The focus of this timeline is to demonstrate the improvement of education through the use of technology. Jerome Bruner, an influential educational theorist best known for his study of human cognition, devised a set of principles related to curriculum development:
1. Instruction must be concerned with the experiences and contexts that make the student willing and able to learn (readiness).
2. Instruction must be structured so that it can be easily grasped by the student (spiral organization).
3. Instruction should be designed to facilitate extrapolation and or fill in the gaps (going beyond the information given).
Created by eswinson on Jun 20, 2008
Last updated: 03/12/10 at 04:02 AM
Video streaming on the Discovery Education website enables teachers to show clips or segments of videos on a television or smart board screen. Some topics, especially in history, are not exciting in a textbook or are difficult to imagine. Teachers can search for content and save a clip to their desktop to show during instruction.
http://streaming.discoveryeducation.com/
Smart Boards eliminate the need for chalkboards and overhead tranparencies. Teachers and students can surf the Internet, create presentations, and edit video with the touch of a finger on the computer-driven screen. Instead of viewing webpages on a television screen, students can now interact with sites in front of the class.
http://my.highschooljournalism.org/mi/southfield/shs/article.cfm?eid=1325&aid=16383
Weblogs, or blogs, became popular in the late nineties when Jonathan Dube, founder of CyberJournalist.net, posted one of the first news blogs to cover Hurricane Bonnie. Blogs quickly became a communication tool allowing more capabilities than email. School districts are using blogs to replace the standard newsletter. Teachers can post assignments and homework to a blog, and families can ask questions and add comments to the post.
http://www.jondube.com/
Avermedia's presentation tool, the AVerKey 300, diplays images from your computer monitor onto the television screen or projector. Instead of using transparencies, teachers can type activities or download videos on their computer and display them on the TV. This saves many trips to the copy room and video library.
http://www.avermedia.com/docs/pdffiles/(300AAASF)%20K300.pdf
Webquests are designed to engage students in research-based activities while utilizing the Internet. Teachers can search for Webquests by topic or create a Webquest of their own to meet the specific needs of the students. Webquests include a description of the topic, directions, and other links to follow. An interactive online journey, coupled with student collaboration, make Webquests an engaging and meaningful activity.
http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html
Amazon.com was the first online bookstore. This website allows educators to purchase curriculum materials for personal use, as well as sets of novels. Amazon.com's quick delivery has enabled rural schools to access resources in a cost-effective manner while staying current with new publications.
Book cover: Number the Stars by Lois Lowry (My favorite purchase on Amazon.com.)
http://www.amazon.com/
Wikis were first installed on the Internet in 1995 allowing any user to publish or change content within the wiki web site. Wiki pages can be set to private or can remain open to the public so discussions and collaboration can take place. Teachers are using wikis to facilitate communication between students regarding a specified topic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki

