As educators, our task is to prepare our children to function in a civilization created by the biggest leap in technology since the Industrial Revolution two centuries ago. The key to meeting this challenge centers on helping students master sophisticated knowledge from a variety of worlds.
Learning with Technology, the 1998 ASCD Yearbook, focuses on exemplary projects with the potential to reconceptualize schooling. Here, the important issue is using new media to provide an effective means of reaching 21st century educational objectives through global partnerships for education.
The authors are designers, developers, and researchers focused on learning. They are individuals who work with technology because they find computers and communications to be a powerful means to improve educational outcomes for all students. They have worked very hard to develop new media tools in the service of richer curricula, enhanced pedagogies, more effective organizational structures in schools, stronger links between schools and society, and the empowerment of disenfranchised learners.
This Yearbook was created to share visions, successes, and well-learned lessons to stimulate an extended dialogue among ASCD members. Its chapters include discussions on technology in support of educational reform, technology tools for teaching and learning in science, support for project-based learning, assistive technology for young children in special education, integrating Internet services into school communities, and implementing educational technology "tomorrow morning."