October 2004 — Features
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Enabling Distributed Learning Communities Via Emerging Technologies - Part Two
To accomplish its objectives, we need to build a large, widespread professional community whose identity centers on a common vision and commitment to improving teaching, learning and schooling. In conclusion, the fundamental barriers to employing new technologies effectively for learning are not technical or economic, but psychological, organizational, political and cultural (Dede 1998). For example, current regressive policies such as the No Child Left Behind initiative, widely touted as “educational reform,” pose the most substantial barrier to schools and teachers using learning technologies effectively (Dede 2003). In addition, these policies worsen inequities in our society by penalizing the many students who have atypical learning styles that require non-presentational pedagogies. Distributed learning communities provide models of teacher education, induction and professional development that move beyond technical literacy and curriculum integration into reconceptualizing content, teaching, learning and assessment.
However, even teachers with all of these skills are now severely handicapped in using learning technologies effectively. This is because they must race through a huge body of presentational material to meet broad, shallow state curriculum standards and prepare their students to do well on low-level, high-stakes tests. Powerful new models for teacher preparation, induction and professional development - as well as for evolving the public’s conceptions of learning and schooling - are essential to take full advantage of the opportunities new technologies pose. To meet this challenge, all of us in teacher education should lead the way with improvement initiatives based on a distributed learning communities process of innovation.
For information about the Harvard Graduate School of Education’s handheld initiative, visit http://gseacademic.harvard.edu/~hdul.
Acknowledgements: This article is modified from a study commissioned by the National Commission on Teaching and America’s Future and published in the proceedings of the 2004 Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education Conference.
