After a great meeting with our technology coordinators on Wednesday and a couple of conference calls yesterday, my mind is spinning with thoughts about technology - where we've been, where we are and where we're going.
I've heard concern expressed on multiple occasions regarding our teachers as a whole and the collective (in)ability to effectively "integrate" technology into their instruction. I've also heard one friend of mine, whose opinion I greatly value, wonder aloud if we've completely wasted massive investments into interactive technology classroom components such as boards, pads, etc.
Let's take ourselves back to the most basic of questions: What's our job? What are we doing and what should be be doing as the technology leaders in our district? As I see it, our job is to support effective teaching and learning in our district. That means that we have an obligation to provide the opportunity for all students to learn and for all teachers to teach as effectively as they can. It does NOT necessarily mean that we'll have a 100% success rate, as much as that may pain us to admit.
If you attend a conference or a manager in corporate America wishes to make a presentation, it's become an expectation that the presenter will have access to a computer and some type of projection device. Many churches nowadays have multiple projectors to serve large sanctuaries and many have a projector facing the back wall for the presenter to see while facing the audience.
Our teachers are presenters. For six hours each day, they are expected to hold the interest of 25 or so children that have so many tools that we didn't have that also capture their interest. To me, a projector or television connected to a teacher's computer has become a requirement. Not every teacher will use it as often as we'd like or as effectively as we'd like, but that doesn't mean that attempts to give access to these tools has been a waste. The same argument could be made for interactive boards, pads, document cameras, student response systems, etc.
The two most common reasons given by a teacher when asked about the adoption of technology in the classroom are "it doesn't work" or "I don't know how". Admittedly, due in part to lack of funds, it seems that we can't solve one of those before the other becomes an issue. We invest in these tools and, just as we have a group of teachers using them effectively, we run into hardware issues and have a lack of funds to replace/upgrade in a timely fashion. Right now, I think we collectively do a good job of solving the "it doesn't work" problem and wish we could do more to solve the "I don't know how" problem. Oh, and while I'm at it, let me address those who think the teachers should just "figure it out" in the same fashion that we, as technology leaders, would hopefully do if faced with the same dilemma. Collectively, they aren't as interested in technology as we are. In addition, they spend their entire day trying to help youngsters "figure out" concepts that they're struggling with. In some cases, they repeat critical concepts until they're fairly certain that their students have learned that concept. It's no accident that this is how they expect to learn themselves - it's how they operate on a day-to-day basis.
Apologies for the semi-rant with no links to other information, but I've had this on my mind for a couple of days. I'll make one last point. In a tough economy, it's fairly certain that teacher pay won't keep up as many think it should. We'll all hear that these are professionals with degrees and they want to be treated as such. One way we can attempt to do this, perhaps in lieu of a massive salary increase, is to do our best to provide them with the tools to be effective presenters and provide them with the training to properly use these tools.
It's a daily struggle but a worthy one. Let's keep our heads up and move forward!
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1 comment:
A very good "rant" (if you will). If you will permit me, I'll rant a bit.
Many years ago, when I was first starting out in adult education and training, I read a book about motivating adults to learn, entitled "They Really Oughta Wanna". The premise being that just because we think adult learners should know or do something, unless you can demonstrate a benefit to THEM, it ain't gonna happen. You've heard me say before that we should never forget radio station WIFM, What's In it For Me.
Whether we like it or not, in a world of NCLB and CATS (or whatever CATS becomes) teachers are ultimately evaluated on how well their students perform on high stakes, summative assessments. Unless we can show teachers how technology can help them raise their student's scores on the tests, all the PD on "integrating technology in the classroom" is just so much wasted time.
Even if we did nothing except provide the technology (and keep it working) there would always be a percentage (10%-20%?) of "early adopters" who would use technology in instruction. But the vast bulk of teachers will go to PD, see some neat application, say "cool" and then go back to their classroom and do things the same old way because we don't show them how their students will score higher on end of year assessments.
Chuck suggested that the issue in teacher training and adoption is between how to use tech versus how to integrate tech. I would argue that the real issue is showing teachers WHY to use tech. Give them a reason that benefits THEM and the "how" training becomes a snap.
Jeff
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