The area I have chosen to focus on for this blog is Key Area II: Educator Preparation and Development. It is a new day and age and learning is not using an abacus anymore. Learning is Windows XP, Vista, IPhone, Halo, and any other eye catching finger tapping technology that is out there in the world today. It may take me hours to figure out an IPod where it would take a student 30 minutes to do that very thing. We must prepare our educators to be technology literate because if not they will fall by the wayside. Can you imagine the students boredom in your class if in the class next door they are using Smartboards to look at Google Earth? You yourself would want to see what is going on and why there is Oos and Ahhs going on. You may even go next door to your colleague and ask, “what was going on in there?”
In order to get to that level you must be trained currently on various technologies in order to have them work for you efficiently in your classroom. Sadly, older teachers are the ones will attend more of these trainings because they were not brought up in technology like the new crop of teachers. Administrators can even fall in this category as will since they are suppose to push technology on their campus as information rich and invigorating but if they do not use it what does that say about the effective use of technology on their campus? Although, we have moved toward monitoring campus technology and its use we still are not to the point where everyone is using technology as they should. There will come a time and it’s soon that so much technology is out there to be used and that will go hand and hand with teaching, that teachers and administrators will begin to retire because they just can’t keep up with the every changing world of education.
That statement speaks volumes as education today is ever changing. We are here to become administrators and change the world of education ourselves. Can we do this by coming in and saying we are going to do it the way I was taught? Or are we going to come in and say everyone is going to be trained on Smartboards because I want our students to be as advanced as those kids on the other side of town. Training is key for all and kids today need to have that foundation in order to have it scaffold onto higher learning. We can only teach what we have been taught and today we need to be taught and prepared on technology.
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Steven,
ReplyDeleteI so agree with the statement that teachers will fall by the wayside if they do not become technologically literate.
YOU SAID.....
"Can you imagine the students boredom in your class if in the class next door they are using Smartboards to look at Google Earth? You yourself would want to see what is going on and why there is Oos and Ahhs going on. You may even go next door to your colleague and ask, “what was going on in there?”
No....it would sadden me so if I was teaching in the traditional style and was not incorporating technology and the studnets were saddened they weren't able to learn using the exciting and motivational tech tools the other classrooms were using. As an educator I feel it is extremely important to "keep up" with best practices and proven motivational techniques! AND technology implementation is a proven motivational technique, much less demanded by today's student needs!
Steven,
ReplyDeleteI am complete agreement with you on this entire post. Today we live in a world that is changing before our eyes and we are going to have to come around to it.
"Training is key for all and kids today need to have that foundation in order to have it scaffold onto higher learning. We can only teach what we have been taught and today we need to be taught and prepared on technology."
I believe that this is the key to everything. We have to get people trained so that we do not fail our kids. If we do not know how to teach it then why in the world would we expect our kids to master it. Technology is not going anywhere, so we better get on board!