Toys, Tools & Teachers

Here, Cambre and Hawkes offer a framework for thinking about technology as it impacts teaching and learning today. Toys, Tools & Teachers takes a hard look at the benefits and the trade-offs of a technology-saturated education. The authors look at technology through a trifocal lens: as teaching aid, as a threat, and as progress. They also explore ways in which technology can significantly impact education-through distance learning, networking, and wireless technologies. This book is a reflection on technology and a review of the footprint of technology on children's toys and the tools teachers and students have available for teaching and learning. As today's students are bombarded with things technological, school administrators and teachers are challenged on a daily basis to acquire up-to-date technologies and use them wisely in the teaching, learning, and testing process. Educators and parents are urged to discern the positive and negative effects of technology and make appropriate choices for their charges. Researchers are challenged to devise strategies for demonstrating the effectiveness of technology and for pointing the way to better methods of integrating technology so that no child is left behind. Will be of interest to parents, school board members, and educators.

Cambre and Hawkes offer a framework for thinking about technology as it impacts teaching and learning today. We look at technology through a trifocal lense: technology as teaching aid, technology as threat, and technology as progress. We trace the evolution of school technology briefly, leading up to the computer as the point convergence. From the toys they play with to the tools they learn with, we see that students are bombarded with things technological. This mushrooming of technology and how it is to be integrated into the classroom presents challenges that must be confronted so that, indeed, no child is left behind.

Marge Cambre works as a freelance consultant evaluating educational technology projects. Mark Hawkes is an associate professor at Dakota State University and chair of their Graduate Studies in Educational Technology program.