The interests and rationales for putting IT on our agenda so soon pretty much reflect and can be subsumed under the four practical adaptations of IT as framed out by my mentor @ SUNYAlbany, Dr. Karen Swan  (after Taylor, 1980) as she introduces an on-line SUNY LN  course she designed for integrating IT into classroom pedagogy. I teach this course and believe that what Karen says here about the use of IT in schools is the same for us in evaluation:

In Computers in the Schools, Robert Taylor (1980) described three ways in which computers could be used in classrooms:

  as tutors, to deliver instruction, explicate subject matter, and provide practice in diverse skills;

  as tools, to automate certain lower level tasks and so (theoretically) extend thinking and learning in a variety of educational enterprises;

  as tutees, to be programmed by students that they might explore the structure of knowledge in a many domains, problem solving in general, and, (theoretically again) their own thinking.

  the list must be added the use of computers for telecommunications, to communicate with people and sources of information around the world.

Accordingly, I plan to initiate four threads of discussion, each affiliated w/one of the above contexts and framed by a collection of WEB-based references for us to consider on this NREA list. I will keep the threads open for a period of time and then post summaries to the list for further reflective discourse. I will work w/Glen and our Guest, Kate Toms, on ways to incorporate these topical discussions into a program for April 7 that will be as representative of your ideas, claims, concerns, and issues as we can make for an optimal meeting and physical networking opportunity. Therefore, as robust a discussion as might be had under each of the topical threads ought to be as good a way as any for Glen, Kate Toms, & I to proceed in the meanwhile...

Incidentally, I got this idea for using timed, topically threaded discourse in such a manner of working w/e-groups from a resource I found a while ago. I've seen it effectively used on several lists w/qualitative methods as a focus.

Online Community Toolkit : http://www.fullcirc.com/community/communitymanual.htm

...a resource I refer often. A visit here might prove further food for thought for our discussions…

Introduction | Telecom |