Technology and Academic Achievement in the Classroom

There is a need to prepare teachers to use technology effectively meaning schools and district's have to adopt new models of professional development. Too often the limited staff development available focuses on the computer, not technology's role in learning and teaching. Ninety-six percent of teachers reported that the most common training they received was on basic computer skills. Another survey of public school teachers found that while most (78%) received some technology-related professional development in the 1998-99 school year, the training was basic and brief, lasting only 1 to 5 hours for 39 % of teachers, and just 6 to 10 hours for another 19% of those trained. The results of this failure to prepare teachers to use these new teaching tools were predictable. In 1999 a survey commission by the U.S. Department of Education reported that two-thirds of teachers surveyed were not comfortable using technology. In this day and age that cannot be happening!
Recently, a growing number of researchers have published studies that provide substantial evidence that technology can play a positive role in academic achievement. Several organizations like Edutopia, the North Central Educational Lab (NCREL) and the Center for Applied Research in Educational Technology (CARET) are documenting research studies that link technology to increases in academic achievement.
Having first hand experience with seeing the benefits of technology in classroom settings, I can attest to the students being more involved in the learning process and taking ownership in the way they learn a new concept or skill. We as educators need to use the tools that interest the students and it technology is what gets the information threw to them, why are we not using it more to our advantage?

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