how to use the technology.  The authors of this article used a Snapshot Survey, administered to school districts around the country (approximately 4,000 K-12 classroom teachers) to find the root of the problem. The results point to a lack of hands-on training for students as the reason the technology hasn't impacted teaching and learning.  The equipment is present, but it is not actually being used.  

The question then becomes, "Why is the technology not being used to teach the children?"  In 2007, Hew and Brush published an article claiming research has shown that technology can aid student learning.  However, just having the equipment in the classroom is not enough.  Many road blocks such as lack of resources and teachers' attitudes, beliefs, knowledge and skills can affect the extent of learning.  It is the schools' responsibility to identify the roadblocks for their teachers and develop strategies to overcome them. 

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