Thursday, September 26, 2013
Freeda Discussion 1-1
I think the technology integrator’s role is multifaceted. The person needs to work closely with the parents who of course want what is best for their children, administrators who are feeling the stress to succeed from every direction and the teachers themselves who want what is best for their students but can become overwhelmed trying to obtain that.
The parents want to be assured that their students are receiving the best education available. Who wouldn’t right? As tax payers in the community, they want to be assured that the schools are not only successful for their own children but for the betterment of the community at large. Failing schools are not going to draw businesses to the area and then the value of real estate plummets. The technology integrator would need to work closely with the administration to help parents and community better understand the importance of investing the monies and time needed to technologically update the schools. He or she might work with the administration to better educate parents on the importance of investing money and time into new technology.
The building level administration is pressured by the higher level administration to improve scores and implement the newest curriculum and policies all while staying in their tight budgets. This large array of important areas might mean that administrators may not want to seriously discuss implementing more technology into their schools currently. They may be too busy worrying about standardized scores and integrating Common Core State Standards into the schools to realize that investing in the appropriate technology could and should support the above mentioned administrative concerns. The technology integrator would have an important role in helping the administration understand the importance of these changes.
Teachers are a funny group of people. We tend to want everything for our students, but then very quickly become overwhelmed by the amount of new learning or time needed to implement. As a technology integrator, it would be important to help teachers understand the various ways that the technology could be used in the classroom. Working with the teachers as they map out the curriculum and better identify their overarching goals for each unit would allow collaboration between the teaching teams and the technology integrator. This technology support would help the teachers to focus on a much deeper level of learning. According to Morehead and LaBeau (n.d.), This approach helps teachers focus on essential learning and promote active, inquiry learning.
References
Morehead, P. & LaBeau, B. (n.d.). The Continuing Challenges of Technology Integration for Teachers. Retrieved from: http:// www.usca.edu/essays/vol152005/moreheadrev.pdf
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Hi Jen,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up so many good points concerning technology integration. In respect to community and parents, Can you give me some examples on how to convince parents and the community the importance of the use of technology in our schools?
Jason, of course parents want what is best for their students (we hope :/ ) I think being transparent in the implementation of technology into the classroom and being able to explain why this is important is a good starting point. CCSS could be referenced as technology education is utilized throughout the standards. Actually demonstrating to the parents what it really looks like for students to be utilizing these tools is imperative.
DeleteIdeally these changes are shared by principals with other schools and at the district administration level. I wish my principal was in the classrooms more often, she's not. There isn't much I can do about that. I do however ask her to come in so she can see what we are working on. This is another way to show the effectiveness of technology at the classroom level. The more people who can see the tools in action the better. We need to promote what we do and why we do it as often as possible. I also think it's important for us to clarify WHY the tools are important and to reassure the shareholders that we aren't going to throw out all of our other teaching strategies that technology is another tool for us to use in our arsenal. Most of my parents are young (and tech savvy) so that is a change. Parents are more open to the ever changing technology being used today. I think they expect technology to be used in the schools. We just have to help them understand why we use it, and that we don't just use it because it exists.
It is true that budget issues do hinder technology implementation. Another thought I had while reading your post is that the technology administrators also can be a roadblock to implementing technology, as odd as that sounds. Case in point: we have an IT administrator who does not like Apple, therefore trying to get his approval on buying iPads or other Apple products is difficult. We are in the process of implementing a grant we received for technology, but the players can't agree.
ReplyDeleteOh that must be difficult. Are you a PC based district? Does your IT admin have other suggestions instead of iPads or are they just against it?
DeleteWe are a private residential school that is attached to a hospital, etc, so we have a large administration department (marketing, finance, etc) Yes we are basically a PC network. But we have added iPads as options in the media center, and a lot of kids are starting to bring in their own iPads. I teach them to use them. (We have a lot of autistic kids and they really do well with iPads) IT does allow us to use the Internet via the school's WIFI network, but they don't know enough about Macs and Apple OS to service them, so they discourage them and won't let them on the internal network and databases. They have total control of the network and all decisions are theirs. We tried to get iPad minis for the teachers to collect data for IEP goal tracking. We did all the research on what we wanted, talked to the head of IT, submitted all of the cost info and then it got put on hold. Personally, I suggested going to Android, as I have read that they are taking over market share from Apple, but the other teachers wanted the iPads, so I went along with the consensus. Just goes to show that one person can be a huge roadblock,
DeleteAll of your thoughts are great ones, especially how improving schools brings families to that area, which in turn, provides income to the town or city. No town or city wants to show that they have failing schools. The thought I had, as you mentioned common core standard implementation, is that all of the standards from K - 12 require technology use. So how will we show the tax payers, school board, or even as what Cindy mentions (an apple disliker) that by embracing the new standards we also must embrace the technology portions, especially with the new standardized test that will be administered, replacing the NECAP?
ReplyDeleteCindy, you're spot on. If the tech administrator has a bias towards some tech, it is difficult to obtain the technology you desire.
ReplyDeleteJenn, as you point out, the administration usually has their hands full with other initiatives. Luckily, as the buzz word "21st century learner" is still around, technology is one of those initiatives. Administrators are looking for ways to include more technology, and trying to do so without it becoming overwhelming. The problem is there are so many initiatives, and there is no priority. It all seems like it has to happen now, and teachers should be great at that implementation.
Agreed, there are so many initiatives. I always get the feeling that the community somehow feels that there is a single silver bullet that will completely fix education and make us the top of the world in education. If it were only that easy...
DeleteYes, I read a response to a technology blog recently that said instead of spending all this money on one silver bullet (technology), why don't you spend it on increasing teacher salaries and improving the quality of the teachers hired? Not a bad point, actually.
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