Chapter 5 (Week 10)

The authors are exactly right when they argue professional development must be done as a community of learners in order to be successful. I was excited to read this because I tried to form a technology committee at my school for this very reason. I know teachers (and all workers) are more likely to change the way they do things if they are working together. The trouble is finding the time.

Teachers are often busy just keeping up with planning and assessing, forget about learning new ways of teaching. At my school, many teachers where multiple hats, and exactly half of the teachers are also currently pursing Master degrees. This does not mean it is impossible, but teachers need strong administrative support in order to embark on this endeavor. With little time and effort to spare, teachers need their leaders to make technology integration a priority.

I went to a two-day technology workshop in November. I was the only teacher from my school in attendance, and many of the teachers around me were completely lost. One teacher seemed to be using a web browser for the first time. The workshop meanwhile was essentially presentation of a smattering of web 2.0 tools. This was fine with me. About half of the tools were new to me, and about half of those seemed useful. I am already quite comfortable using technology so I did not have a hard time embracing these new tools, but I think most teachers need more, and even those of of who are able to easily use computers still need help bringing these tools into our classrooms.

I think the ideal situation would be to have technological integration staff at the school and a committee of teachers to lead the rest of the school bringing more technology into learning and instruction. Schools need staff with the expertise and time to help other teachers implement this new way of learning. Obviously, there are often fiscal obstacles to such an approach and it may be prudent to share technology support staff among different schools. Each school will have a different solution, but avoiding or ignoring the issue is a huge mistake, one our students cannot afford for us to make.