I just finished writing a literature review for my Trends and Issues class at Nova Southeastern University. It seems that there has been a 300% increase in technology spending for schools over the past three decades. That is a big growth spurt for any type of industry. Schools are reaching and trying to keep up with the technological growth. Schools don't want to be considered "behind the 8-ball" in terms of having technology in the classroom as other schools do.
However, through my research I have discovered several issues that we must consider. First of all, schools are making a lot of the technology decisions (although with good intentions at heart) from the top down. Technology is bought and handed down to the teachers with a mandate to use it in their classrooms. That makes teachers very resistant and anxious about technology. They are not familiar with this new thing in their classroom or how to use it. This leads to the next issue...
Teachers have less and less planning time. New technology keeps coming in, but teachers hardly have time to get mentoring on how to use the technology. Moreover, they do not have time to sit with other teachers who may be using the technology, and they definitely do not get enough time with the principal to understand how their administration would like to see the technology being used. Furthermore, a lot of teachers are not that technologically-savvy. This adds to the problem even more.
Next, what evaluation tools do we have in place to test if the technology is really working? Are we using the technology as a marketing tool to tell others that our school has these things? Or are we actually evaluating these technologies to make sure it is helping our students understand and retain information any more than they would have without it. I've found through my research that a lot of students really do not see the value in having more technology in the classroom and do not feel like they are learning any better than before.
We must understand how we make our technology purchases. We should include teachers on the purchasing decisions. If teachers know their issues in their classrooms, research and find technology that will help with those issues, and come forward and recommend that technology, than we have a winner. This means the teacher is motivated to learn about, and use, this particular technology. This should be the way we make our purchasing decisions.
Once bought, we must set up a real mentoring system for teachers to understand how to use the technology as efficiently and effectively as possible. Lastly, we need to evaluate whatever technology system we put into place.
Otherwise, technology will end up being a distraction as opposed to an asset in our classrooms.
Joseph Kastan
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2 comments:
Great blog Joseph! I thought reading your blog was very interesting. You made some valid points. Judson (2006) graduated from Arizona State University, USA. Judson’s research indicated that teachers who readily integrated technology into their instruction were more likely to possess constructivist teaching styles. Evidence shows that there is a parallel between a teacher's student-centered beliefs about instruction and the nature of the teacher's technology-integrated lessons. He also discovered that the use of technology has proliferated and mentioned that students, too, are found busy employing technology to compose reports, analyze data, communicate with experts, and perform research. Few argue that technology will not continue to become even more embedded in student experiences. However, classroom visitors often see technology integrated in a variety of ways. Some teachers maintain fierce control and use technology only for presentation purposes. Other teachers with the same resources and access allow students nearly full reign of technology decisions.
Judson concluded the study by demonstrating many teachers’ beliefs about instruction do not necessarily resonate in their classroom practices when integrating technology. However, most teachers would state that they do indeed maintain a classroom embodying constructivist tenets. An implication here is that professional development must be constructed to reverse these shortcomings. Teachers say they conduct student-centered classrooms; however, observation of the practice of integrating technology differs with this view. According to Judson, professional development must be specific to the goal of integrating technology in a constructivist manner (Judson, 2006).
Reference
Judson, E. (2006). How teachers integrate technology and their beliefs about learning: Is there a connection? Journal of technology and teacher education 14 (3), 581-97.
With such and information overload, the role of the teacher has changed tremendously with the growing trend of technology in the classroom setting. Why has adoption of technology in the classroom been slower than acquiring the resources? Early emergence of classroom computers in the late 1980s and early 1990s put teachers in a quandary, the integration of computer technology into the curriculum was poorly planned, and that teachers were generally poorly trained. Another problem with the introduction of the computer into the classroom was that teachers did not fully understand the role computers should play and sometimes felt threatened with the possibility of being replaced by them. Others feared that the computer would interfere with teacher-student relationships. With the onset of new computer hardware and high tech software programs, it has been difficult for teachers to keep up. The rate at which professional teacher development has been slow compared to the rate at which new technology hit the market.
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