Main Articles:

A critique of Technocentrism in Thinking About the School of the Future, by Seymour Papert. Paper delivered at a Conference: Children in an Information Age: Sofia, Bulgaria, 19th May 1987. Stresses the uses to which computers are put as opposed to the 'effects' of using computers. Defines constructionism, other educational terminology. And offers great examples of projects using a programming language for kids (LOGO).

School's Out , by Lewis Perelman Wired 1.01, 1993. p. 71.
The only mention of educational technology in the first issue of Wired Magazine, this article maintains that telecommunications will make the public educational system completely irrelevent. Technocentric in the extreme.

The Computer Delusion by Todd Oppenheimer in the Atlantic Monthly. A very skeptical article questioning the importance of technology in education. Caused a small furor when it came out in in 1997, the central question -- what are computers being used for and what is their value? -- still relevent today.

Examples of work:

- Student content/curriculum focused websites:

http://www.thinkquest.org/library/

Especially:

http://library.thinkquest.org/50109/

ScienceNet is a web-based collaborative learning environment that contains hands-on physical science activities and projects for middle school teachers to use in their classrooms. Students need to be given the opportunity to develop creativity, responsibility and higher order thinking skills. A problem solving, project based approach can provide a balance in which students learn content but are also challenged to be creative while developing the process skills that are so vital to science.

http://tqjunior.thinkquest.org/5102/

A research based project about the Statue of Liberty

- HarlemLive - online student journalism

http://www.harlemlive.org

- Playing2win Senior Web Site Project - business/entrepreneurship education

Student Work:

http://www.playing2win.org/gallery/webclass/class_demo.html

About the Class, Process:

http://www.playing2win.org/gallery/webclass/index.htm

- Playing2Win: Youth Portfolio Website Design - focus on design and presenting for audience

Student Work:

http://www.playing2win.org/gallery/youthport/index.html

Project-Based Learning and Portfolio Resources

http://www3.autodesk.com/adsk/index/0,,327082-123112,00.html

Great Overview of the Topic

Project Based Learning Project-based learning is a structure that transforms teaching from "teachers telling" to "students doing." More specifically, project-based learning can be defined as: * Engaging learning experiences that involve students in complex, real-world projects through which they develop and apply skills and knowledge * A strategy that recognizes that significant learning taps students' inherent drive to learn, capability to do important work, and need to be taken seriously * Learning in which curricular outcomes can be identified up-front, but in which the outcomes of the student's learning process are neither predetermined nor fully predictable * Learning that requires students to draw from many information sources and disciplines in order to solve problems * Experiences through which students learn to manage and allocate resources such as time and materials

http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/

The Challenge 2000 Multimedia Project is an innovative program that harnesses the power of multimedia to engage students in challenging learning activities. Students complete projects that draw on real-world information and research methods-and design them as sophisticated multimedia presentations.  Students learn course work and technology skills in a way that also fosters valuable workplace competencies such as teamwork, communication, planning and problem solving. Students display their work at Project-sponsored multimedia fairs.

http://www.4teachers.org/testimony/sherman/index.shtml

Ron Sherman shares three successful technology projects conducted in his seventh grade class. Students completed a literature project, a journalism project, and a culture unit designed using a project-based learning approach.

http://www.ed.gov/pubs/SER/Technology/ch8.html

Technology Supports for Project-Based Learning In the introduction to this report, we presented a reform-oriented model of constructivist learning. Authentic, challenging tasks embedded in long-term projects were at the heart of that model. We argued that centering instruction around meaningful tasks would create pressure for the other kinds of reforms that educational researchers advocate--specifically, for collaborative learning, heterogeneous groupings of students, teachers acting as facilitators rather than lecturers, multidisciplinary curricula, longer blocks of time, and more authentic forms of assessment.

http://www.iearn-canada.org/guideontheside.html

Project-Based Learning: An instructional method that uses complex, real-life projects to motivate learning and provide learning experiences; the projects are authentic, yet adhere to a curricular framework For a brief description of problem-based and project-based learning, see http://www.iriskylight.com/ProbBase /pbli.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/library/national/010900edlife-schools-edu.html

Article on how computers are integrated in several New York city schools. Featuring our very own Ted Nellen!

http://www.webproject.org/

The WEB Project: Creating a Web of Evidence began as one of the 19 original Technology Innovation Challenge Grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Education in 1995 http://www.designworlds.com/Resources.html

http://htmlgoodies.earthweb.com/tutors/copyright.html

The following are a series of questions that have been asked of me at one time or another through email. People are concerned about what they can and cannot do in terms of copyright. I knew some of the answers and others I did not. After contacting a copyright expert at a local university, I was able to put together the answers to some of these common questions.

http://edweb.gsn.org/wwwedu.html

WWEDU, an excellent listserve (discussion group) on technology and teaching

http://www.cast.org

Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST is an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities.

Topics For Discussion and Further Research

Media Literacy

Story Boarding
Issues in Student Publishing

Corporate Participation in Education

Project-Based Learning as a 'mirroring' real-world work

Breaking Down the Digital Divide (Separating Hype and Reality)

Socio-Economic
Learning Styles
Gender
ESL
Other demographics

Challenges of Project Based Work

Murphy's law and Managing Chaos
Tech support and resources
Defining Goals, Scale and time-frame
Advantages of modular, prototype model
Small group, hands-on work 1 - 5 computer classroom.

Collaborative Tools

enabling collaboration between students, teachers
how do you define collaborative/cooperative work
brick in the wall or quilt model
interdependent, role based

Trends in School Management:

Standards, Assesment Rubrics, Portfolio -based learning, Mainstreaming

Student Publishing

editorial decisions
writing for an audience
an overview of copyright and permissions for secondary school teachers/students