Technology Integration

Despite schools' increasing investment in technology, as a nation we do not yet fully understand what it means for students to be technologically literate, how technology can help students develop stronger literacy skills, nor the particular combinations of technology, student characteristics, and instructional strategies that are most effective. Earlier research suggests that including technologies in ordinary schools can have powerful motivational effects on students.  However, the benefits of electronic text seem most marked in classroom situations where instructional strategies support the special qualities and potential benefits of technology.

Using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods to study the integration of technology in instruction, CELA researchers have investigated, among other things, the state of technology standards, student-software interactions, and how technology is used in ESL classrooms.  They have shared their findings in articles and books, including,

• Standards
  - Nonprint Media and Technology Literacy Standards for K-12 Teaching and Learning (Report, 1999)
  - Making the Best Use of New Tools: Standards for Integrating Technology (Article, pp. 3-6, English Update Newsletter, Fall 1999)
   
• ESL
  - Electronic Text and English as a Second Language Environments (Report, 1999)
  - Technologies Use with ESL Learners in New York State: Preliminary Report (Report, 1997)
  - Electronic Texts and Learners of English as a Second Language (Article, )
  - How Do ESL Teachers Use Technology? (Article, English Update Newsletter, Spring 1997)
  - Teaching and Learning in Real Time: Media Technology and Language Acquisition, Carla Meskill, 2000.  (See Books)
   
• Software
  - Teacher ratings of student engagement with educational software: an exploratory study (article abstract, 2002)
  - Technology in Schools: Can We Make It Work? (Article, pp. 2-3, English Update Newsletter, Winter 1999)
   

December 2006