The superintendent of the Wellmade School District felt that every student should be "connected to the Information Superhighway," so he decided to install Internet connections in every school classroom in the district. The hardware and installations were funded through a federal grant and local business sponsors. Two years later, it became apparent that only about 25% of the teachers were using the Internet with students, and most uses were "casual surfing."
1. Why do you think the teachers did not see the relative advantage of this technology?
Perhaps, the teachers had not been given the training to effectively integrate the use of the internet into meaningful activities for the students. They, themselves, are probably at the level of “casual surfers”. You cannot teach children what you do not have yourself. Time is also an issue for teachers.
2. If you were made responsible for integrating this technology into instructional activities, how would you translate the superintendent's rationale into problems and solutions for which the relative advantage would be clear to teachers?
If the problem is that teachers do not know how to integrate technology into lessons. A solution would be to provide pre-made lessons that incorporate technology into meaningful academic activities. Teachers at various grade levels could be leaders in this area, the 25% who were using the technology. The expectation could be to have one really good student project per nine weeks using the internet.
Some teachers have good intentions, but lack the direction that it takes to be effective in the area of technology implementation. The superintendent assumed that the teachers had the same “buy-in” to the use of the Information Superhighway that he had. He also assumed the teachers had the knowledge and skills to effectively provide students meaningful opportunities to use and explore the internet.
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#1 Response
ReplyDeleteTrue, Some teachers are not only unaware of the advancement in technology they are unfamiliar with the aspect of computer technology. I have seen and heard so many teacher request for additional training and simply never achieve that goal. I agree "How is a teacher supposed to teach what they themselves don't understand."
#2 Response
I think that sound great. The District should incorporated a lesson plan to accommodate the teachers and allow them to expand their knowledge. I think that idea is an excellent one. The teacher wont be afraid to use the technology if they understand the concept.
Thanks
Andrea
I feel that possibility that the teacher would feel wrong in asking for help since the teacher is always looked upon as the "holder of knowledge" Exactly, if the teacher does not use it herself/himself then what right do they have to try and get the student to apply it to their life. For example, I learned how to use movie maker--I think that is what it is called. I would love to use it with the students but because of time constraints and that is not embedded into our curriculum and instruction-- I have not had the opportunity to use it. I would love to have them use it. Another factor is that not all have a hand held voice device that attaches to the computer. I really do not know if our school can provide us with the funds to have a class set. I have one only because the course I took gave it to me. I do not know the cost so I feel it might be difficult to get those for my class since I know I am one of the many few that use technology in class almost every day.
ReplyDeleteNancy,
ReplyDeleteI agree that training is very important. If a program is not effective or having poor results with their students, many times, it is because the teachers were not trained appropriately. Districts try to save money by sending one representative or a team to the actual training for the program, and then they make that person or team responsible for training the entire school. The problem is that the selected representatives are not experts on the program because they are teachers that have other, more important things (to them), like the TAKS on their minds. They probably were not paying attention to the training in the first place. Consequently, they would not effectively train the remaining staff on that particular technology program. This is one reason why districts struggle with the implementation of technology programs in the classrooms.
In your post you used the word or phrase "Buy-in" that is the key to main problem. The superintendent did not account for buy-in. Nothing was put in motion to let teachers know that they must use it in instruction. If it is not going to be monitored, then human nature will take course and some teachers are going to not follow through. I can speak from experience when I state that if my school is going to implement something new and there is no accountability then I will do the least possible in that new implementation, because I already have plenty of other initiatives that are monitored that I must take care of. Besides, I still have the regular duties of teaching and getting my kids ready for assessment. If the school made the use of technology a requirement, which is happening now in my school, then teachers will do or should do whatever it takes to get the job done.
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