The applications just described provide the content, the materials, and the varied pathways students can follow in learning through interaction with a simulation. Alternatively, technology can be used to enable students to investigate questions within curriculum units that individual teachers or teams of teachers have designed. As discussed in Chapter II, these technologies are primarily general-purpose tools. The essence of the innovation lies in the development of an instructional framework within which these tools are used. Two examples of projects using technology to provide information and tools for student inquiry are provided below.
Students gather and integrate information.
Each of the four field test sites carried out a different inquiry-based, thematic unit that integrated various technology applications. In a suburb of New York City, the unit was on the human body. In a rural community in New Hampshire, the unit focused on the history of the town. The technology that became part of the unit included TimeLine r, meccGraph , a teacher-made video, a database program, and word processing. In a small urban area in Massachusetts, the unit was on Race and Culture.