The integration of technology into dance education must be well-planned, organized, and comprehensive. The following thoughts on utilizing technology are intended to inspire new ways of using technology in the fine arts.

Technology Supports Traditional Learning Goals

• By offering additional means for teachers to accommodate different learning styles and paces. For example, interactive technology enables students to learn at their own pace, making decisions within the structure of the program about what, and how, they learn.
• By motivating students to learn in new ways. The excitement of exploring the Internet can spark interest in dance.
• By encouraging students' self-direction. Students can make choices of what and how to research online, how to use technology such as still photography and video cameras, and how to plan and create online journals. 
• By giving special needs students more opportunities to collaborate with peers. Internet and interactive technologies can be a rich source of peer coaching and cooperation among students. Learners take on different tasks in working towards common research or production goals.

Technology Provides New Learning Tools

• By providing students with valuable, new creative tools, such as film, video, and sound equipment.
• By offering students efficient, exploratory ways to research the contributions of dancers and choreographers, dance history, trends, and styles with the Internet's network of library catalogs, campus information systems, directories, databases, archives, and other interactive media technology.
• By enabling students to communicate with dance teachers and students around the world in online discussion groups, list-servs, bulletin boards, and e-mail.
• By providing a new way for students to document and assess their learning. Students can keep computer journals, learning to scan representations of their performances.

Steps for Integrating Technology into Dance Education

Schools must develop comprehensive plans for integrating technology into their curricula. An effective plan is based on the shared vision of teachers, administrators, parents, community members, and technology experts. Technology should strengthen a district's curricula and strategies for teaching the Dance TEKS, providing another means of engaging students in meaningful learning. When a technology plan is in place, teachers might consider the following strategies for making the most of these new learning tools.

• Create an atmosphere that emphasizes collaboration in the use of technology.
• Develop dance activities that incorporate challenging, authentic tasks with technological tools used as support, adding significant value to the learning experience. Learning the content of the Dance TEKS should be the primary goal. Incorporating technology should be secondary.
• Seek opportunities to collaborate with other dance teachers; work in teams to design and implement technology-supported projects.
• Join students in learning new technology that expands learning in dance, demonstrating problem-solving and thinking skills that show students positive ways to approach new learning challenges.
• Design activities so that every student has something to offer. Draw from your knowledge base of students' strengths and weaknesses to foster success and to bolster specific areas of learning.
• Develop assessment procedures to monitor and learn from each student's progress.