Guest Commentary: A 10-Year Update on Tech & Education

Interactive Learning, a web site is dedicated to demonstrating how schools can use technology for teaching and learning, recently published an excerpt from "Technology in Schools: What the Research Says – A 2009 Update,"  a report issued by Cisco and the Metiri group, and written by Cheryl Lemke, Ed Coughlin, Daren Reitsneider.

The authors ask some provocative questions. 

"Have we over-promised and under-delivered with technology? A recent report suggests that the lack of dramatic results attributable to technology in schools is not the fault of the technology, but rather the lack of systemic changes needed to accommodate the technology, writes Jim Rosso, who authored the Interactive Learning overview.

"After three decades of technology in the schools, some people are expressing concern about the lack of transformative change that has resulted. As the report states, 'The reality is that advocates have over-promised the ability of educators to extract a learning return on technology investments in school,' " Rosso writes.

Where did virtual education advocates go wrong?

"The error was in underestimating the critical need for the system changes required to use technologies effectively in learning," Rosso attributes to the report.

Click here to read more about this thought-provoking report.