| Chapter 2: | Background |
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Integrating technology into science school communities successfully, however, means that it must match pedagogical theories as well (Lento, O’ Neill, & Gomez, 1998).
Cuban (1986) discusses the history of technology use in schools. Telephones appeared in the principals’ offices in the latter part of the 1920s. Classroom speaker-boxes allowed administrators to make school-wide announcements, and electronic bells kept the schoolrooms to a daily schedule. Time-saving mimeograph machines became available to teachers. In the 1950s educational television stations were licensed by the Federal Communications Commission for programs to be broadcast to schools. With the introduction of computers in the classrooms came the possibilities of enhanced teaching and learning. Cuban states that claims predicting extraordinary changes in teacher practice and student learning, mixed with promotional tactics, dominated the literature in the initial wave of enthusiasm for each new technology. Seldom, he states, did teachers initiate these innovations.
Molnar (1997) noted that in the late 1960s the National Science Foundation supported the development of regional computing networks, and by 1974 more than two million students used computers in their classes. Today’s science teachers have the challenge of using these learning tools in a manner that supports current curricula and goals. The results of a 1999 national profile of teacher quality focused on teachers’ pre-service and continued learning and the environments in which they work (Schacter, 1999). The study states that few teachers (20%) report feeling well prepared to integrate educational technology into classroom instruction. The National Science Education Standards (NSES) serve as a useful lens for science educators.
The NSES (National Research Council, 1996) provided four major goals for science education in K-12 classrooms: (a) students should learn to use appropriate scientific process and principles, (b) students should be able to engage intelligently in public discourse and debate about matters of scientific and technological concerns, (c) students should experience the excitement and richness of knowing about the natural world, and (d) economic productivity of students should increase through the use of the acquired skills, understanding, and knowledge.
To reach these goals, teachers must be at the center of reform in science education. The NSES describe extraordinary teachers who are not dependent on vocabulary-dense textbooks and encourage student inquiry, and therefore make science relevant to students’ lives.