Does Technology Reform Education?

School reform initiatives have been part of public school change for some time. In the past two decades, this author has participated in implementing several educational changes within a public school classroom. Some of these changes have involved learning new teaching strategies, integrating technology into the curriculum, implementing new concepts such as whole language, and participating in workshops to learn about new educational topics. Often these change efforts were embraced by educators as new and innovative ways to help students learn. However, many of these changes were tried and discarded because no ongoing effort was made to incorporate them systematically into the school organization, ongoing support for further training was often absent, and resources to implement changes were not adequate. Within many educational environments these changes were referred to as fads because of their short term effects on the educational system and teaching behaviors