Over the past several days I have been coming across and exploring many blogs on the role of technology in education. It seems to be such a muddled world – some teachers seem to be light years ahead in the integration of these technologies into their classrooms. This is exciting but there are a couple things that I have come across that raise some questions in my mind.
First – the time teachers are spending trying to figure out these new technologies and how to use them. Teachers already complain about their work loads and lack of time. I know that in my own personal experience I can spend hours upon hours playing around looking into technologies and often the result is that I often never use them. Is this a wise way for teachers to be spending their precious time? Is this the best way for a teacher to spend his/her time?
This problem is further emphasized by the multiple levels of our education system that often seem to be at odds with each other. I have come across several blogs where teachers talk about how they have been utilizing sites like flickr or youtube to help illustrate issues or initiate discussion in their classrooms. I personally think that this is awesome. Then within the same blog you read about how the school district has initiated a new filtering system that now blocks out these sites and the teacher has to change their approach. This is in great part a level of disjuncture. Why are the teachers not talking to the district?
I think technology rocks. I also think that technology eats up huge amounts of our time under the pretense that somehow it is going to save us time. I am not convinced.
I think it is very exciting the idea of bringing the internet and all of its benefits into the classroom. Yes, there are dangers – inappropriate material entering the classroom – but this has been an issue since the beginning of time. Porn was around before the internet and I know that there are magazines with graphic images in them available on street corners all over the country. I do not think that the educational opportunities provided by the internet should be dictated by fears that are then used to direct the educational tools and opportunities available to our teachers.
There needs to be a national discussion and emphasis on bringing these technologies into our classrooms in a way that is easy and simple for our teachers – not a system that is ad-hoc and can suddenly be limited by some higher up because of fears around lawsuits.
It is – like most things – a balancing act. I just hope our teachers don’t forget that there time is most beneficially spent teaching and that our administrators don’t forget that their role is to make that easier for the teachers.
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