INQUIRING MINDS WANT TO KNOW
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Role of Technology in Inquiry-Based Learning (Page 2)
The integration of technology can help to connect students to massive amounts of information, such as electronic encyclopedias, historical records, dictionaries, journal articles, newspapers, and current news topics. Technology allows students to communicate with experts and even with other students. Students are not limited to the resources in the classroom and the library. “Today, technology makes it possible to bring the world into the classroom and to get students out into the world with ‘virtual’ outreach and excursions into the physical world” (21st Century Skills, n.d., p.12). An article I read is entitled Where do you want to go today? Inquiry-based learning and technology integration. I love this title, because technology, as the title suggests, can help to take you almost anywhere. In this article, Owens, Hester, and Teal (2002) stated:
With the technical resources available today, we can go literally anywhere without leaving our classrooms. We can take our students on a tour of the Egyptian pyramids. We can watch astronauts conducting science experiments in space through a live Internet video camera. We can follow a dogsled team through the Iditarod race. We can connect to experts around the world. We can access rare documents and archives. We can hear the voices and see the images of heroes who have long since departed this world. All of this can occur with the quick click of a few buttons. (p. 625)
The following excerpt was taken from a report to the nation on technology and education entitled Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge:
The process of learning in
the classroom can become significantly richer as students have access to
new and different types of information, can manipulate it on the
computer through graphic displays or controlled experiments in ways
never before possible, and can communicate their results and conclusions
in a variety of media to their teacher, students in the next classroom,
or students around the world. For example, using technology, students
can collect and graph real-time weather, environmental, and population
data from their community, use that data to create color maps and
graphs, and then compare these maps to others created by students in
other communities. Similarly, instead of reading about the human
circulatory system and seeing textbook pictures depicting blood flow,
students can use technology to see blood moving through veins and
arteries, watch the process of oxygen entering the bloodstream, and
experiment to understand the effects of increased pulse or
cholesterol-filled arteries on blood flow. (Benefits of Technology, paga.
5)
Resources:
Boethel, M., & Dimock, K. (1999). Constructing knowledge with technology. Retrieved June 17, 2006, from http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec27/constructing.pdf
Dodge, B. (1997a). Some thoughts about WebQuests. Retrieved July 5, 2005, from http://webquest.sdsu.edu/about_webquests.html
Dodge, B. (1997b). The WebQuest page. Retrieved July 5, 2005, from http://edweb.sdsu.edu/people/bdodge/Professional.html
Getting America’s Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge
Kidspiration Software http://kidspiration.com/productinfo/kidspiration/index.cfm
Learning for the 21st Century: A Report and Mile Guide for 21st Century Skills
Owens, R.F., Hester, J.L. & Teale, W.H. (2002). Where do you want to go today? Inquiry-based learning and technology integration. The Reading Teacher, 55(7), 616-625. Retrieved July 3, 2006, from Wilson SelectPlus database.
Shaw, E., Bagget, P., & Sayler, B. (2004). Kidspiration for inquiry-centered activities. Science Activities, 4(1), 3-8. Retrieved July 15, 2005, from Wilson SelectPlus database.
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