Creating Scalable and Systemic Technology Innovations for Urban Education

The past decade has seen great strides in the design of new learning technologies that support learning aligned with standards-based constructivist and inquiry teaching practices. Though there is considerable evidence that these technologies can help students learn when used appropriately, they are rarely employed beyond the small-scale settings in which they were designed and nurtured. Therefore, they have had only limited impact on K-12 education. This paper argues that a major reason current learning technologies are not being used broadly in schools is that there are incompatibilities between the demands of the innovations being introduced by the research community and the extant culture, capability, and management structures of schools. There are many plausible reasons; we suggest that a primary one is the nature of current research on learning technologies. We propose that research on technology for learning should give expanded attention to a broad range of factors in school settings in order to better understand what is needed to bridge the demands of innovations and the realities of school culture, capabilities, and policy and management structures. As a starting point, we present potential areas for research in terms of the key challenges faced by teachers in trying to use inquiry-oriented technology, by educational leaders in enabling the use of inquiry-oriented technologies in schools, and by researchers attempting research in systemic school contexts. These challenges are derived from our own experiences in the use of technology as part of a large-scale urban systemic school reform project.