Uses of technology by science education professors: Comparisons with teachers’ uses and the current versus desired technology knowledge gap

A survey of the AETS membership was conducted to examine potential gaps in their current versus desired knowledge about technology uses relative to science teacher education. Technology is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. (C.P. Snow, as quoted by Lewis, 1971, p. 37) Perhaps one of the more tangible recent changes in schools is the presence of technology. Admittedly, standards-based reform policy, pressures for greater accountability, and the concomitant explosion of test administration frequency are changes one can also discern. But in terms of physical presence, technology and especially computers represent an obvious change in the complexion of schools. One has only to venture into the media center of any school to see the absence of the polished wooden card catalogs that have been replaced by monitors and keyboards guiding students to the resources they are seeking. Within most classrooms, as well, technology has taken center stage. Multimedia projectors, computers, probes, and other technological devices have begun to permeate science classrooms