After viewing McLeod and Fisch’s video (Did You Know?) and reading Dr. McLeod’s blog (found here) I felt that his question had a somewhat accusatory tone. While is it undoubtedly true that technology is an increasingly ubiquitous and ever-changing part of our world, and that it is certainly vitally necessary for our students to be adept at using it, technology is incredibly expensive. Especially now, when our nation is still attempting to put itself back together again following an economic disaster of epic proportions, schools are still at an all-time high in budget cuts. If we cannot even afford toilet paper in some schools, how can we afford to provide our students with the best technological tools and access to digital media? Granted, there are many wonderful government funded programs such as E-Rate (Shelly, 2010) which can provide assistance for schools in acquiring basic and even advanced technology. It may take some time, however, before schools are able to catch up and start stocking up facilities with more recent tools.
Perhaps I am getting ahead of myself in this debate. While I have certainly argued that now may not be the time to fight for total compliance in technology spending, I have not made it clear that technology is worth the investment. There are still some in today’s school systems that are resistant of allocating any noticeable portion of the annual budget to technology acquisition and training. There are also some administrators who believe there should be a restriction on just “how much” technology use is acceptable or appropriate. This is likely a result of a few unfortunate realities. The first that comes to mind is the sad, yet undeniable truth that the vast majority of teachers do not know how to use technology, or do not use it effectively and efficiently. Too many teachers today are under the impression that putting on a video and following up with a short, multiple-choice quiz is a valuable and, dare I say it, clever way to use the tools at their fingertips. While this isn’t always a poor use of time, sometimes it is done out of convenience and not to satisfy student needs. If that is the extent to which a classroom teacher exposes their students to technology, we are all in trouble. As Shelly, Gunter, and Gunter make it clear in Chapter 1 of their textbook, Teachers Discovering Computers, we are living in the digital age with students who are digital learners. If they are going to compete in the 21st century, they need to have teachers who are willing and capable, who can challenge and teach them not just how to use various devices and software, but about the issues surrounding technology itself.
So to answer McLeod’s question, yes and no. There are absolutely teachers and administrators who take the easy route and neglect to readjust their understanding of our world and our students. We need to spend money on new tools and train people to use them well. We as teachers need to make every effort to educate ourselves on these tools and ways to integrate them into our lessons. Is now the best time to be spending the money? Probably not. But it is certainly possible to educate oneself without spending a dime. That’s just one of the many spectacular features of the technology we have access to and the information flow in this digital age.
-GradGirl
When I started reading your blog post, the phrase, "I felt that his question had a somewhat accusatory tone" immediately caught my eye. I couldn't agree more. The question is somewhat accusatory, and since teachers are always being accused of things, I thought, "here we go again."
ReplyDeleteOnce I watched the video and read the blog, I realized this was strictly asked to provoke thought and maybe even have us spill our "technology guts" all over the page. I guess it worked.
As someone who is a digital immigrant (I still do not like that phrase) according to our textbook, I agree with your statement that the answer to the question is, in fact "yes and no." Yes because I have set up my own blog, used my own funds to buy my own domain name, and spend extra time each week working on it. No because I then wrestle with the frustration of only two or three students actually using it. Everyone has to work together - teachers, students, parents, and administrators - if technology is going to live up to its promises and make things better for all of us.
Yes! That is the same conclusion I came to after reading another classmate's blog - that it needs to be a team effort. I realized today that administrators often don't get held accountable for not motivating teachers more to use and learn about technology. Your comment regarding your students not taking advantage of an online resource you are providing brings to my attention how students are also guilty in this.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree when you discussed budget cuts. It’s like talking out of both sides of our mouth-we want the best technology, but like you say some schools don’t even get toilet paper! It seems like everybody complains about education and our country’s “falling behind” but let’s strive to get every school on an even platform in which they can begin to incorporate the much needed quality technology tools. That’s a whole other debate.
ReplyDeleteHowever, what you said about administrators being so concerned about restricting use of technology, I hope is not the case in most instances. If students are using computers in the classroom and they wander off to Facebook or YouTube, I think that is part of the real world in using technology in the classroom. I don’t think we need to be appalled and then put forth so many rules and restrictions we cannot really teach. It’s our job to keep the students focused but you can’t be watching each student every second.
Your example of watching a video is a real example of convenience. It is one thing to put in a DVD and let it play for forty-five minutes, and it is quite a different strategy to teach with film. I may be wrong, but I think most teachers would be guilty of something similar at some point in their teaching career. Just like before so much of the technology we have today, there were always teachers that presented simply convenience activities to their students. Maybe we have to find ways to motivate those teachers, perhaps partly by training and long-term support, to avoid slipping into the convenience mode.
I agree with you that technology is expensive for schools, but at the same time, schools need to make technology in the classroom a priority. Often times school funds are used for other items instead of being used towards various other expenses that may not be as beneficial to students. One example of this in my school and district is that teachers were not allowed to bring over their old filing cabinets to our new renovated building. Instead the district bought new filing cabinets and “surplused” the old ones, with some of these “old” ones being a year or two old. That money could have easily paid for more computers.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you regarding the fact that several teachers today continue to use technology in a way that is not exactly helpful or beneficial towards students. Again, going back to an example in my own school, teachers who have all this new technology, including SMARTBoards, still do not use them much if at all. I agree that the least we could do is learn to use this technology and to incorporate it into our classroom, especially if we hope to keep our students’ attention.
Also, I thought hhousman brought up a good point in that we have to perhaps reduce the amount of limitations that we have put on the technology we allow our students to access. Limiting the amount of technology is not really teaching students to be good global citizens online. We should instead be embracing websites like Facebook and YouTube and teaching students how to correctly interacting on and with these sites.