Teaching with Technology...or teaching the same old way just with a computer!

Our major qwest over the past four weeks was to learn about technology. Not just any technology, but the programs and internet resources and tools that could help us become more organized, more effective, more interesting teachers and people.

I was fascinated by what we discovered. Many of us were frustrated because the learning curve was quite high. We were most of us in uncharted waters.

What interests me at this point is why this is the case for so many teachers. Aren't we supposed to be living in the age of technology? I often think of how the teachers with whom I've worked in the past would react to a professional development program about teaching with technology (they would be horrified, stubborn, resistant, all but a few). I began to wonder if I was the only one who thought most teachers are WAAAAAAAAY behind...even lacking....in this area.

I discovered I am not. Whole research has been done on this very topic, and what it has revealed is that teachers have not integrated technology into the classroom effectively at all.
Our reading on teaching with technology provided many insights on why teachers, as a whole, have been so resistant to really delving into what's out there. I really appreciated Nancy Salvato's reminder to us that the goal of schools is to ensure everyone has equal access to learning opportunities; schools, therefore, must provide the same tools and information across all socio-economic levels and that means technology!!

"Teachers have a responsibility to learn how to use computers and other devices so as not to put their students at a disadvantage," says Salvato, and I couldn't agree more. What a great way to remind ourselves to keep pushing to really learn and integrate all these new technologies. Aren't we all here to do the best we can for these future generations? Salvato brought up reasons many of us have been resistant to change: fear & dislike of change;
feeling intimidated by computers; resistant to taking advantage of technology in everyday life, and on and on. But I think we just need to get over it and move on. In order to do so, however, teachers need help...

As Les Foltos argued in our reading, "If we expect teachers to use technology in ways that enrich and enhance student achievement, we must provide them with the professional development they need to develop the confidence and skills to apply technology, and an understanding of how technology supports standards-based education."

A start to such understanding came in some more reading, in which Hooper and Reiber pointed out that we wouldn't expect doctors or dentists to be using the same technology they did 50 years ago, but that most teachers would feel perfectly comfortable in a classroom back in 1960 because not much has really changed! The authors provide an excellent education for teachers on the difference between idea and product technologies. Without good idea technology and effort by the part of teachers, product technologies like computers are really not effective. So the issue is not getting more computers, but teaching teachers how to best use them.

Some of the lingering thoughts I have on this issue is how do teachers get ahold of some of this great and wonderful professional development we need? Administrators, school boards, district offices and the general old public really all have to get behind teachers in this area. There are just so many fingers in the cookie jar here that getting everyone on board is a major challenge. So what might help? Bargaining? Grant-writing by individual teachers? Peer learning/coaching to avoid everyone else? Just being the squeaky wheel?