Information Technology and Vermont Education Goals:A Vermont State Technology Council Position Paper
Vermont educators continue to examine ways to better prepare today's
students to be successful in a rapidly changing society. Preparing
students to be successful adults for a future that is unpredictable
and ever changing is a continual challenge. What are the constants
in a world where change is a constant?
A constant in our society is the use of information technology.
As educators, it is our responsibility to promote awareness, understanding,
and use of information technology for learning and teaching.
The Vermont State Technology Council (VSTC) believes the development
of information technology skills and knowledge is essential in
order for all students to attain the Vermont Education Goals.
Like higher order thinking skills, information technology skills
can no longer be considered a non-essential part of each Vermont
student's education. The use of information technology tools (word
processing, interactive television, telecommunication, hypermedia,etc.)
should not be viewed as ends in and of themselves. Rather, it
should be seen as a means of more efficiently and effectively
achieving what Vermonters outline in the ambitious Vermont Education
Goals.
The VSTC believes we cannot leave the development of information
skills and knowledge to chance. We believe that the state must
provide direction to local school districts in the area of information
technologies as they have in all curricular areas. With this in
mind, VSTC, with the assistance of the State Department of Education,
invited thirty educators** from throughout Vermont to a symposium
at Sugarbush Inn, in Warren,Vt. in September to:
In addition to addressing the issues above, the group discussed
the responsibility and role of all Vermont educators as teachers
using information technology. A major consideration was how to
make education more relevant in our rapidly changing world. The
symposium participants focused upon eleven technological strands
that were determined by members of the VSTC prior to the conference.
Information Technology Strands
As you read the position paper, keep in mind the desire to link
information technology skills with the Vermont Education Goals.
Consider how these skills can help facilitate interdisciplinary
teaching and learning. This position paper is a beginning. It
offers an opportunity for every school district and every teacher
to help prepare Vermont students for an information society.
** See Appendix A For Names
Upon graduation from high school all Vermont students will achieve
the essential information technology skills listed below. These
essential skills allow all students to use information technology
as a tool in all areas of the curriculum. These skills form a
framework for the development of more specific skills that can
be integrated across the curriculum. The expansion of the skills
is the work of individual school districts.
A number of the essential skills relate to more than one strand
or area. These are higher- level thinking skills such as analyzing,
synthesizing and evaluating. These skills are recognized as basic
to the effective use of information technology. We also recognize
a core of knowledge necessary for students in the use of technological
tools for learning and working. This core includes: basic terminology,
ethics, privacy, ownership, copyright, health issues, and vocational
implications of technology.
All students will understand the functions, usefulness and limitations
of:
Students will be able to use a word processor to:
1. Communicate ideas.
2. Create, modify and output documents.
Students will be able to use an electronic data base to:
1. Access useful information.
2. Create, maintain and use a collection of information.
Students will be able to use an electronic spreadsheet to:
1. Manipulate alphanumeric and numeric data.
2. Create, modify and output documents.
3. Organize, analyze, interpret, and test ideas.
All students will be able to use telecommunications, electronically
to:
1. Access distant resources.
2. Exchange information.
All students will be able to use visual - audio output to:
1. Create, express, and interpret ideas in the arts and sciences.
2. Communicate ideas using computerized multimedia.
All students will be able to use computer simulations to:
1. Develop modeling tools to explore situations in controlled
environments.
All students will be able to use desktop publishing to:
1. Create and present a document combining text and graphics to
communicate ideas.combining text and graphics.
All students will be able to use the appropriate input devices
to:
1. Accomplish a task or solve a problem.
2. Collect data.
3. Understand the use of alternative or specialized input devices.
All students will :
1. Understand that a program is a sequence of instructions to
accomplish a task.
Microcomputers, interactive television, telecommunications, hypermedia,
and other information technologies can be powerful means and tools
to accomplish the measures of success in the Vermont Education
Goals. Information technologies can make possible new patterns
of instruction inside and outside classrooms. These technologies
must not be used to drive the education goals, but to achieve
them.
Information Technology is a means for every learner to become
a competent, caring, productive, responsible individual and citizen
committed to life-long learning by providing:
1. Access to shared information through electronic telecommunications.
2. Tools for effective written communication.
3. An accessible information storage and retrieval system.
4. A tool for interpretation, manipulation, and expression of
mathematical, scientific, literary, and artistic ideas.
5. A multimedia approach for research, creation, and presentation
of information and ideas.
6. A supportive environment for self and group expression.
7. Opportunities to reason and solve problems individually and
collectively.
8. Enabling devices to make possible or enhance the educational
experience.
9. Models for future work, continued education, problem solving,
and cooperative learning.
Restructured schools which support very high performance for all
students will have:
1. Placed the use of informational technologies in a central position
in the core curriculum.
2. Redefined roles and relationships between teachers and students
to take full advantage of information technologies.
3. Set specific goals using information technology by empowering
students and teachers to achieve greater individualization .
4. Set staff development goals to integrate information technology
into the learning process.
The effectiveness of Vermont's teachers and school leaders will
be enhanced through staff development to demonstrate:
1. Awareness of:
2. Personal proficiency in:
3. Instructional proficiency in:
4. Personal and instructional proficiency in the use of:
Powerful school, parent, business and community partnerships will
be enhanced by:
A common core of information technology knowledge exists across
the strands. This core coupled with the essential information
technology skills, and linked with the Vermont Education Goals,
becomes a powerful framework - a framework that forms a structure
for the use of information technologies as a tool to support a
variety of learning and teaching styles; change the traditional
lecture worksheet system; and expand teaching and learning beyond
the walls of the classroom. A framework that reaches into the
unpredictable future and also serves the present.
All Vermont students upon graduating from high school should be
able to use the appropriate information technologies to:
This position paper is one small step in a major task that involves
all Vermont educators. That is, providing Vermont students and
teachers with an awareness, understanding, and knowledge of how
to use information technology to meet the Vermont Education Goals.
It is our goal that the position paper becomes an active paper.
That it becomes a statement between local communities and the
state to ensure that all Vermont students and educators are informed
users of information technology.
Technology will continue to evolve rapidly. We must prepare our
students for an information society based on what we know now
as well as prepare them to be learners who readily adapt to new
technologies. As we help our students, we must be willing to help
each other. We cannot leave the instruction and use of technology
to a select few.
There must be a common link between local school districts and
the Vermont State Education Department in determining quality
instruction in information technology, for students and teachers.
Not only must we look at our individual responsibilities as technology
learners, but we must look at a broader vision that connects local
districts and the state.
The Vermont State Technology Council is willing to be a resource
to schools and the State Education Department in establishing
information technology links. As Vermont educators, the task is
before us. When we set high expectations for our students and
teachers as we have in the Vermont Education Goals, we must be
willing to provide the best tools possible to reach those expectations.
Information technology must be included as a powerful best tool.
The Vermont State Technology Council wishes to thank the following
individuals for their effort in bringing this document to fruition:
Sugarbush Conference Participants