Happy Friday all and Happy St. Patrick's Day a tad early!
Today's blog post is based on this article: http://www.usm.maine.edu/cepare/Reports/Belief_Drives_Action.pdf, or Belief Drives Action: How Teaching Philosophy Affects Technology Use in the Classroom (April 2005).
As an aside, I am trying to get some of the shortucts-bold, underline, etc. to work, but am guessing because I am in Safari they won't work? Any suggestions on this would be very helpful.
This research was prepared by Aaron Gritter from the University of Southern Maine's Center for Education Policy, Applied Research, and Evaluation, which has prepared a ton of research on a 1:1 laptop initiative that has been rolled out in Maine over the past 5 years at the 7th and 8th grade level.
"we must prepare young people to thrive in
a world that doesn’t exist yet, to grapple with problems and
construct new knowledge which is barely visible to us today.
It is no longer adequate to prepare some of our young people
to high levels of learning and technological literacy; we must
prepare all for the demands of a world in which workers and
citizens will be required to use and create knowledge, and
embrace technology as a powerful tool to do so. " (intro)
Most of us are familiar with this 21st century skills mantra. Most of us can also probably predict what the research shows in terms of teaching philosophy and technology use. Prior computer experience was seen as a reliable, and the best, predictor of student and teacher usage. Teacher experience and education level were not good predictors of technology usage. Teaching philosophy does impact computer use by both teachers and students. The author suggests the usual-additional preservice training, ongoing professional development and more research into what professional development is most effective in this arena.
Laine's comments on my last post addressed her concern that perhaps the gap can never be closed. Much of the information regarding technology integration highlights the "usual suspects" and offers the same suggestions for solutions. This was what stood out for me as the "missing link" in the readings we responded to in the first module as well. "HOW" do we get there? I agree that effective professional development is key, but "how" do we get through all the traditional and administrative trappings to get to where we need to be? Start by moving the cheese?:)
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4 comments:
Move the cheese, indeed, Ann.
Your article prompted me to enter the words "technology", "teacher", and "change" into a google search. I was led to the article Technology as an Agent of Change in Teacher Practice by Girod and Cavanaugh. It can be found at http://www.thejournal.com/articles/15380.
This article discussed a quantity vs. quality use of educational technology. More is not always better.
I found two quotes to be of major significance:
"Technology can act as an agent of significant, and perhaps radical, change in teacher practice - significantly altering the way teachers, pupils, and schools operate" (p.1).
"Considering how technology can radically change what we do as teachers pushes our thinking to new levels and challenges us to reorganize, reinvent, and rebuild our pedagogical practices, routines, and thinking in ways that reflect the changing technological and sociological climate in which our children are learning" (p.1).
Once again, we are asking that teachers be pushed out of their comfort zones and find ways to integrate technology in profound ways that allow the students to work with computers and learn with them as well.
One thing that has been missing in many of the tech trainings that I have attended (and there have been quite a few that I have attended) is models for effective technology integration practices.
Many workshop facilitators fail to understand their audience completely: While there are often many younger teachers who are still formulating their teaching philosophy and still have a certain appreciation for learning about educational theories, there is always a substantial group of more experienced teachers who have found what works for them. These veteran teachers have usually been compelled to attend, either by a need for inservice points or by zealous principals seeking to have a faculty that understands current trends. So, unless the veteran teachers are given concrete examples (preferably with pictures or video) they are likely to not internalize the information and, therefore, not apply the skills they have "learned" to classroom instruction.
I found one article that might be of interest to you:http://www.computerlearning.org/articles/Training.htm. It makes some good points about incentives and things of that nature to motivate teachers (similar to my point above -- veteran teachers often need encouragement to change practices that have worked well for them in the past).
I enjoyed reading this report, Ann. It actually made me think of a particular teacher at my school who is very experienced, has been grade-chair several times, and is a mentor teacher to many first-year teachers. As respected and regarded as she is, she lacks technology skills primarily because she was never forced to use it. Last year, our tech staff gave each teacher a quiz in order to determine school-wide areas of strength and weakness as well as to assist the individual teacher. This "pro" literally had a meltdown in the middle of the quiz. It was actually painful to watch. I, on the other hand, whipped through the quiz no problem and scored the highest on my team. Hooray for me? Not really. This more-experienced teacher is light years ahead of me on so many levels and her classroom truly is one of the best models of a room where kids explore and learn to think for themselves.
This brings me back to the point that teaching is a big balancing act. Great teachers don't have to use technology every single day in the classroom, but they should know how to use it and they should expose students to new technologies.
Good news for the veteran teacher...She received guidance and is now adequately trained. We are working on a poetry unit and she was actually the only one to require students to use Word to type up all poems. She also types up her lesson plans for the first time in 30 years!
Thanks for all the great comments and references guys! Using change effectively, quantity vs. quality, and teaching as a "balancing act" all are common threads I see everywhere and in my inquiry too. A 1:1 laptop initiative is so much more than just handing out laptops to be able to say, "Look our students each have laptops...arent' we "with it."
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