It’s OK to be Stupid: Contributions Professional Community Makes to Exemplary Technology Use

Many American schools have invested in computer access and technology support (Anderson, 2000) and have written technology plans that state their vision for the use of technology. At many schools there are individual teachers who make creative use of technology in their instruction. Through the site selection process for this study we encountered numerous instances of such schools and teachers; what was much harder to find were the sites where all or most teachers were incorporating creative approaches to technology and where the school’s staff shared the vision for technology as a support to teaching, learning, and school improvement. The schools in the Exemplary Technology Supported Schooling Case Studies Project were selected, in part, because together their staffs were thoughtfully integrating technology into classroom pedagogy and had identified how it could support student achievement. A quality technology support program is key for teachers’ uses of technology (Ronnkvist, Dexter & Anderson, 2000). So, it was not a surprise to us to learn that there were also considerable levels of technology access and strong technology support programs at these successful sites. The school’s technology leaders had obviously taken efforts to make it easier for teachers to learn to use technology to enhance teaching and learning, and to make it a priority to do so. What emerged in the data was the contribution to the use of technology made through the professional community in the school.