Just the other day, I was walking down the hallway of a beautiful high school that looked to have been built within the past decade. An educational technology conference was being hosted at this school and I was heading to my scheduled classroom where I would lead a session focused on the Tap Into Teen Minds iPad Classroom.
Peeking into each classroom, I noticed that each classroom was outfitted with a desktop computer, ceiling mounted projector, wall mounted interactive whiteboard and a document camera. Any person walking down these halls would immediately believe that this school was on the cutting edge of educational technology and innovation.
Think Again
When I walked into the classroom I would present in, I was shocked when I saw two blackboards on either side of the wall mounted interactive whiteboard, full of math examples.
I couldn’t help but think that so many teachers would love to have this technology in their classroom, yet it was sitting in this classroom collecting dust. I began setting up for my session, but had a hard time getting over the investment in technology that was clearly going to waste.
Who is to Blame? Not the Teacher!
Having always been fascinated with technology years before I began teaching, integrating technology and learning how to use new devices has always been enjoyable.
However, for a teacher that is not comfortable with technology, it is not so easy. While the amount of technology school boards and administrators purchase increase with each passing year, the amount allotted for professional development for the teachers intended to use the technology has decreased or is non-existent.
Where Do We Go From Here?
Before spending another dime on new technology, remember that teachers still do the teaching and technology is only worth the investment if used effectively.
In order to maximize the return on technology purchased, leaders in education must understand the importance of professional development and make the investment.
Kyle Pearce
Mathematics Teacher
Middle Years Collaborative Inquiry (MYCI) Coach
Tecumseh Vista Academy
www.tapintoteenminds.com
@MathletePearce
Kyle,
This same exact situation is what led my colleague, Wayne Feller, and I to have a GREAT conversation with one of our elementary school principals (we are both Technology Integration Specialists for Stillwater Area Public Schools in MN). The school we were working in had plenty of technology that was not being used. But as we were sitting in the teachers’ lounge one afternoon, the principal asked, “What’s the next new tech tool coming?!”
So we said, “It’s not about the technology. It’s about how well your teachers use existing technology!”
And this was the beginning of the creation of FlippedPD – personalized professional development around technology integration. It is awesome and very transformative for teachers! Check out our very basic website (more coming) http://www.flippedpd.org
Kristin Daniels
Technology Integration Specialist
Stillwater Area Public Schools
Professional development is so important to the effective use of educational technology. Thank you for taking the time to point this out. If teachers do not know how to use the tools they are given, then how can we expect them to use the tools, let alone do so effectively?
The worst part is that many would assume that teachers not making an attempt to integrate technology are lazy or unmotivated. What is really happening is similar to a student falling behind in your class. Why try if I know I can’t do it?
Here is the thing. Becoming a leader or “expert” in using technology in education takes time…. Lots of time. I shudder to think just how much time I have spent infront of a computer screen learning and honing my skills with technology. It is time intensive and quite frankly a teacher in the humanities, who teaches 200+ kids simply doesn’t have that time. Sure they may try some new technology based lessons but to really become an expert… i is unlikely.
I do not have any post secondary credentials to my name but I have colleagues with masters in educational technology, asking me for advice and direction. I have PhD candidates including as part of their research because I have done the time.
If you look at the book “Outliers – The Story of Success” by Malcolm Gladwell. You are looking at 10,000 hours of time committed to any task, before you can consider yourself an expert. If we expect teachers to become digital savants before they enter the classroom, where is this time going to come from? As part of the job or out of a teachers back pocket?
You can’t have it all.
Playing devil’s advocate, the are times when I use both the mimeo and the whiteboard. When the projector is off, it looks like I only use the whiteboard. I also appreciate that teachers new to technology will use the tools in the same way they used their previous chalk-and-slate technology. It takes time, some more, some less.
But, for sure, I get what everyone is saying here: training, access to resources, moving forward, developing skills and capacity for integration are all the grand goals. Civilization as we know it today arose from people who used pencil and paper in desks set up in rows with rigid rules about speaking out of turn. Colleagues with more traditional approaches are balanced over the twelve years of schooling by those that are more innovative and creative.
As a former math teacher, I don’t see the problem. It is necessary and natural to use a chalkboard/whiteboard/pen and paper in the teaching, learning, and doing of mathematics. I would never rely solely on an interactive whiteboard–just doesn’t make sense. In fact, what bothers me in these classrooms is that the interactive board has center billing, where it often disrupts the natural use of other boards.
We have the same issue at our school. Lots of interactive whiteboards being used only as projecting screens really. Also, lots of computers per classroom but not used efficiently.
Hear, hear! I’ve been fighting this battle for three+ years. Until this school year, I was the sole technology integration specialist in a K – 12 district with nine buildings. This year they hired another tech integration specialist for the high school, so I only cover the eight K-8 buildings with many talking about implementing 1:1 programs. Decisions have been made to create “1:1″ programs without any time devoted to PD. It has all been top-down. I’ve been called in after the fact to try to get the teachers using technology with the students. As more equipment is purchased, more tech support people are hired, but not more educational technologists. Our top down decision makers assume they are doing the right thing and go around touting their purchases as if they are headed in the right direction. However, without teacher buy-in, without creating time for teachers to get the necessary PD, teaching does not change. The same old teaching methods will be done in perhaps a different way (or not, in the case of the chalkboards), and the money spent is, IMO, thrown down the drain. BTW-I’m a former math teacher who would have killed for one projector and one computer in my classroom. I got so sick of chalk dust, vis-a-vis marker ink all over my hands and clothing, fighting for computer lab time for all three of my geometry classes, and, if I was lucky enough to get it for all three, then taking 10 minutes to move kids from my classroom to the computer lab for a 10-15 minute lesson using geometer’s sketchpad. I also knew, even 12+ years ago, that my lecturing for 40 – 60 minutes was not the way to teach math effectively.
I have been teaching with an interactive white board for 8 years now. Every year I use it less and less because interactive whiteboards are at the lowest end of Bloom’s. Despite using the interactive board less and less, I am using technology more and more with things like edmodo.com, a multitude of digital self publishing mediums, collaborative software and apps, and video games. I think we will find that interactive white boards will be an essential part of the classroom for showing on demand whole group visuals, but they are far from the pinnacle of high quality, differentiated, and individualized instruction.
I have been teaching for 15 years and I am currently working as a School Principal for 5 years. Truely speaking, integration of Technology in Education in Namibia is very poor and is only in some very few schools. Teachers themselves are not empowered to use technology in their teaching, one might say they are ‘dull’ educators but that is not the case; there is not empowered. In many Namibian schools teaching is still done in a traditional way, where a black chalkboard is seen as the only means to transmit knowledge to learners. Many school principals are computer illiterate, thus they are unwillingly to motivate for the use of tecnology in teaching and still its not their choice. However, even if Principals are willing to do this they are challenged by many factors, no resources, no funding from the region to push for this and many schools are not electrified.