| Current
Issues and Trends Shaping |
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| Types of Issues | Topics Within Issues | Issues Impacting Tech in Education | Implications for Tech in Education |
| Societal | Econ Trends | Ed Costs rising | Distance learning (DL) emphasis to make education more cost effective. |
| Political trends | Politicians call for lower cost, yet more effective education | More reliance on DL and other ways of using technology to stretch things | |
| Social Trends | Recognition of need for tech literacy | Computers becoming a required student purchase | |
| Increased communications results in less privacy | Possible suspicion of tech-delivered education | ||
| Growing popular distrust of technology | Possible suspicion of tech-delivered education | ||
| Increased societal dependence on Internet also increases risk of online predators, plagiarism | Educators must assume more responsibility for monitoring students online | ||
| Cultural/ Equity | Economic/ Ethnic | Lower income schools = less access to technology | Low-income students must have equal access to technology |
| More minority students in lower income schools | Minority students must have equal access to tech | ||
| Multicultural | Computer culture pervasive in society | Students must use computers regardless of cultural bias | |
| Gender | Technology remains a male-dominated area | Females' use of computers in education must increase | |
| Special needs | Special devices and methods can allow students with special needs equal access to technology but are expensive to obtain and implement | Students with disabilities must receive equal access to technology regardless of high costs of educational system | |
| Educational | Directed versus constructivist views | Directed uses of technology (drill, tutorial) are proven effective but often considered passe' | Demonstrated effective technology uses may be discarded |
| Constructivist uses are emphasized but little evidence exists on their effectiveness | More research needed on newer technology uses | ||
| Single-subject versus interdisciplinary | Past emphasis on teaching subjects in isolation | Continued emphasis on use of single skill software | |
| Current trend toward integrated curriculum or mergin several subjects into one activity | Increasing use of multimedia and other technologies that support more complex, interdisciplinary activities | ||
| Technical | Rapid change | Technology changes too quickly for teachers to keep up | Latest technologies are in limited use in education |
| Educators cannot afford most current technology | Schools usually have out-of-date equipment, materials | ||
| Complexity | Teacher training is not keeping up with technology developments | Majority of teachers have insufficient training in technology materials and uses | |
| Schools lack the infrastructure to keep up with new technologies | |||
| Roblyer, M.D. (2003). Integrating Educational Technology into Teaching. Merrill-Prentice Hall. | |||