Wednesday, June 26, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
Articles Regarding Teachers and Technology in the Classroom
http://voices.yahoo.com/why-some-teachers-resist-technology-classroom-10797261.html?cat=15
Education World - Training Teachers Who are Terrorized by Technology http://www.educationworld.com/a_curr/curr176.shtml
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Collecting Dust
Collecting Dust
This year completes my
thirteenth year of teaching. In my thirteen years I have found that there are
very few teachers that actually utilize technology in their classrooms. I have
seen the fear that some teachers have when it comes to technology. When my school
district changed from the hand written grade book to software that did most of
the work for us, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. The
countless number of teachers that moaned and groaned because they liked the old
way better and never gave the program a chance to show them what it could do.
Today, I see teachers with SMART Boards that never are used, document cameras
sitting without being turned on, student computers collecting dust and it is
very sad in my opinion. As I walk from class to class, wracking my brain,
and search the web for information on why this is, I find the reason to be that
teachers are not trained correctly or enough and their resistance to learning
something new. There are a lot of administrators and teachers that are
set in their ways and do not want to make room for new things in their
offices/classrooms/lives. Marc Prensky stated when a new technology
appears, our first instinct is always to continue doing things within the
technology the way we’ve always done it. That is almost exclusively what we now
do with educational technology. We use it mostly to pass documents around, but
now in electric form, and the result is not very different from what we have
always known (Prensky, 2005). People just don’t want to change but by
learning something new, the challenges/duties we have in our day to day lives
as teachers would be so much easier to take care of. Jamie McKenzie
stated in 2001 that the evidence mounts that few American teachers feel
adequately prepared for the challenge of using new technologies in any fashion,
not to mention the challenge of using technologies to support curriculum rich,
standards-based lessons (McKenzie, 2001). Part of this is brought on by
the teacher also and not by the training at hand. I have found, when I do
technology training at my school, that most teachers do not even pay attention
to what is going on in the training. They are surfing the web, talking to
their neighbors, or just plain zoned out. We often see this in our
students and get upset with them for not paying attention, but then do it
ourselves when it is our turn to learn. Then when it is time for do the
task that the training was over, they cannot recall how to go about it. I
believe that if there is provided training that walks teachers through the
process of using the software, hardware, website, whatever it is, step-by-step
and the teacher has to follow along, then they will understand it better and be
more apt to using it in the future. It is the teacher’s responsibility to take
control of the situation and move forward. With that being said, I
believe that if they are provided with a training that is hands on then that
will provide the first opportunity to them to use and explore the technology
that is in front of them. It will give them time to get used to it and
ask questions if they have it. If they are unsure about something, most
teachers will go back to their classrooms, put the information on a shelf, and
never pull it out again because they feel intimidated by it. If they are
given the proper training, then more are likely to use it in the future.
Another issue stated by Sam Carlson, is teacher motivation to participate in
professional development workshops in the use of technology. While so-called
“champion teachers” will request and seek out professional development
opportunities in the use of technology, the vast majority of teachers will not
(Carlson, 2002). I truly believe this. Most teachers run in the
opposite direction when it comes to technology. If they were made aware
of the training being hands on and giving them time to manipulate the
hardware/software, maybe they would be more likely to sign up. As
Instructional Technologists, we must provide training and experiences with
technology that is student (teachers) friendly and gives them the security that
they need in order to go back to their classrooms and use what they have or
more. We have to remember that not everyone is technology savvy and that
things must be taught at the learner’s level and in their style of learning,
just like our students in the classroom. If we can do this and provide
positive feedback and help, I believe that more teachers would feel more
comfortable with technology and use it more in their classrooms to provide a
learning environment for all their students.
References
Carlson, S. (2002, October - December). The Missing LInk in Educational
Technology: Trained Teachers. Retrieved
June 7, 2013, from TechKnowLogia: www.techknowlogia.org/TKL_Articles/PDF/435.pdf
McKenzie, J. (2001, March 6). How
Teachers Learn Technology Best. Retrieved
June 9, 2013 , from From Now On The Educational Technology Journal:
www.fno.org/mar01/howlearn.html
Prensky, M. (2005, December 2). Shaping
Tech for the Classroom 21st-century schools need 21st-century technology. Retrieved June 7, 2013, from
Edutopia: www.edutopia.org/adopt-and-adapt-shaping-tech-for-classroom
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