Technology Anxiety

As I read and reflect on books and articles I have read and continue to read regarding technology integration, teacher training and the children we currently serve, I find myself feeling an urgency....verging on panic that we are so far behind.

Here it is Christmas of 2009, we have students who will graduate in 2010 without the slightest knowledge of how to harness the technology that they have in their hands for continued learning, collaboration and real communication. The majority of our veteran teachers do not have the knowledge or skill to help our students embrace this technology.

Teachers sit on the forefront, they have the power to influence the direction of our country in a very real way. While I believe that everyone is a teacher, those who have chosen it as a professional are extremely important to the mission of this nation. Yet our politicians do not acknowledge this, they do not address it. Instead we have groups meeting to write curriculum on a national level and I am pressed to ask, does this curriculum include what teacher need to know? Does it include a clear description for the future? Is it fluid, susceptible to changing on a dime so technology can be inter weaved and changed as it changes in the market place? Or is it based on rhetoric and not action? The prospect of this leads us to more of the same and we can't afford more of the same.

In the Great State of Ohio, the now defunct eTech started down the path of wiring buildings/districts and eventually grant monies came forth for the purchase of computers. After computers appeared, it was realized the teachers did not know how to use them. Training began to occur statewide. Unfortunately, it was based on building skill, knowing how to use a word processor does not necessarily translate into understanding how to integrate curriculum. It fell woefully short of the need of teachers. A clear picture of what integration looks like has not been built. We have instead words that are vague both for the professional and the layman. The latest of which is "21st Century Skills".....I keep hearing it but when I ask others to describe it, I get blank looks.

Instructional design will help build the picture, so professionals and layman have a clear understanding of what integration look like, how the tools are used and to break down the jargon that confused and befuddles all of us. The training of veteran teachers as well as our pre-service teachers must be based in the philosophy of instructional design. Professional development can not be an after thought, meaningful professional development has be linked and sanctioned at the state level if a difference is going to be made at the classroom level. The evaluation of educational practices have to be on-going with demonstrated change as an embedded consequence of improved learning at the classroom level. This evaluation can not be left as a hit and miss by districts, it has to be a formalized, structured evaluation complete with rubrics so administrators, teachers and all stakeholders know what good teaching looks like, no guessing, no rhetoric.

This blog and my website will work to bring to light solid practice in an endeavor to help those who are interested in building a picture of what integration, best practices, professional development and evaluation looks like.

Happy Holidays to all!