Technology & Professional Development

This weeks chapters from Ashburn/Floden discusses effective professional development and what it means to a district as well as the teacher. The idea is to slowly bring teachers up to speed on technology, especially for those who are fearful and hesitant. Most importantly, technology was be part of the lessons and not just something that is added as an after thought. Ashburn/Floden state, “Teaching for meaningful learning with technology is not simply inserting technology into the teaching sequence, but, rather, inventing new ways of teaching” (p 162). The hope for technology and teachers is that it will become an integral part of lessons. When teachers create lesson plans jointly with technology, it no longer becomes the computer program that is thrown in at the end just so the teacher can state that he or she uses technology.

A second, rather large point Ashburn/Floden make is the notion of having fun and enjoying technology. Something that many teachers are not able or allowed to do. They state, “Teachers must, of course, interact (or play with) educational technologies as part of learning to teach with them” (p 190). Many times, teachers are not given enough time to become accustomed to the new technology. Educators need time to explore, play and practice prior to even considering how to incorporate it in to the classroom. If you look at core content teachers, all throughout schooling they were allowed to read, understand, interpret and experiment with what they were learning. We cannot expect a two hour professional development to enable teachers to take that learned knowledge and quickly apply it. After all, would schools allow someone to teach English who has only taken one class?

Technology has come to the forefront of education. It is now become widely accepted that in order to keep up with other countries, the United States must make a large push to incorporate more technology into the public schools. This however has not always been the case and that has created part of the problem that we face today. Since schools and towns have taken so long to realize that technology in schools is important, education is three steps behind in getting the proper equipment and training that is needed. “Many scholars and policymakers have expressed high hopes for educational technologies, especially computers and the Internet, while others have noted that past hopes for an educational technology revolution have usually been disappointed” (Ashbur/Floden p 180). It is great news that the government has taken such an interest in technology and education, however our schools are extremely behind and a lot of work needs to be done in order to catch up to other nations. The crux of the problem is money, money to purchase the equipment, money to train staff and money to continually update older technologies. It will get easier though, especially once a school has been updated; it’s that initial leap and investment that is so daunting.