Where to Go for Help: A Resource List for Technology and Learning

General guides to technology

  • Report of the Technology for Restructuring Institute, Toni M. Maddox, ed.; published by Center for Excellence in Education, Indiana University, 201 North Rose Ave., Bloomington, IN 47405. A guide in outline form which identifies key issues in school change (including authentic assessment, learning styles, outcome-based education, student as worker); lists references and resources in each area; and identifies software and communications networks that are being used successfully in schools.
  • We Teach with Technology: New Visions for Education, by Greg Kearsley, Beverly Hunter, and Mary Furlong (Franklin, Beedle & Associates, 8536 SW St. Helen’s Drive, Suite D, Wilsonville, OR 97070; tel:   503- 682-7668    503- 682-7668 ). A comprehensive introduction to the . range of technologies available to classroom teachers; does not assume any background knowledge. Includes glossary, sample applications from schools across the country, and resource lists.
  • The Center for Children and Technology (formerly affiliated with the Bank Street College of Education and now part of Education Development Center) publishes technical reports and working papers on a wide range of issues relating to technology in schools. Their quarterly newsletter can be had by writing to 96 Morton St. 7th floor, New York, NY 10014 (tel:   212-875-4560  212-875-4560 ).

Other publications from the center include:

  • Accomplished Teachers: Integrating Computers into Classroom Practice, by Karen Sheingold and Martha Hadley ($5). A descriptive report of a survey study of the uses of technology in the classroom, including changing uses as teachers become more experienced as well as barriers and incentives to these uses.

The Coalition of Essential Schools’ Studies on Exhibitions series has three recent reports highlighting the uses of technology in achieving school reform.

  • Show, Don’t Tell: Video and Accountability, by Elliot Washor (No. 10). Describes one school’s attempts to use video in the classroom to improve accountability of teachers and their students.
  • The Digital Portfolio: A Richer Picture of Student Performance (No. 13), by David Niguidula. An example of a digital portfolio, including discussion of design and development issues.
  • Keeping Student Performance Central: The New York Assessment Collection, by David Allen and Joseph McDonald (No. 14). Describes a forthcoming digitized collection of real performance assessment in New York schools. 

Center for Learning, Teaching and Technology, at Education Development Center (tel:  617-969-7100  617-969-7100 ). Hooked into the ATLAS project, this center researches and disseminates examples of classroom uses of technology.

Institute for Research on Learning, 2550 Hanover St., Palo Alto, CA 94304 (tel:  415-496-7900  415-496-7900 ). A think tank consulting to educators; publishes an array of materials including technology and education.

Communication tools and selected software

  • The ERIC Review: K-12 Computer Networking (Vol. 2, Issue 3, Winter 1993), U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement, Educational Resources Information Center. Free of charge. Call  1-800-538-3742  1-800-538-3742 . A comprehensive introduction to networking, including annotated resource lists of educational networks, government and private, and references.
  • Waters Grant System Dynamics Project, Orange Grove Middle School, 1911 East Orange Grove Rd, Tucson AZ 85718 (tel: 602-S75-1243). Organization devising system dynamics applications in several Essential schools.
  • Creative Learning Exchange, 1 Keefe Rd., Acton, MA 01720 (tel:  508- 287-0070  508- 287-0070 ). Organization promoting system dynamics applications.
  • Swarthmore Geometry Forum, c/o Annie Fetter, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA 19081 (tel:  800-756-7823  800-756-7823 ; e-mail annie@forum.swarthmore.edu).
  • Teachers’ Idea & Information Exchange (Tl&IE), P.O. Box 6229, Lincoln, NE 68506 (tel:  402-483-6957  402-483-6957 ). Includes lesson plans and materials for sample data bases and teacher-created programs for use in the classroom. Requires Microsoft Works.
  • Technical and Educational Resource Consultancy (TERC), a Cambridge, MA group ( 617-547-0430  617-547-0430 ) producing integrated curricula many of which make use of technology.
  • Tom Snyder Productions, 80 Coolidge Hill Rd., Watertown, MA 02172-2817 (tel:  1-800-342-0236  1-800-342-0236 ). Produces simulations, projects, and texts for and about the one-computer classroom.
  • Transparent Language, 22 Proctor Hill Road, P.O. Box 575, Hollis, NH 03049 (tel: 1-800-752-1767  1-800-752-1767 ). Produces computer-based language learning