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OUR HISTORY |
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Why technology? A brief look at CTE’s history.OUR FOUNDATION Prior to the advent of CTE, the faculty of the Johns Hopkins University Graduate Division of Education recognized technology’s potential role in improving the lives of people with disabilities. In 1980, in partnership with scientists from the Applied Physics Lab (APL), JHU conducted a national search and competition to prompt the invention of technologies for people with disabilities. Many in the field consider that competition to mark the birth of assistive technology. Between 1980 and 1986, JHU’s faculty developed one of the first graduate technology for educators programs in the country, established a graduate technology for special education program (funded by a federal personnel preparation grant), and along with APL developed Multisensoring Authoring Computer Systems I and II with funding provided by the U.S. Department of Education Technology Media and Materials. All of these activities served as the foundation for the Center. THE CENTER IS LAUNCHED For the next five years the faculty and staff of CTHD, which was housed in the Maryland Rehabilitation Center (MRC), worked on developing ways to match individuals with new technologies to assist them with communication, mobility, activities of daily living, and career development. The CTHD faculty also began developing a model for assessing the needs of children with disabilities. This model met a great need because at that time there were no standardized protocols for assessing children’s needs for assistive technology. Supported by one of the first federal instructional technology research grants, the CTHD also began conducting research to determine the optimal conditions and uses of instructional technologies in public school classrooms. Our strong relationship with our two partner organizations and the influence of the prevailing trends toward introducing technology into the classroom and educating children with disabilities in the least restrictive environments led to the vision of the Center for Technology in Education. Jacqueline Nunn, who was appointed acting director in 1990 and director in 1991, began steering the Center toward a new, more sharply focused mission to expand the bounds of the school reform movement to include both technology and inclusive education for children with disabilities. As the Center’s mission was evolving, Dr. Nunn strongly advocated for the inclusion of children from impoverished homes and communities in its mission. CTE was conceptualized as an organization that would combine the research and teaching resources of JHU with the leadership and policy support of MSDE to improve the quality of life of all children, particularly those with special needs. At that time, Dr. Nunn guided CTE in broadening its definition of “special needs” to embrace children from underserved populations and impoverished areas along with children with all types of disabilities—from learning disabilities to severe cognitive and physical disabilities. In response to those new directions and a refined mission, the Center was re-invented as the Center for Technology in Education in 1991 and moved to a new location in the Northbend Professional Development Center in Baltimore City. At that time, the Center began to emphasize the use of technology to improve the lives of children and youth from birth to age 21 through innovative and effective uses of technology in education. CTE’s first efforts in birth through secondary education were to disseminate its assistive technology assessment model and to conduct professional development to teach best practices for integrating technology in the classroom. Our expertise on best practices was the product of five years of research, which also helped to establish CTE as a national authority on technology integration. It was at that time that CTE also began to recognize the crucial role of collaboration with school principals and district administrators to assure sustained implementation of our assessment and integration models. CTE’s emphasis on technology in education derived from a strong belief that children with special needs have an unquestionable right to the best possible education in the least restrictive environment. CTE operates from an equally strong belief in the power of technology to increase access to the general education curriculum and transform instruction so that all children can maximize their potential. CTE directs much of its work toward expanding educators’ awareness and skills so they are able to improve their practice and, in turn, the education they provide to all children. CTE also embraces the goal of fostering effective leadership in education in order to affect and maintain broad, systemic change through all levels of education, starting in the classroom and extending through the school, district, and state administration. Since 1999, CTE honed its expertise in six critical areas: Data-driven decision-making for leaders, evidence-based instruction, assistive technology, leadership development, online learning and communities of practice, and emerging technologies and tool development. Today CTE applies its expertise in these areas in a wide array of programs, projects, and research activities that increase the capabilities of teachers, parents, schools, and school administrators, with the end result the improvement of education for all children Today, CTE continues to apply its expertise in 6 distinct areas through various projects:
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. JHU and the Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) joined forces to establish a center focused on exploring ways to use new technologies to improve the quality of life of people with disabilities across the life span—from birth through death.