Teacher Technology Forum
For the Future of Education
The ultimate goal of education is to prepare students for lives as productive, contributing members of society, able to make the right decisions regarding their own lives and that of their families. Whatever the student's eventual goal - be it life as a left-brained scientist or engineer or a right-brained artist or philosopher - success in life will depend skills in critical thinking and the interpretation, analyisis, synthesis and communication of information.
The ebb and flow of information has been entirely electronic for a long time, especially in business and government. Even the most complex documents can be exchanged digitally, and contact is made using e-mail or some other digital method. Gone are the days when allowances had to be made for the time lags caused by the physical delivery of information; communication occurs at the speed of thought now. You can't float a check for a couple of days anymore - if you still write checks, they're converted into an instant electronic transaction on the spot by the store cashier. The ultimate manifestation of this trend, at least for this year, is the Apple IPhone, now in its third iteration. In a pocket-sized device you have a cell phone with a computer, camera, video recorder and player, e-mail, and immense amounts of music. All this for a couple of hundred bucks? The futurists of the fifties would be loving this.
That said, you should realize that educational technology is only one component of the learning process. A strong component, yes, but only one of many. To be effective, technology must integrate smoothly with the other components, and the first priority must always be the content. Let's see how technology can impact various aspects of your practice:
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The resources available to you on the Web and in published software can make lesson planning and implementation incredibly easy. Educators and curriculum developers - and even your fellow teachers - have published literally millions of comprehensive lessons, so you can pick and choose the best ones for your students and concentrate on the learning experience, not the development of a lesson plan. |
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Take your lessons, presentations and student assignments to new levels with word processing tools like Microsoft Word, spreadsheet programs like Excel, and presentation software like Hyperstudio and PowerPoint. Bring life to your teaching with animation and video. Let your students use all of these for a major multidisciplinary project. |
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| Teacher, classroom, school and district web sites put all the information you want communicated in a place that can be accessed anytime, anywhere, by anyone. Your Web presence can help define you as a true 21st Century educator. | |
| This is the world of Web 2.0, the read/write Web. Newsgroups, wikis, blogs, social networking sites and others have given a whole new meaning to the word "interactive". | |
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PBL is the ultimate student-centered learning activity. Your students are capable of so much more than limited resources can tap, and PBL gives them the opportunity tp use all of their skills in critical thinking, research, analysis, synthesis and communication. Technology makes it all possible. |
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| No more papers lost in backpacks, no more parents who didn't know their little darlings were failing. Instant communication of everything you want them to know, and vice-versa. Get ready for that... | |
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The world of online learning lets you earn everything from the CEUs you need to keep your license current to an entire accredited Masters or Doctorate that's every bit as good as one earned in brick-and-mortar schools. You can access innumerable learning communities or form your own, broadening your skills and maybe earning more money. |
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Technology gives you more robust methods for bringing parents into the educational fold. Parents can get questions answered immediately, track the progress of their children, and really become full participants in the educational process. |
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| When they enter the world of work, your students will need to already have skills in the use of technology and the processing of information. Learning to use it early is key... |
Of course, this isn't all your responsibility. You need to have technological resources before you can integrate them properly. Each of you may have a different situation - computer labs instead of classroom units, outdated equipment and software, lack of training, maybe all or maybe none of these things. One school district in Oregon has seven different operating systems running its computers, but can only support the latest Mac system. Another in Hawaii refuses to replace its 10-year-old Apple computers or get new software. Bauer and Kenton (2005) found that problems with equipment, scheduling, and software often kept even the most tech-savvy teachers from effectively integrating technology, while Swain (2006) and Hofer and Swan (2006) found that these issues often left teachers with the perception that technology just isn't worth the trouble. Even with 98% of the nation's schools wired, there are a lot of you working with some severe limitations.
My point is that you have to make the most of what you DO have. If you have anything at all, learn to use it and USE IT. In Utah, 1/3 of the teachers with classroom computers don't use them in any way for instruction. There is no excuse for that.
References:
Bauer, J. & Kenton, J. (2005). Toward technology integration in the schools: Why it isn't happening. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 13(4), 519-546
Hofer, M. & Swan, K. (2006). Standards, firewalls, and general classroom mayhem: Implementing student-centered technology elements in the elementary classroom. Social Studies Research and Practice, 1(1)
Swain, C. (2006). Preservice teachers self-assessment using technology: Determining what is worthwhile and looking for changes in daily teaching and learning practices. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 14(1), 29-59
