Journal 7

Technology Integration What Happens Now? By: Linda Merillat, Jennifer Holvoet, and Dough Adams

Two thirds of the U.S. population is connected to the internet! media players and cell phones. It's left to the schools on how to integrate this to the classrooms. Before, federal funds were earmarked for this purpose. Today, federal funding has been shifted to other priorities and the professional development and technical assistance the RTGCS provided are not supporting anymore, but, a lot of the resources developed during that period are still available and are great help to anyone struggling to intergrate technology into their classrooms. Does this article offer resources? yes, it offers a sampling of some of the helpful resources that are still available for integrating technology into the classroom. A summary of more than two hundred resources developed by the RTEC is available. What else is helpful? Mentoring for effective technology integration, for example, in 2001-2002 the New Jersey Department of Education selected a teacher from each county around the state to serve as a tech fellow and mentor teachers in effective technology integration, there is also teachers technology handbook where it has the best resources in lesson plans, lessonideas, and technology tips, the EdTech leaders online, a framework for effective technology and stydying proactices for increasing capacity in evaluation (SPICE).