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Clearly there are many worthwhile focuses competing for time, funds, and energy within public schools, especially in our current fiscal context. And while it’s often difficult to prioritize these issues, it is increasingly clear that technology is of critical importance in modern society—and thus for schools—and it will only become more important in the future.

To this end, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) focuses on promoting technology-friendly policies and instructional information for schools. Their advocacy efforts make clear that technology proficiency is critical for students of all demographics and income levels. I want to focus on a few points ISTE makes on its website.

One, we should emphasize technology mastery in teacher preparation. Among crucial players to effect this is the federal government—which should provide funding to ensure that teachers understand current technology and can integrate it into curricula. While there are some great federally-funded programs like Preparing Teachers for Digital Age Learners (PTDAL), there is a shortfall in this emphasis, and we should come up with a more systemic approach to reach teachers (or at least those in a good position to teach about technology and those teaching subjects that could benefit greatly from technology).

Two, as President Obama has emphasized, we should work to provide internet access and high speed broadband for all students—both at school and at home. There are numerous reasons for this: Many useful classroom applications require bandwidth levels that many schools lack; students who don’t have internet access at home face hurdles in gaining computer skills, taking advantage of free education initiatives (like web books), and participating in school assignments; and parents are hindered in communication with schools.

Three, school and district policies should be conducive to technology-based teaching initiatives. Sometimes policies that may be based on understandable logic—like implementing stringent internet filters at schools—can hinder legitimate technology avenues for students. This could include activities such as using classroom blogs and researching topics for assignments that might have blocked words associated with them, like STDs or historical incidents of genocide. Administrators should evaluate their policies to make sure they are effectively fostering technology use.

One of ISTE’s publications, Learning & Leading with Technology provides some easy-to-replicate examples of using the internet in classrooms that offer great benefits to students. A recent article discusses how classroom blogs can be great teaching tools that actively engage students. Teachers can post assignments, helpful materials, and other information for the class. Teachers can also provide prompts so that students can address both the question and each other’s responses, taking as much time as they need to think through issues and research their answers. Fostering discussion in this way can make students more interested in the subject matter, develops analytical skills, and gives students experience in participating in civil exchanges of ideas. In another great example, teacher Jeremy Boggs requires his students to write an article for Wikipedia. This serves various functions: to foster a sense of digital citizenship, to better understand the workings of public online resources, to gain experience in research and documentation, and to learn the difference between fact-based reporting and more analytical writing. The assignment requires students to write an article, then monitor and improve the
article if other contributors change it.

It will be exciting to see where the union of education and technology takes us, and it’s important to keep in mind that good policies and commitment from actors involved are key to the successful integration of the two in public schools.