My answer would be no. I don't think that we will ever be completely 100%. Where will the money come from to create these schools full of technology? The money to pay teachers who are now more skilled and qualified than before? There will always be someone on the negative side and therefore I don't think it will ever be 100%.
Yes, as veteran teachers retire more teachers who are comfortable with technology will begin to teach but still those who are comfortable with technology right now may not be comfortable with a new form of technology in future years. There will constantly be the struggle between what is comfortable and what is new.Just when we think we have enough ability to teach a form of technology a new one will arise and then we will be back to square one. We are educating kids for jobs that don't exist TODAY! That is something really to think about. We have to think out of the box and push ahead rather than sitting and being comfortable with what we know.
I've seen it first hand as I began my teaching career four years ago. The veteran teachers are afraid of technology and afraid of the equipment. No one wants to be standing in front of a class full of 9 and 10 year old students as you try to get this cord connected to your laptop,the projector on,then you want to air play from your iPad and of course something goes wrong. It comes down to fear of what could happen and not feeling confident in being able to fix it right at that moment. How can we fix that? It comes down to using the equipment and knowing that things can go run. We won't be comfortable until we do it and not just once but over and over!
Then you have TIME. That word you hear too often in schools around the nation. It is something we can't change. I to have heard myself even say it "there just isn't enough time". After reading the posting from Steve Weber titled "I Don't Have Time" it really made me realize something. It is not that we don't have time but its the inital time required for students to understand the shift towards something new and the grunt work required by the teacher to make the shift go smoothly. I think we try it at first and see "wow this is taking way too much of my time" so we quit before we actually see if in the long run our time would be cut back or our students would benefit so much more from this than our traditional way that we are comfortable with.
That same feeling came over me this week as we passed out the student iPads to my fourth grade class. I felt that we were so behind because we were having to review this and teach this and I thought to myself "this is taking forever - we just don't have time for this" but then realized that I have to take this time to let them get adjusted. This is new to them and its new to me in the way I'm teaching. It won't happen overnight. I had to think of all the great features and collaboration that would come from taking our time now.
So how can we make the shift possible? We have to remember that none of us got on our bike for the first time without training wheels and rode for miles. We have to remember that none of us hit the winning homerun at our first baseball game and that none of us learned to use a computer in an hour.
The shift is possible if we remember it won't happen immediately but it is coming whether we like it or not.
Just wanted to share this video that our district made to explain why our 1:1 movement is so important.There are some rather shocking statistics!
Hi Lauren,
ReplyDeleteYour comment "Where will the money come from to create these schools full of technology?" was a great point! Schools have many obligations and technology is just one of them. Sometimes when we are in the trenches of our classroom, we have a hard time seeing the "big picture" that our district leaders see. We may lament that they aren't doing enough to get technology into the classroom, but we may not realize they simply can't fund it.
My school has a lot of older teachers. Each Spring a few more retire and each Fall a few fresh faces fill their shoes. You mentioned that the younger teachers will be more tech savvy than the veterans, and that is true. Those of us that did not grow with computers try, but as you pointed out, "Just when we think we have enough ability to teach a form of technology a new one will arise and then we will be back to square one. " That rings true for many of my older colleagues!
I can completely relate to teachers feeling uncomfortable using technology in the classroom. It is really hard to stand up in front of the students and use technology you don't often use. So many times, the students know how to use the technology better than the teacher does. This can put extra pressure on the teacher. It is so much easier to keep doing what you are comfortable with. Unfortunately, this doesn't benefit the students. We have to be willing to leave our comfort zone and work with technology. In the long run, I think it will make everyone's life a little easier. I try to remember that we are preparing students for the world they will be entering, and this world is very technology centered. :) It is just amazing the amount of change that has occurred since I've been out of high school.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your thought and experiences!
Danielle Cotton