Where is Technology Headed in 2009-2010?
Excerpt: Most leadership experts would tell you that great leaders facilitate change in many ways, one of which is to eliminate obstacles. Therefore, please accept the following statement as a commitment from the Technology Department. We will assist you in technology-rich lesson planning, we will train you to use the technology, we will make sure the technology is working and, if you’d like, we’ll be in your classroom to assist you with the lesson.
As the 2008-2009 school year enters into its final weeks, it is a good time for reflection by teachers and administrators alike. In the reality of budget crunches that stand juxtaposed with President Obama’s desire to enhance educational technology, we must wonder what we can do as educators to improve the technology experience of our students.
One of the best resources that has been available FREE OF CHARGE to every educator is the Regional Educational Technology Assistance (RETA) webinar series. RETA is dedicated to showing educators a broad variety of free tools that are teacher friendly and easy to integrate into instruction. At 6 PM on Thursday, April 23, RETA will present a webinar entitled Show and Tell, an opportunity to learn how your colleagues are using technology in their classrooms.
The Spring catalogue of the RETA webinar series concludes next week with sessions about two tools that students and teachers love. On Monday, April 27, at 6PM, Screencasting will show you how to use more audio and video technology in your classroom. On Thursday, April 30, at 6PM, Express Yourself Using Wordle will demonstrate this great tool that is can be used for any subject at any grade level.
Please, for your students’ sake, try to attend the live session or, if it is more convenient, view the recorded session at your leisure. All webinars are recorded and are available from the RETA Webinar Archive Page (click the ARCHIVED tab).
In examining our roles as educators, curriculum developers, lesson planners and instructional experts, the most common complaint about integrating technology is the amount of planning time involved. Secondary issues include concerns about the dependability of the technology, being unfamiliar with the technology or, more often than not, a failure to see value in integrating technology. Except for those brave souls with pioneering spirits that allow them to take tremendous leaps of faith, most of us understandably freeze in our tracks when faced with the obstacles that technology integration can impose.
Most leadership experts would tell you that great leaders facilitate change in many ways, one of which is to eliminate obstacles. Therefore, please accept the following statement as a commitment from your technology depoartment. We will assist you in technology-rich lesson planning, we will train you oin the technology, we will make sure the technology is working and, if you’d like, we’ll be in your classroom to assist you with the lesson.
Technology advocates consistently hear the “I don’t have enough time” argument. Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody, presents an interesting perspective in regards to the use of time. Are we really lacking the time or do we need to reallocate our time? Shirky argues that investing our time in learning these technologies or spending your extra time on the Internet learning is not useless, rather it is more productive than watching TV. Shirky suggests that we should reconsider how we “waste” our time.
Looking at the impact for educators, one argument for teachers who say they don’t have enough time is this: rather than watching that episode of “American Idol”, go online, develop and learn from a Personal Learning Network. You have the time and this is much more rewarding.
Granted, such an argument is radical but, then again, there has to be a happy medium between the two polar stances. As a technology director, my fear is that this battle is going to play out in stubborn resistance by some that will ultimately lead to mandates from state and federal levels that will requiring technology competency tests for teachers, required technology training and proof of technology integration. Force-fed technology integration, while a likely outcome in the future, is not desireable and could be avoided if we would all be willing to take some small steps now.
There are dozens of reasons to integrate technology into your lesson plans, including educational fundamentals like student engagement, authentic assignments, creative presentations, and immersion of students into life-skills training. As the leaders, coaches and guides for these young lives with whom we have been entrusted, it is only fair to ask if we are giving them what they need, or are we just giving them what is easy for us to serve. My personal experience as a student was that the teachers who made the greatest impact on me were the ones who went out of their way to give me what I needed.
So, what are you going to do? What are you going to serve? Are you Chef Boy R Dee from the can or Emeril Lagasse with a big, loud BAM when you spice up your lessons?
