This article profiles Carla Wade, a former science teacher who has shown a passion for teaching educators the most effective ways to integrate technology. Her use of a video microscope during a classroom science lesson revealed to Wade how technology can awaken students' interest in learning. Wade discovered years ago how to talk teachers out of…

Fourth-grader Nicholas is a homebound cancer patient who attends Plainview Elementary School in rural Chesterfield County, South Carolina. This year he was provided a laptop and webcam as part of Chesterfield County School District's Student Technology and Education Proficiency (STEP) initiative. Prior to the implementation of the STEP program in…

The common approach to scaling, according to Christopher Dede, a professor of learning technologies at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, is to jump in and say, "Let's go out and find more money, recruit more participants, hire more people. Let's just keep doing the same thing, bigger and bigger." That, he observes, "tends to…

In the old days, professional development didn't extend any further than the workshops teachers would attend to learn new applications. After the workshop, the teachers were on their own once they returned to school and had to figure out how to use their new tools. Today, things are different as technologies are too complex and the need to…

High-quality professional development is not only a mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act, but also a necessity if there is going to be real change in how teachers conduct lessons and collect data. Quality professional development is more than a training, workshop, or listserv; teachers need continual support as they work with their students to…

The lack of U.S. students entering the science, technology, engineering, and math fields is one of teachers' primary educational woes. Surveys show that the small percentage of U.S. college students who choose to major in a math or science field gets even smaller by the end of students' freshman year. While the responsibility of STEM (science,…

The demand for professional development for integrating technology is growing. According to the MDR report The Impact of No Child Left Behind, when leaders were asked about the areas in which they feel their teachers need the most training over the next year or two, technology integration came in fourth behind "assessment," "dealing…

Technology is a tool that has the potential to empower educational leaders at all levels--whether they are superintendents, principals, teachers, board members or state officials--as well as to redefine what education means in the 21st century. Technology provides more accurate information and advanced communication capabilities. Technology can be…

Discusses staff development in the area of technology integration in secondary schools. Highlights include how the new technology can be useful; staff motivation; training considerations, including staff needs; and student participation in producing videos on various educational technologies for staff to watch. (LRW)

Describes the impact of technology planning on students' and teachers' learning based on experiences at a high school in Texas that provides academic alternatives to at-risk students. Discusses collaboration among teachers, principals, and district administrators; teachers' professional development; the technology committee; staff development;…

Describes a Web-based professional development curriculum that was designed at the University of Delaware for the internship portion of the Registered Dieticians program. Topics include distance learning; technology integration; combining in-class with online instruction; multimedia use for problem-based learning case studies; course management…

As the fifth largest school district in California, Santa Ana Unified School District faces the challenge of providing technology access to its more than 63,000 students and over 6,000 certificated and classified staff members. This article describes how the district found the solution in wireless computing, which is now being used as a highly…