New Connections: Increasing the Use of Electronic Learning Resources in California’s Schools

In late spring of 1997 the California Council on Science and Technology received requests from Governor Pete Wilson, the California Department of Education, and the Education Council for Technology in Learning to explore the process for adopting electronic learning resources for California’s public schools and to recommend appropriate changes. The assumption, borne out by subsequent investigations of CCST’s Electronic Teaching Media Task Force, an ad hoc group established in response to the request, was that the process has been too slow and cumbersome to accommodate today’s fast-paced development and proliferation of electronic learning resources. In addition, the standard process for adopting instructional resources has not addressed the need for a frequently updated, consumer-oriented review of those that are electronic and technology-based.

The report begins with an overview of the standard process used for the adoption and purchase of instructional resources for California’s schools. The process is rooted in a textbook-centered view of education that was not intended to encompass the new instructional technologies that are becoming increasingly common in California’s schools. At best, CCST has concluded, the process is unable to respond adequately to the outpouring of new electronic learning resources and new technologies that California’s schools must increasingly take into account.

Principal recommendations:

• Develop a new process specifically for electronic learning resources so that current, high-quality, and appropriate technology-based instructional materials may be selected and purchased by local school districts on a continuing basis.
• Encourage publishers and instructional materials developers to submit electronic learning resources for review on a continuing basis.
• Designate an independent, broadly representative, expert body to guide and advise the process.
• Establish an Electronic Learning Resources Fund similar to, in addition to, and coordinated with the existing Instructional Materials Fund that will support the use of current, appropriate, and high-quality electronic learning resources in grades K-12.