Vision
Project TIME’s vision of meaningful learning using technology includes the following:
- Easy access to technology for classroom teaching and learning. Teachers and students have easy access to computer hardware and software and online technologies that support meaningful learning.
- Comfort using technology. Teachers and students use a variety of technologies as comfortably as pencils and paper.
- Technology pushes learning beyond the limits of the textbook. The way students use technology not only supports learning academic content as defined by state and national standards, but also pushes them to deal with ill-structured challenges and significant ideas that are part of the fabric of everyday life. Technologies provide access to a multitude of information sources and tools which learners can use to generate hypotheses, conduct investigations, assess results and make predictions.
- Technology promotes conversation and collaboration. Conversations focused on complex questions addressing big ideas are one of the foundations for meaningful learning. Technology fosters conversations among students, and between students and those outside the school, as well as creates opportunities for working together on problems and solutions.
- Technology provides rich opportunities for applying knowledge and skills to new contexts. Technology provides ease and efficiency for students to apply their knowledge to a diverse array of new contexts, helping them become more proficient at identifying and solving new problems.
- Teachers serve as models for meaningful learning using technology. Students see their teachers model the habits of mind that engender meaningful learning. Teachers ask significant questions that are central to the content area, think clearly about complex ideas and problems, work effectively with uncertainty and not-knowing, and seek information from multiple perspectives, assess its credibility, and make sense of it. They also model the effective use of technology to support these habits of mind.
- Teachers orchestrate student learning. Instead of being the authoritative providers of information, teachers are authoritative guides for students. They help students set and work toward learning goals, and articulate how individual learning activities relate to specified goals. Teachers orchestrate this learning in part by effectively using technology.
