By Morgan Montalvo
WOAI News
More than 1,000 Christian educators representing all grade levels and college today begin a series of meetings in the Alamo City to address a range of challenges, including how best to access and employ technology as a learning tool, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
The annual conference this year has attracted teachers and parents from across the United States and 24 foreign countries, says Lynn Swaner, a policy strategist for the Association of Christian Schools International, one of the groups organizing the gathering.
Swaner says increasing technology use is a top priority for faith-based educators who, because of the non-centralized nature of stand-alone Christian and home schools, face a number of hurdles, from what information and sites students access to delivering connectivity to their learning communities in poorer or rural areas.
"The real issue beyond that is, even once you have the technology in place, how do you use it in ways that are instructionally efficient and that deepen student learning," Swaner says.
Funding technology, Swaner says, is an additional challenge.
"How do we keep up with technological trends, how do we fund those, how do we engage corporations and community partners in innovative ways to provide those types of technologies? are among the technology accessibility questions Swaner says Christian educators ponder.
Other conference topics, Swaner says, include increasing diversity among Christian school student populations, seeking more student public service opportunities, and informing students and parents about career opportunities in the skilled trades rather than promoting a "college for all" model.