Technology is being used to enhance education in many ways. Hall (2008) suggests three "legs" of the educational stool that may be enhanced by technology: instruction, assessment, and curriculum. Instructional uses of technology range from instructional videos to learning software to student construction of knowledge through projects, to name a few. Assessment can be enhanced by technology through ActiveVote tools, online assessments such as Scantron assessments, online gradebooks, and teacher created assessment documents. There is even technology that uses an answer sheet scanner to scan scores straight into the teacher gradebook. I'm wondering if teachers have used Google documents to have students take quizzes? Curriculum can be enhanced by technology through the use of e-books (Picciano, 2011) because e-books can be updated rather quickly and can cost less than traditional textbooks. There are drawbacks to e-books since they require some hardware to support them, such as e-book readers, laptops, or smartphones. In addition, Hall (2008) warns that "turf wars" can occur when curriculum committees deem technology is encroaching on their area. This is a shame. We need to work together to be good stewards of resources and to seek the best instructional materials available for our students.
Another good point Hall (2008) made was that technology needs to support teaching and learning. If it is the latest technology but does not support teaching and learning, then it is a waste of funding. When I first started teaching, my home district invested in PCs for school classrooms and computer labs. There was a network of software to use with students in elementary and middle schools. When I transferred to a neighboring district, I was glad to see the school had a computer lab. Boy, was I surprised to discover no one knew how to use the lab and it was really not functional for student instruction. The lab sat there mostly unused for over a year. I was pleased to see it eventually became a functioning part of our instructional program over several years, and we added on another computer lab soon. As we implement new technology, we really need to heed Hall's (2008) advice to pilot programs. It's better to make sure the technology will work than to have unused technology sitting around collecting dust and aging.
Hall, D. (2008). The technology director's guide to leadership. Washington D.C.: ISTE.
Picciano, A. G. (2011). Educational leadership and planning for technology. (5th ed.). New York, N.Y.: Pearson.
It is an awesome thing that technology can enhance our jobs as educators, and our student’s learning experiences. The drawbacks definitely come with the financial aspect, and the learning curve that is involved when figuring out how to use the technology. The other side of this equation however lies in other financial drawbacks that can be avoided, such as the cost of updating a book verse buying a new one. Once implemented the financial affect of technology will diminish because the infrastructure is already there and requires only updates, which can be accomplished much more gradually. As you mentioned books need replaced as updates are made. There are also some other financial factors that can be reduced with technology, such as the amount of paper required. The most important factor, however, is the knowledge of how to use the technology. No purchase is justifiable if it is not used.
ReplyDeleteExactly! As wise stewards of resources, we do have to weigh the pros and cons before making purchases, whether we're dealing with hardcover curriculum, textbooks on cds, or e-books. The key is whether or not teaching and learning will truly benefit from the resource, and to what extent. As wise stewards, we can help ensure funds are used sensibly.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comments!
From Tiffany - the site is still not allowing her to post this week.
ReplyDeleteI think the three areas of education that hall discusses can all be significantly improved in terms of efficiency and effectiveness if technology is integrated correctly. I use ActivExpressions and they really do increase the effectiveness of my instruction because the feedback is immediate. I also love scantrons and would be so excited to get the software that automatically uploads the scores to your gradebook. I appreciate tools like that because it increases the time that teachers can spend on creating remediation activities for low scores rather than grading for hours.
I am not sure if you can do Google docs with quizzes. The only way that would work would probably is if you are using the Google docs to have students download a document. The Google docs program is usually used for collaboration. I would think you may be able to save different versions but if a student were to not rename the document and clicked save then your document would be edited. You would also have to give permission to all of your students which would require you authorizing all of them though emails.
I love that education is adopting e-books because that frees up a great deal of cost for other areas of education and the updated versions could be uploaded and not wait for the next textbox adoption. Some of the drawbacks I see are the students that do not have Internet access or a computer in general. The cost for students goes up because they will likely have to buy a few reams of paper a semester to print things they need. I like to take notes in my text and now that I buy my texts for college, I can annotate everywhere and it helps me to remember what I like. In terms of the “turf wars,” I think that whatever is best for students, is research supported, and is in line with the curriculum should be utilized.
I liked that Hall is realistic about wasting funding on new hardware and software that is only bought because it is the latest “fad”. I think that labs should be used every day by someone in a school. There is too much that you can do with technology to ever think that technology can’t enrich the curriculum. Teachers need training and professional development on labs as well as other technologies. Labs were not always available and some teachers find them intimidating. It makes me ill to see technology not being used and I can appreciate all that Hall says because he brings to light why these situations occur.