What surprised me is that only 9 out of 50 states gave a commitment to revise their standards, create assessments, and implement the 21st century skills in their classrooms. If we want our students to be able to use these skills to be successful in college and in the work place, then we need to begin training our students now. If these skills are not viewed as important enough to even be on the standards, then had do we expect students, parents, and even educators to take it seriously?
One quote that I do not entirely agree with is "The paper notes that the greatest challenge to incorporating technology into learning environments is not finding time and money, but finding ways to adequately support the use of these tools. Technology can only make a difference when students, teachers, and administrators are provided the necessary supports to proficiently integrate it into daily routines." The part of this I disagree with is that the greatest challenge is not finding time and money. Money is one of the biggest challenges of all. If you don't have money, then you probably won't have technology or the money to pay for the teacher training. Without these two necessary elements you have nothing to build on.
The implications for my students and myself as an educator are that we have quite a bit of work ahead of us. I am fortunate enough to have the technology in my classroom and the training is at my fingertips. Finding the time, on the other hand, is another issue.
Nice ideas. I think we're heading that way but it's going to take some more cajoling to get additional states on board. We have to remember that decisions such as those are made by legislators who usually have no more idea what is actually going on in the classroom than the man in the moon. I believe that if more decisions were put in the hands of the teachers, we would be in much better shape than we are presently.
ReplyDeleteWhile money is a main drawback, especially in many counties where there isn't an emphasis on providing technology to students, I really do believe it's more a lack of vision. You and I are lucky to teach in school systems where there obviously is a vision and then that vision has given the administration a drive to provide appropriate hardware. In my system, training and tech support is still at a premium and I actually left the technology department this last year to go back into the classroom because I was being given more teachers to serve than I could possibly do in the manner I felt necessary. I had 4 schools with over 400 teachers as my 'customers'. Our county is held to a 'quota' of central office personnel by the state and we are woefully short of both curriculum and technology staff so I can understand what they mean at the website.
Yes, compared to others we are very lucky! My district actually does a great job of supporting our technology needs. We have ongoing training for teachers and plenty of support available whenever we need it. All we have to do is ask. Our support staff will come in to assist with projects, answer questions, or trouble shoot problems we may be having.
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