AUSSIE

Research Says:

• Technology motivates students with multimedia, and prepares them to think in constructivist ways (The Role of Online Communications in Schools: A National Study, 1996).
• Students say that most of their internet use occurs “outside of the school day…” rather than during the school day as an integral part of their education (The Digital Disconnect: The Widening Gap Between Internet-Savy Students and Their Schools, 2002)
• In Public Schools “Less than 10 percent of teachers reported using computers or the Internet to access model lesson plans or to access research and best practices.” (The National Center for Education Statistics)
• “The primary reason teachers do not use technology in their classrooms is a lack of experience with the technology.” (Wenglinsky, 1998; Rosen & Weil, 1995).
• "Public schools have made consistent progress in expanding Internet access in instructional rooms. In 2005, 94 percent of public school instructional rooms had Internet access, compared with 3 percent in 1994. Across school characteristics, the proportion of instructional rooms with Internet access ranged from 88 to 98 percent. (Internet Access in U.S. Public Schools and Classrooms: 1994–2005. 2006)
• There is a 90 per cent mastery of content and 80 to 90 per cent transfer of that content into classroom practice when research, theory, demonstration, practice and mentoring are all combined. (Joyce and Showers, 2002_
  
• "Professional development is perhaps the single largest factor in the success or failure of the digital school.” (America’s Digital Schools, 2006).
• Researchers have determined that the benefits of authentic learning can be achieved through the use of web-based learning environments that are well designed. These learning environments often simulate those that professionals would use in conducting research. – (Authentic Learning for the 21st Century, Marilyn M. Lombardi, 2007).
• “Education is becoming a learning service and students are becoming clients… Research suggests that students want to abandon the factory model of education – the serried rows of desks and chairs, the working-on-one’s-own model, (where cooperation has been called cheating). They want a casual AND SOCIAL atmosphere.... more like an Internet café than a classroom. They want a multimedia environment – just like the lights, music, talk, and coffee – in the Internet café. They want to be able to collaborate on their learning – at any time of the day.” (Professional Educators are Today Under Pressure, Dr Dale Spender 1998).
• International Society for Technology in Education’s (ISTE) National Educational Technology Standards for Students 2007 focus on developing the following standards to equip students for the 21st Century:
  1. Creativity and Innovation
  2. Communication and Collaboration
  3. Research and Information Fluency
  4. Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
  5. Digital Citizenship
  6. Technology Operations and Concepts
  Find out more info on the ISTE Standards