By 2019, 90% of all jobs will be computer-dependent. It is ironic that the one institution charged with the responsibility for preparing the next generation to work with these technologies has not kept pace. Educators have been remiss on not recognizing the need to instruct students in these technologies to prepare them for the challenges of the information age. (Craver,1995)

I, as an educator should be asking myself these key questions: Does technology help my students achieve and become better learners? What are the crucial roles needed in technology? How should I integrate technology into the curriculum?

Beneath this challenge lies many factors and issues that may hinder progress. There are also factors and issues that help expedite the progress.

This paper will discuss and focus on (1) the need and challenge to keep pace with technology (2) analysis of the methods used to incorporate technology in the elementary curriculum (3) effects on students and their rate of learning.

Keeping Pace with Technology

Today we find ourselves in the best of times, and in the worst of times. There is a convergence of several technologies: computers, multimedia, telecommunications on the Internet and the World Wide Web bring us major leaps closer to being able to deliver on the promise of technology to reshape our entire culture. Never before have teachers had so much real potential to fully exploit the "tool" capabilities of the new technologies. We see real evidence around us every day that the World Wide Web is actually beginning to change our lives. (Rogers, 1999)

In 1992, Kapa'a Elementary faced the devastation caused by Hurricane Iniki. With subsequent insurance compensation and a year of Special Needs funding supported a quantum leap forward in the school's technology timetable. These supplemental funds allowed the school to upgrade electrical distribution lines, replace and purchase new technology equipment and to install an underground fiber optic campus wide area network and cabling system. All 74 classrooms and 25 support offices are now equipped with computers. This sudden presence of technology within the grasp of every student has created an immediate need for all teachers and staff to understand and best utilize these new technologies within the classroom.

Staff development must be a lifelong experience for a teacher who uses technology. Teacher training is one of the greatest roadblocks to integrating technology into the curriculum. No wonder the creation of staff development products and services are one of the fastest growing trends in the educational technology world.(Schmeltzer,1995) Teachers must be shown what tools are available and then provided with practical assistant in how to best use those tools in their classrooms. There is a need to explore new ways that teachers can integrate the technology into the daily lessons of learner.

Methods Used to Integrate Technology in the Curriculum

The basic processes of education include acquiring information, developing communication and cognitive skill, and encouraging certain

attitudes and behaviors in students. The information technologies are excellent at information access, analysis, and organization. They have large communication capacities and considerable potential for helping learners acquire certain cognitive skills. (Bracewell, Laferriere, 1996)

Multimedia software has the capacity to fulfill real educational needs of my students. Software producers should take heed of the academic trends. The best way for multimedia developers to prove their character in the emerging education market may be to pay close attention to those academic trends and prevailing practices that play to CD-ROM's strengths as a publishing and teaching medium (Gussin, 1996) WiggleWorks is an example of quality computer technology program that could be integrated into the elementary reading literacy curriculum

WiggleWorks is a beginning literacy system for grades K-2, which was developed by the Peabody, Massachusetts-based nonprofit center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), in collaboration with Scholastic, Inc.

A successful literacy program typically includes finely layered material designed to keep the students stimulated as they move through their accomplishment and developmental stages. WiggleWorks uses multimedia to provide a richer, more flexible, incrementally applicable layering of accepted language arts material that can help a child to read and write.

Effects on Student's Rate of Learning

New technologies does have the power to stimulate the development of intellectual skills such as reasoning and problem solving ability, learning how to learn, and creativity. (Bracewell, Laferriere, 1996)

Advances in telecommunications technologies have spurred access to the Internet, allowing and teachers to communicate with people from around the world via electronic mail. New ways of obtaining and presenting information have given students powerful ways of analyzing and understanding the world around them.(Riley,1996)

At Kapa'a Elementary, Technology teacher, Joann Harunaga uses MS mail as motivational tool for her students to write to each other. The students enjoy the power of instant feedback. They would give up their recess to write using the e-mail.

Integrating technology does have an impact on student performance. Students are shown to have greater self-confidence and self-esteem and are more motivated to learn when using computer-based instruction. (NEA Today, 1996).

An analysis was done on the results of sixty-one studies of the uses of computer-related technology with students form preschool through college. It found that applications that could be used in problem-solving skills, reading, writing and the development of higher thinking skills. It was reported that students found these technologies to be more motivational than traditional instruction. They also stated that it is more enjoyable because students are actively engaged and able to make mistakes without embarrassment. They noted that, in many cases, students' self-esteem was dramatically increased while using computer-related technologies and that time on tasks was significantly increase. (Wright,1993)

Therefore, integrating technology is needed to help my students . It should be use as a necessary tool to help students achieve in the classroom. It has been stated that it improves students' motivation and attitudes about themselves and about learning. Quality reading literacy multimedia software can be used to fulfill the educational needs. Also having access to the Internet is a valuable tool for my students.

Bracewell, Robert and Therese Laferriere., "The Contribution of New Technologies to Learning and Teaching in Elementary and Secondary Schools" Retrieved September 25, 1999: http://www.fse.ulaval.ca./fac/tact/fr/html/apport/impact96.html

Craver, Kathleen., "Shaping Our Future: The Role of School Library Media Centers" School Library Media Quarterly, Fall 1995.

Gussin, Lawrence., "How Multimedia Supports Primary Education." CD-ROM Professional, May 1996, v9 n5.

NEA Today,"Where's the proof?" (report on high technology impact on Student Performance), Nov 1996, v15 n15.

Riley, Richard., "Getting America's Students Ready for the 21st Century: Meeting the Technology Literacy Challenge -June 1996, Benefits of Technology Use" Retrieved September 26, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.ed.gov/Technology/Plan/NatTechPlan/benefits.html

Rogers, Al, "The Failure and the Promise of Technology in Education." Retrieved September 26, 1999 from the World Wide Web: http://www.gsn.org/teach/articles/promise.html

Schmeltzer, Tom., "Adding Another Piece to the Staff Development Puzzle: Some Products and Services You Should Know About." Technology in Today's Schools, Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1990.