I have taught for three different counties now in my education career, and each county had their strong and weak areas in technology. The county that I am now in has a general expectation that teachers will use technology as a means of documenting attendance, grades, and assessing data after major test. They also provide smart boards, response systems, and laptop carts for our classes. It is a general expectation that technology will be used to support student learning and assessing that learning in formative and summative testing.
The only teacher barrier I have noticed is the reluctance to use the technology available. Some teachers fear using it due to a low comfort level. The only way to overcome that is for training to be provided consistently. Training sessions should also be relevant to lessons and should give time for teachers to practice task rather than just watching or receiving a sheet on how to perform task. Our school needs to incorporate more scheduled training to support teachers using technology in lessons. Allotting time for relevant training will increase teacher comfort level with the hardware and software and encourage more widespread use of the many resources available to our county schools.
In the districts I have worked at, the expectation is there that we will use technology to enhance our lessons but then it is not followed up on or checked on. Funding is another major problem in our district as much of our technology budget was used on smartboards and other technology that in my opinion is not as up to date as it needs to be. I do agree that the main barrier for teachers is their reluctance to use technology and that they are not comfortable using it. Scheduling more time to get comfortable with the technology would help but we also need to follow up on it throughout the year and make sure it is being used.
ReplyDeleteDerrick Kirby
EDUC 630
I have worked with many teachers who were reluctant to integrate technology. They did begin to use it, and use it well, after it was required and after training. I agree that training that is relevant and that allows teachers to use the technology, to become more comfortable with it, is best. Attending sessions with little practical experience is quite a turn off for teachers who are already reluctant to use technology. Additionally, showing teachers what to do while continuing the support through the school year sets them up for success.
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