Comments on: Teachers & Tech, Today, Tomorrow, or When?

By: jlewicky

jlewicky — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 02:44:51 +0000

Hi,

Thank you for your blog. It’s good to see that people are still passionate about teaching. I’m glad I found you through Twitter.

Your blog has touched me for many reasons, mostly because I have a son with special needs, and his teachers are my heroes. To that end, I left you a present on my blog – I’ve nominated you for the Lemonade Stand Award. To accept, you must comply with the following conditions:
- Put the Lemonade logo on your blog or within your post. You can lift it off my blog (http://jonsmomblog.com).
- Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude or gratitude.
- Link the nominees within your post.
- Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
- Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

Please accept the award. I can’t wait to see and follow the people you give it to.

By: eva büyüksimkeşyan

eva büyüksimkeşyan — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 20:19:33 +0000

Hi,
I’m also one of the old ‘new’ teachers and I totally agree with you and your friend about the ones who don’t care and won’t change. If only we had that power to make that specie go extinct.
Eva

By: Jack205

Jack205 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 22:28:04 +0000

Yeah a connection will be lost and a page won’t load all the time. Your just have to be prepared to teach out of the book. You cannot rely on the technology to help you so much. The book work still needs to be done. And I have to completely agree with Bill’s last sentence. There is no stopping the progression of technology. The only thing that one can do is embrace it or reject. You can go either way as long as you are getting the information and material across to the students.

By: Remainders: Duncan, turnarounds, and Chicago violence | GothamSchools

Remainders: Duncan, turnarounds, and Chicago violence | GothamSchools — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:35:54 +0000

[...] A teacher lists the many difficulties of getting older teacher to use newer technology. [...]

By: Michael J

Michael J — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 11:24:07 +0000

My takeaways from yesterday’s edchat are similar to yours.

For me the crux of the issue is “Some of those teachers are afraid of failing, of looking stupid in front of their students.” and “But you are totally right. It takes TIME.”

I think that one path is to “use what you got, to get what you need.”

What I “need” in a classroom is to get students to ask a question. Then be able to respond almost immediately with another question that gets the student to ask another question.

What you also “need” is to keep track of what all the students are doing, so that they will gradually come to realize that you “know who they are” on the basis of “what they do.”

But the enemy is Time. My take is that the decision rule for implementing any new tool is “does it save teacher time or does it waste teacher time.”

Any tool only makes sense to meet a need. Focusing on the tech is a distraction. It’s as if carpenters spent lots of energy arguing about which hammer to use, instead of taking whatever is “at hand” and driving home the nail.

By: Hadass Eviatar

Hadass Eviatar — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:28:18 +0000

My favourite definition of tech is something that was invented after you turned 12 years old .

SMART does have online tutorials, I think … that might be one way to learn how to do some things.

But you are totally right. It takes TIME. Once these things are as familiar as cars and telephones, people will use them as creatively as they do anything else.

By: Pam Cranford

Pam Cranford — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:46:29 +0000

I loved the entire truth that you spoke, but that final line was a knockout. Thank you for writing this post.

By: Barbara Day

Barbara Day — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:14:22 +0000

Well said! I’m excited about the things I’m doing with my class re: tech but, sometimes when I’m in the middle of a lesson (like earlier today) and the website won’t load or some connection isn’t connecting, I wonder why I’m doing this. I’m always struggling to understand how things work, or what the language means. The thing is, the kids are excited and engaged, and once you open the door to trying technology in the classroom, you can’t shut it out. When I look back, I’m pretty amazed by how much my instruction has changed in just a few short months.

By: Bill Chapman

Bill Chapman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:11:37 +0000

The only thing I will contend is your last sentence. I began teaching in 1970 and have seen and embraced many new technologies over the years. It seems as if each one triggered the same debate we had this evening on Twitter’s Edchat. Technology development shows no signs of ceasing, and neither does the debate about whether and how to use it in the classroom.

By: Russ Goerend

Russ Goerend — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 02:04:43 +0000

This is my second year as a teacher and my first with a textbook. I have no idea what I’m doing with it. I’m much more comfortable creating my own lessons — which usually use some sort of digital technology. Problem is that the textbook has many more ideas — and they’re much more put-together than mine — so I go back to the textbook.

It takes time to learn new things. It also takes commitment, effort, and buy-in. What teachers need to buy-into is *not* digital technology; they need to buy-into doing what is best for their students no matter what that is.