Technology: From the Top, Down

            It is unrealistic to think that in this day and age you can be successful without being technologically proficient, no matter what career path you follow.  This is no less true in education.  Current programs require students to take (and pass) technology classes about incorporating technology into instruction.  This means that the “newbies” coming out of programs have the first steps and tools they need to bring technologies into the classroom.  However, they should not be the only ones with these skills and insights.  This technology proficiency should be mandatory for all teachers, support staff and administrators in schools.

            I add administrators to the list intentionally.  While they do not have classrooms of their own in which to implement technology, they are the heads of their schools/districts.  As such, they need to provide the example and the leadership they wish their teachers and staff to show. 

            More and more of the state and national standards are moving to include technological components.  Beyond this, there are specific technology standards on their own that districts are requiring.  All of this makes perfect sense; our job as teachers is to prepare our students to be successful and productive in the real world, a job we would be failing at by ignoring the importance of technology.  However, we can hardly require our students to care about and show proficiency in topics which we are ourselves unfamiliar with.  The chain of technological proficiency needs to start at the top.  There must be a leader (an administrator) who stays relevant and current and enthusiastic about technology implementation, which is passed to the next level (teachers) who incorporate technology in learning and encourage its use, and finally comes to the end of the chain (the students,) who investigate, learn and utilize these technologies.  However, if there is a break in the chain others must pick up the slack.

            While technology has become an ever present aspect in our lives, including teaching and learning, it is also a moving target.  There are constantly new advances and new ways of using the tools at hand.  Therefore it takes many people, making a conscious effort to stay on top of developments, to effectively and appropriate make technology an active part of the teaching and learning process.

Here's a cute little video that I think sums up much of what I have been talking about in my blogs/what we have been learning about in class:

 

Internet Research: Educators' Responsibilities

Our professional development two weeks ago was centered around technology in the classroom, specifically internet research.  The speaker told us an anecdote of his own daughter’s attempts to use the internet to research a topic she had to write a paper on.  The young girl (8-years-old or so,) was supposed to write a paper on octopus, citing her resources.  While doing her research, she came upon a website that described the rare “tree octopus;” in other words, an octopus that lives in trees rather than under water (http://zapatopi.net/treeoctopus/).  The young girl thought this would be a terrific addition to her paper, and carefully cited the website after adding it to her paper.  If she had read carefully, she would have noticed that this website was set up as a farce.  Instead, she added it to her paper and had points deducted from her grade.

            The point of telling this anecdote was to tell us that, as educators, our job is to better educate our students on how to properly use the internet and its resources, rather than simply taking points off when our students do not meet our expectations. 

            The speaker went on to show us how to use an advanced Google search.  Using this, students can set the domain to only include “.edu,” ensuring that only articles coming through accredited educational institutions come up in the search.  As an added tool, you can also set the file type. 

            Young students need this type of education in order to be successful in their research.  They are no longer going to libraries and using encyclopedias.  Using the internet opens the door to nearly limitless resources and tools, but without guidance, students can fall prey to such things as the tree octopus.  Even older students need to be reminded of how to properly research on the internet.  Even if they know how to advance search or even use a database to find peer reviewed papers, it is always easier to type in a quick Google or Bing search and be done with it.  If we expect our students to be informed consumers and to cite and research properly, it is our responsibility to teach them the skills they need.

Check out the “Save the Tree Octopus” page: