Introduction
According to the United States Department of Education 2018, technology is an instrumental tool in classroom instruction because teachers apply technology in instructional pedagogy. For example, the teachers use online resources to pass information to the learners and assign tasks like online assignments which require technology. The teacher can use technology equipment, for instance, the reflectors and television screens to present videos and power point contents to the learners during classroom instruction. The current advanced technology push education departments in the United States to incorporate technology into the curriculum as a subject to learners as well as in the instructional method to the teachers. Today, the governments of most states in the US take the initiative of building technology infrastructures in the schools to facilitate the use of technology in instruction and learning. For instance, the Federal Government of the United States has begun implementing the comprehensive plan of the building and connecting all the schools with the high-speed board and wireless connection to boost the internet connection in all public schools. In essence, most of the schools need to have an upgraded system of technology to promote learning. This paper determines the level of utilization of technology in California public schools.
California State is advancing its technology in schools to improve instruction and learning through sponsoring and equipping the schools with the valuable technology resources that are essential to the learners in the classroom and teachers during preparation. The state has introduced online learning and testing programs in public schools where the student interacts with the teacher through the internet. Therefore, civic learning institutions need adequate technology infrastructures to facilitate effective instruction and students’ development. Reports according to the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) indicate that schools need an upgrade in the technology to achieve online instruction and testing goal.
California developed a blueprint of incorporating technology in education. According to the Californian design, the teachers should not only use technology in pedagogy but also teach the learners technological skills. The implementation of the plan is ongoing. However, there is no evaluation to show progress. Therefore, this paper conducts a study to identify the development and how useful is the incorporation of technology in schools in California. A school District is selected, and information on various issues related to technology are collected. The areas of concern are the use of technology at individual levels within the classes, integration of technology within and across the curriculum, impact of technology on instruction pedagogy and the impacts of technology in the instructional pedagogy.
Additionally, the findings are also done in ongoing staff development intended to achieve technology integration in learning, the results of technology related to the student’s gains and use of technology systems to track. The questions were designed and administered to the school teachers, technology coordinators, and other personnel who work to ensure that technology is implemented in schools. Finally, the paper outlines findings based on the information collected from the school districts.
Information collection
The school chosen for the study is Miramonte High School located in Orinda California. The school is one of the best performing public schools in the state of California and offers a preparatory college program and the advanced placement courses. The school is chosen for the study because it provides distance learning. The distance learning students take their classes through an online program hence apply technology to facilitate their connection with the instructors. The school is suitable for the study because it uses technology thus answering the question concerning the research would incorporate some facts. The findings from the school are recorded and analyzed as follows.
Use of technology within individual classes
The school teachers are the best personnel in a school setup who can give relevant information when informing one on the use of technology within own ranks because they interact with the learners in the classroom often and have knowledge in their performance. Besides, the classroom teacher keeps the progress record of the class and can use it to give information on the development of the learners in a particular grade. The teachers’ responses were based on the mission of the school concerning the use of technology. The technology mission of the Miramonte School states that assure the leaners adapt to the challenges of the 21st century through the access and utilize technology in assembling, consuming and communicating info so that to make the learners responsible worldwide citizens (Miramonte Elementary School, 2019). According to the mission, technology access was open to all the learners in the school. Besides, the classroom teachers offer programs of technology moving from simple to complex (Shehadeh & Coombe, 2012). The learner’s leaners at the lower grades in the school are still at the beginning in the understanding of technology hence must be introduced into technology through observing and identifying the tools that facilitate technology in the society.
Conversely, the proficient leaners have basics in technology hence assigned technology tasks because they can utilize their technical knowledge to perform simple tasks like research. The teachers showed that proficient learners are assigned online assignments to allow them to use technology in their learning activities. The Transformative leaners are given the opportunity to use the technology to perform complex tasks. The teacher should allow transformative learners to perform functions on their own with the help of technology. For example, such students should be allowed to join the digital departments and participate in e-learning. The teachers at Miramonte School indicted that technique was taught to the learners as a subject; hence the learners are equipped with knowledge in technology. Besides, the teachers incorporate technology into the instructional method.
On the other hand, information was also acquired from the learners of Miramonte. The learners indicated that technology was useful in their life because they not only gained knowledge but also enjoyed the classes that the teachers use technology resources. The learners added that the wireless connection of the internet was connected in their school and they could access information from the internet. The above data indicates that both the teachers and the learners are enjoying the incorporation of technology and education. The teachers utilized the technology is teaching while the proficient learners effectively used technology in their studies. Based on the facts above, the research paper concludes that the research was effectively and efficiently utilized in Miramonte School California.
Integration of Technology within and across the curriculum
The information on the combination of technology within and across the curriculum is gathered from the education administrators of California and school teachers specifically the school principal. The Education Administrators design and evaluates the curriculum across all the grades and develops the syllabus of technology (Glasman & Nevo, 2012). On the other hand, the teachers understand the psychological development of the leaners which is an essential factor in setting the content learned at every grade (Stylianou, Blanton, & Knuth, 2013). According to Papa 2011, technology educators plan and design the curriculum of technology all the classes. In California, the education administrators have not only developed the curriculum but also pushed the government to build a wireless connection in schools to ensure that the schools are connected with the internet. The report from the California Department of Education indicates that the K-12 high-speed network is connected to all the schools including the Miramonte to facilitate learning and improve the performance of the leaners. Besides, the Education Administration department of California indicates that they pushed a bill that was passed in the Senate of allocating finances to support the incorporation of technology in education (California Department of Education, 2018).
The school principle response indicated that the school have received the curriculum and incorporate the technology in the pedagogy as well as teaching the technology as required by the Educationist. Moreover, the teachers add that the education department organizes seminars for them where they learn on the techniques of instructing the technology curriculum to the learners (California Department of Education, 2018). The principal notes that technology literacy varies across the grades and the teachers should guide the learners to understand the right content required at each stage.
The information gathered above indicates that the implementation of technology in education is progressive. The State Government through the Department of Education of California works to ensure that the curriculum contains technology. The principal of Miramonte works with the teachers to ensure that technology is introduced into the curriculum. The Educationist had designed the curriculum and presented it to schools where most schools have started implementing it including Miramonte.
Impact of technology on instruction pedagogy
The teachers and the learners of Miramonte gave information concerning the effects of technology on instruction pedagogy. The instruction pedagogy is the role of the classroom teacher. Before imparting the knowledge to the leaner, the teacher must make preparation and choose the methods and styles of teaching. Incorporating technology in instruction requires training so that the teacher can determine the best technology gadgets to use.
On the other hand, when it involves the interaction of the learner and the teacher, the teacher’s preparation is essential because it equips the teacher with the ample time to select the appropriate items to use. The questions of the impact of technology on instruction pedagogy were addressed to the school’s teachers. The teachers presented the responses as follows.
The school teachers indicate that the technology on instruction pedagogy has impacts on both the teacher and the learners. The teacher finds it simple to explain a particular concept when they incorporate technology in the instruction. For example, when one to elaborate on diagrams, the teacher can present the actual photos using power point. The teacher would have simple work of only taking the real images that are required for the lesson and introduce them to the learners.
Additionally, the teacher would have an opportunity of incorporating the new styles of teaching when the teacher utilizes the application of technology in the instruction pedagogy. The teachers indicate that education is interesting when varied teaching styles are used in the instruction pedagogy. Therefore, the incorporation of technology is a process that leads to the breakdown of the teaching boredom of one method.
Moreover, the technology on instruction pedagogy improves the teacher-learner interaction and learner-learner interaction. For example, in a computer lesson, the teacher instructs the leaners and attend to each learner who is unable to follow the instruction. The learner can observe what others are doing and grasp the content. The learners indicate that using technology resources in education increased their rate of understanding the material and supported that the teachers to use technology resources in teaching. On the other hand, the learners were happy with technology education. The information above indicates that technology in education and educational technology are implemented in the organization is efficient in the school.
Results of technology integration to student gains
The information about the consequences of the combination of technology to student gain was collected from the students’ body and the teaching staff of Miramonte High school. The learners supported that the integration of technology in their education has contributed to positive gains in terms of improvement in academic performance. The learners say that they grasp content efficiently in the lessons that technology teaching resources are used.
Conversely, the technology subject also equipped with the skills that they can use to research to gain more knowledge. The teacher’s response indicated that technology integration in the classroom boost the learning and improves the performance of the learners. The students are more motivated to learn when technology resources are used in the school during the instruction because most of the content is presented using items that simplify the ideas hence sticking to the long term memory. Besides, the teachers also not that they find the instruction simple when they incorporate technology in the instruction. The information collected from the Miramonte teachers and students shows that the integration of technology makes learning relevant. This is an indication that the technology plan implementation in Miramonte a school in California is effective.
The magnitude of initial and ongoing staff development intended to achieve technological integration
Collecting information on the scale of initial and ongoing staff development to achieve technical integration is received from the education technology expert, education administrators of California and the school principal of Miramonte School. According to the United States Department of Education 2018, education technology requires experts during the process of implementation. Educational officers should evaluate the integration of technology to assess the progress of staff development. The education technology expert liars with the educationist in assessing the staff development and can contribute the new ideas that used to improve on the situation hence staff development. The information collected from this personnel is as follows.
The teaching staff of the Miramonte School accepts the progress of staff development to achieve technological integration moves to the positive side. The teacher was trained and taken through seminars before the implementation of the new integration of technology into the curriculum. Currently, workshops concerning the combination of technology in education are still organized for the teacher. In Miramonte School, all the teaching staff has undergone through induction that equips them with technology skills.
On the other hand, the education administrators gave information concerning the initial and ongoing staff development to achieve technological integrations. The education administrators indicate that their progress in California is efficient because most schools have acquired the equipment and resources that are used to teach technology. The education administrators report that they had trained and currently they offer induction programs to the teachers and technology personnel who work in the school.
Use of technology systems to track administrative action
The information inquiry on the administrative work is generated from the school administration and in this case, is the principle of the school. Accessing the information would require that an interview is conducted to the school principal. The principal would give details on how technology has contributed to the management and operation of administrative activities. The school principal was interviewed in the matter concerning the administration. The principle responded to the question and gave the following information.
The head of the school indicated that administration management of the school had fully integrated technology in performing its activities — for example, the online filing system of the details of the students and all the school staff. Miramonte School had created a databank and a website where the information of the student and school could be retrieved. Additionally, the school had developed a portal that all the staff and students could signup so that they could use to access their details. The principle also indicates that the distance learning that they had started for the students was accomplished with tracking of the administrative features. The principal added that the school had developed a system where the students could access and get the results. The technology has made a significant contribution to the school management specifically on the data of the students and the school workers. The tracing of the details was made simple to the administration with the help of technology.
Conclusion
Technology plays a significant role in education because it assists in the instructional pedagogy, giving the learners insight about the society and management of the school. The information collected from a school in California about the significance of integration of technology and with education has changed society. The interviewed people were the learners, teachers, school administration and the education administrators of California. The findings were recorded and lead to the making of the generalization of integrating education with technology and teaching technology as a subject to the leaners.
The learners support that education technology was essential to them because the learning was simplified and was enjoyable. The learners added that technology as a subject was necessary because it equipped them with the skills useful in carrying out research. On the other hand, the information contributed by the teachers indicated that they all supported the integration of education with technology. The teachers say that technology was useful in the instructional pedagogy and also imparting creativity in the learners. The school administration also made a significant contribution in support of the integration of technology in education. The information collected from the administration indicates that technology made an efficient running of administrative activities. Lastly, education managers also gave useful information concerning teaching with technology. The administrators suggest that it was essential to call incorporate education and technology because the current societal trends needed technology. Therefore, equipping the learners with the technology would make them have the necessary skills of surviving in the society.