As I reflect on my answer to ‘What is a good use of technology’ in the previous lesson, a lot of those thoughts/issues were raised in the videos that I watched for this week’s lesson. In my previous post, I had said that “good use of technology would encourage and motivate students to explore questions that they may have and use technology to enhance their understanding of those questions and answers. A good use of technology would also allow for collaboration with other learners and personalize learning.” My answer was reflected in the videos; I watched Teacher D (Science, Secondary Preservice Teacher Education) and Learning Environment with Teacher A. Teacher D stated that there “needs to be a support network of people who know more [about technology] and need to have access to those individuals.” Furthermore, he stated that “the district offers no support in terms of technology [how to use it, etc.] … and there is no financial or tech-support coordinator”; in other words, you are on your own.” This is one of the biggest challenges facing educators; even if they want to use technology in their classrooms, there is no or very little support; no training and no professional development workshops on how to correctly use technology in the classroom.
Teacher A stated that “[for him], what is most important is the transferable skills that his students take away when they are using technology.” The students learn to collaborate with individuals who are not their friends and how to integrate technology into everyday life. Teacher A also stated that 1/3 of his class he has not worked with prior and 2/3s he has; he uses the students he has worked with prior as “experts” to teach other students who have not been in this class about the technology. The experts act as a support system if and when help is needed.
Teacher D lacked a support system whereas Teacher A had no choice but to use previous students (because they knew how to use that technology) as a support system to ensure that new students had someone accessible to answer technology-related questions. In this scenario, Teacher A had students to act as experts and even though teacher D was using technology in his classroom, he and his students had to figure out any technology-related issues on their own. I wonder what happens in Teacher D’s class when they cannot figure out an answer due to lack of support. I wonder whether their administrator is supportive in their classrooms. I see how involved and supportive my own administrator is and I am fully cognizant that not every school has an administrator like that. I wonder if teacher D will get fed up of the lack of support and minimize the amount of technology he and his students use; I know how frustrated I get when I need to get an assignment done and my computer refuses to co-operate but in a room full of students where learning is taking place and then a big part of that learning shuts down is extremely challenging.
Hi Sabrina,
Great reflection questions! One keyword that stuck out to me in your summary is transferable-skills. Technology not only allows students to enhance their learning in school, but they can use the skills and attitudes learned in class and apply them to their everyday life. Not only are students working on their technology skills, but they are learning to collaborate, share and browse responsibly. This will help them create a positive digital footprint outside of class and become responsible digital citizens.
Regards,
Sarah
Hey Sarah,
That word -transferable skills- definitely stood out to me as well. Having skills in technology gives our learners an opportunity to apply those skills in the outside world. Having skills in this area are important for future careers as a lot of jobs require technology-related skills.
Hi Sabrina,
I agree with you that effective use of technology will allow for collaboration and motivate/engage learners. You raise a good point that there needs to be more support and professional development opportunities for teachers. Admin sometimes assume that educators are comfortable with integrating technology within their practice. It is very helpful when you work at a school that is highly collaborative and supportive when trying to integrate technology. You mention that your admin are very supportive. Can you provide some examples of ways they support teachers at your school? At our school, we have had weekly lunch meetings where people can share what they do in their class and it’s a time for practice and exploring. Our admin also make sure that technology is up to date as possible for everyone.
Hi Amanda,
Great questions.
Our admin has provided many on-site training workshops (that she runs on her own time) about integrating technology in a thoughtful manner. We too have weekly meetings but the biggest problem is that classroom teachers do not want to take time out to attend these training sessions.
Our admin has filled out numerous grant applications and we recently got a lot of new technology which is fantastic but just having new laptops and Ipads is not going to solve every problem; technology is not an easy fix. If we are using technology then we need to be able to use it effectively and not expect that just by using technology that we are doing a good job. This is one of the biggest issues facing our school at the moment even though admin support is there.
Hi Sabrina! Great summary and post!
This lack of support system is fascinating to me. We would never let a student feel unsupported, so why are we, as a collective community, okay with teachers feel unsupported? I often say that for teachers and students, regardless of whether we think we are doing all we can to support teachers/students or we think they actually are supported, it doesn’t change the fact that they feel unsupported. So something is not working. We have to make changes to make the community function more effectively so that the message of support is communicated.