Designing Virtual Learning Environments for Academic Language Development

In this chapter, we examine the relationships between pedagogy and the use of information technology (IT) in schools. IT refers not only to computers (hardware and software), but also to the full range of multimedia technological tools that are potentially available to support learning and communication of knowledge (e.g., digital and video cameras, DVD players, etc.). Specifically, we address questions such as: What pedagogical options are available for use of IT in schools? To what extent can IT amplify the impact of different approaches to pedagogy? Is the impact of IT potentially more powerful as a catalyst and support for learningwhen harnessed to certain forms of pedagogy as compared with others?

These questions reflect the fact that despite the increase in access to IT in schools, it is not clear what educational problems IT is supposed to solve. Policy-makers assume that IT will promote student achievement but, as documented below, there is still no large-scale support for such an assumption. Furthermore, there is no consensus as to how computers and other new technologies should be used to support learning. In the United States, for example, schools in affluent middle-class areas increasingly tend to use computers to support higher-order thinking through creative project work while those in low-income inner city areas still use computers predominantly to reinforce students’ mastery of basic skills through drill and practice activities (Education Week, 2001).