Comments on: Key question

By: caxp

caxp — Mon, 29 Nov 2010 21:59:33 +0000

We as educators need to use technology in our classrooms. Why? Simple answer, we are living in a technologically savvy world and the students that sit in your classrooms are more receptive and willing to work and learn via technology. Using technology does make you a better educator. If you are able to transfer your knowledge to your students in a more enticing and inviting way, why wouldn’t you use it if your students will learn that much more and better via an alternative mode of communication. Not using technology (something as simple as a video, pulling up a website related to your lesson, a picture related to your lesson) are all forms of technology. It doesn’t have to strictly be Powerpoint, nor does it always have to be skill and drill lectures. We need to provide our students with alternative means in which to learn. If we do not, then we are failing our students and ourselves as educators.

By: imel

imel — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 01:57:51 +0000

as a teacher, though I’m not a fast learner, I can say that technology is really support me to be an effective teacher.
Bravo technology!

By: Did You Know? « Dan’s Blog

Did You Know? « Dan’s Blog — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 12:12:04 +0000

[...] it possible for a teacher to be an excellent teacher if he/she does not use technology? [see this key questionfor another way to ask [...]

By: Donna

Donna — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I’m adding a few words: teachers, administrators, district level leaders? No, it’s not okay. I hate to hear, “I’m just not good at technology.” That is no longer acceptable. We owe it to our students to dig in our heels and explore the possibilities…

By: Jethro

Jethro — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I don’t think we will achieve the results we want if teachers are required to integrate technology. We will see more boring powerpoints, weak applications, and lazy teachers. I think we would much rather have one excellent teacher who uses technology expertly and effectively than a majority of teachers who use technology poorly because they are required to. If we force teachers to use technology, we are undermining their effectiveness as teachers. Technology does not _make_ you a better teacher.

By: Carolyn

Carolyn — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

First who gets to decide which technologies are important?

The Powerpoint thing reminds me of an excerpt from Thomas Ricks’ Fiasco about the planning of the Iraq war:
———–
[Army Lt. General David] McKiernan had another, smaller but nagging issue: He couldn’t get Franks to issue clear orders that stated explicitly what he wanted done, how he wanted to do it, and why. Rather, Franks passed along PowerPoint briefing slides that he had shown to Rumsfeld: “It’s quite frustrating the way this works, but the way we do things nowadays is combatant commanders brief their products in PowerPoint up in Washington to OSD and Secretary of Defense…In lieu of an order, or a frag [fragmentary order], or plan, you get a bunch of PowerPoint slides…[T]hat is frustrating, because nobody wants to plan against PowerPoint slides.”

That reliance on slides rather than formal written orders seemed to some military professionals to capture the essence of Rumsfeld’s amateurish approach to war planning. “Here may be the clearest manifestation of OSD’s contempt for the accumulated wisdom of the military profession and of the assumption among forward thinkers that technology—above all information technology—has rendered obsolete the conventions traditionall governing the preparation and conduct of war,” commented retired Army Col. Andrew Bacevich, a former commander of an armored cavalry regiment. “To imagine that PowerPoint slides can substitute for such means is really the height of recklessness.” It was like telling an automobile mechanic to use a manufacturer’s glossy sales brochure to figure out how to repair an engine.
————

Business organizations fall prey to “death by Powerpoint” all the time; we must be careful in education that we don’t lose the forest for the trees.

By: Fred

Fred — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

Have we passed a point in time where you can no longer be considered a good teacher if you don’t use or integrate technology?

By: Tom Kennedy

Tom Kennedy — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I want to preface my remarks by stating that I am an Instruction Technology Specialist and a proponent of computers in education. I have been making good use of computers and related technologies in my class room or supporting teachers in their efforts to do so since 1993.

That said, my response is, unequivocally and without hesitation, Yes, it is…

It must be left to the discretion of the individual teacher to decide whether or not a particular technology or any technology will further the aims of the lesson, unit, or subject matter itself.

Frankly, I consider it arrogant on our part to insist that technology be used when other tools my be as effective or even, dare I say it, more effective?

It is our obligation to demonstrate the ways in which technology can enhance learning, as much it is our charge to help teachers develop the skills needed to decide when and how to use it. If we are successful, we won’t have to insist that teachers use technology, they will choose to do so when they deem it appropriate.

By: KarenJanowski

KarenJanowski — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

And another question is,
Given the reality of our modern age and the demands of our children’s future and the reality of their proficiency with digital tools, is it really okay to require them to use paper and pencil methods to demonstrate what they know or have learned in our classrooms? Is it really okay to limit them to “traditional” methods in demonstrating their mastery of a subject?
Is it really okay to require group projects and then NOT tell them about group collaboration online tools (Google Docs, Zoho)???

By: Barbara

Barbara — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 05:00:00 +0000

I think we are asking the wrong question…it is not about the technology it is about pedagogy and the skills students need to flourish in a digital world full of global connections. There must be systemic change and our curriculum must reflect this reality …as we reshape out curriculum we reshape teaching….. but it is one step, one person at a time.