Technology for the 21st century: What schools need to know! Sue Trinidad Faculty of Education Curtin University of Technology

Many of the issues that face schools contemplating the use of technology are specific to the context of each. Individual schools will ultimately determine how they use resources and what approach they take to planning for technology. There is no doubt that technology is transforming our society and for schools the choice is not whether they will incorporate technology but how well they will use it.

Much of the criticism about technology is about poor implementation and in fact technology offers great opportunities to reform and improve education. We know that technology does not replace the good teacher but instead enhances their abilities and creativity. At last we have the potential to make education much more meaningful and productive for students by allowing them to be active learners involved in authentic tasks. Technology has more chance of success than most traditional reforms and hence this presentation will look at the "new media literacy" skills our students are developing, and our teachers need to develop, the impact of such, and give directions for schools as we move towards the 21st century.

Participants will get a chance to look at the educational benefits of Intranets, using multimedia and communications technology to really enhance teaching and learning outcomes from K-adult level.

Dr Sue Trinidad Faculty of Education Curtin University of Technology Perth Western Australia 6001 Phone + 61 8 9266 2254 Fax + 61 8 9266 2547 trinidads@ed.curtin.edu.au Please cite as: Trinidad, S. (1998). Technology for the 21st century: What schools need to know! In C. McBeath and R. Atkinson (Eds), Planning for Progress, Partnership and Profit. Proceedings EdTech'98. Perth: Australian Society for Educational Technology. http://www.aset.org.au/confs/edtech98/pubs/articles/trinidad.html