Technology in Instruction
In the 1980's there was a large amount of computers purchased by public schools for the use of instruction. However, a survey reported by Education Weekly in 2004; acknowledged that teachers were novices when it came to using technology while instructing in the classroom.(Picciano, 2011)
According to authors Sheingold, Kane, and Endreweit there were several issues that may limit the use of technology during instruction such as; (1)Hardware may not be available (2)Technology may be new to educators and administration (3)Elementary schools may not be have technology listed in their curriculum (4)Assuring there is a sufficient amount of technology available to students that is considered to be valuable (5) Lack of professional development (6) Does the technology have a positive or negative effect (Picciano, 2011).
Education has the responsibility of preparing its students to be contributing members to society. With society tied to communication; technology, is directly related to communication. Therefore preparing students to be lifelong learners requires a new approach to teaching, one in which students are taught at a distance. It’s not difficult to find teachers utilizing new technological tools to reproduce older educational patterns.(Sheninger,2014).Technology has the ability to facilitate learning and improve the quality of educational experience, provide students develop skills with the use of technology, and expand technology awareness throughout the education community. The new technological tools allows educators to have a larger amount of students with the use of distance education. Thus, in order for teachers to be prepared to teach at a distance in depth professional development is necessary(Hannafin; 2010).
References
Hannafin, M. J., & Polly, D. (2010). Reexamining technology’s role in learner-centered professional development. Association for Educational Communications and Technology, 557-571.
Picciano, A. G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology (5th ed.). Hunter College, NY: Allyn & Bacon
Sheninger, E. (2014). Digital leadership: Changing paradigms for changing times. Thousand Oaks: Corwin.
Good Afternoon Shauna,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post this week. As I was reading your introductory paragraph, I was thinking how sad it is that technology (specifically computers) has been around for quite a while; however, so many teachers do not know how to implement it effectively into the classroom. (And, I am one of those teachers in some areas) Some teachers will take it upon themselves to learn and implement technology and its new learning strategies into their classroom, but there are other teachers who will not. I do believe that your list of issues does cover the majority of reasons why appropriate technology is not implemented into a classroom. It is true that there may be some classrooms that simply do not have the resources that they want to be able to use due to financial reasons or number of students or teachers may not feel comfortable trying to teach with a device that is new to them. I believe that is why it is so important for there to be professional development offered that is appropriate to the needs of classrooms. As we read about this week in Picciano’s textbook- determine best practices according to collected data, construct professional development opportunities accordingly, and implement new learning strategies into classrooms.
Thanks, Shauna, for the thoughts,
Casie
Hello shauna. I enjoyed reading your post. I like that you point the fact that technology is about communication and the responsibility to make sure that students have great communication. I also like the way you point out the responsibility of teachers. I think technology in the classroom is a great way to teach students how to be life long learners. I remember in my high school we had computer lab times; and those times were supposed to be used correcting our final drafts and completing research. Often times students get bored and we would try to wonder around on the web but the computer lab teacher also made sure that we use the right sites and engage the learning tools in the right way.
ReplyDeleteI agree, LaShauna! On-going, high quality professional development is needed if teachers are to implement best practices in the physical and/or online classroom. How would you go about designing an effective PD program that would engage educators?
ReplyDelete