These
days, to keep up with the real world, educators and curriculum
designers have the challenge of redesigning their workloads and class
loads to accommodate new technology.
"Technology
is out there in the real world," says Maureen Baron. She is an educator
and technology consultant. "And if we don't prepare [students] to work
with it, to master it and control it, then we're not preparing them for
the real world."
Computers,
digital scanners, digital cameras, digital video cameras, the Internet,
smart boards -- these are just some of the new electronic technologies
popping up in the modern classroom.
Many
teachers are new to these technologies. But there are some who are
setting the standard for technology integration in the classroom.
Cheryl Williams is the director of the Technology Learning Conference,
an office in the National School Boards Association (NSBA). She tells
the story of a colleague.
"[She]
just took her class on a virtual field trip to the Philadelphia Museum
of Art. They had developed a whole multimedia lesson plan around a
Cezanne painting, and then they visited the museum through this
telecommunications capability," she says.
"You may
be a whiz-bang third-grade teacher," Williams says. "But until you
realize what the possibilities are with the technology, you can't know
what kinds of goals to set."
In
Canada, there is no organization that decides on national standards for
technology in education. Each province has its own recommendations and
guidelines.
"A number
of school divisions have done their own [analysis] in terms of
developing where they want their students to be at certain grade
levels," says Sue Amundrud, who is with the Saskatchewan Department of
Education.
As an
example, broad objectives in British Columbia include enhanced
technology literacy, improved communication with others and critical
thinking skill development.
Technology
education in general, according to a British Columbia Teachers'
Federation document entitled Conditions for Success, is supposed to
broaden student horizons by connecting them with people, ideas and
research. Tech education also has the objective of opening up the world
for students with disabilities and special needs.
The
document goes on to list more specific objectives: expanding the choice
of courses and programs available to students, providing opportunities
for students who would otherwise have limited access to technology
outside the education system, and developing student comfort levels
with new technologies.
"Because
the technology field is constantly changing, none of these things are
set in stone," Baron says.
The U.S.
is a bit different. Institutions like the National Science Foundation
(NSF) routinely pump out standards for math, science and increasingly
technology. The standards are adopted by educators and consultants and
instituted into the classroom.
"Teachers
want to be involved in this," says Heidi Rogers. She is president of
the International Society for Technology in Education, which develops
standards jointly with the NSBA. "They welcome the integration and
opportunity to integrate technology into the curriculum.
"I think
the real issue is for teachers to develop and implement technology
lesson plans that support the curriculum and the standards that they
are already teaching."
As she
implies, many educators are already aware of the benefits of technology
education. What they are after is more professional development. It's
not convincing they need -- it's training.
"We need
to upgrade the profession of public education, specifically and most
importantly that of classroom teachers," Williams says. "There's lots
of data that says the quality of student achievement is directly tied
to the quality of the teacher in the classroom."
Teachers
seeking to be trained in new technologies and applications for those
technologies are finding training in both the U.S. and Canada is
becoming more popular, as are workshops and tutorials. Much of that
training, suitably, is available online.
In fact,
education departments and organizations are doing all they can to
ensure that the training programs and opportunities are as flexible as
possible, in terms of access and availability.
"We're
working toward providing an alternative method of professional
development for those for whom travel, geography, [and] release time
may be a problem," says Amundrud.
Educators,
associations and governments deal with training demands in many
different ways. And they have their work cut out for them. The
different levels of technology knowledge are nearly as varied as the
number of teachers going after training.
"It's all
the way from 'I'm still not sure how to turn on the computer' to 'How
do I set up a firewall on the network at our school?'" says Amundrud.
"It's the whole gamut."
School
boards are really just starting to recognize the importance of
instituting long-term plans to bring technology to all levels of
student, from preschool to high school.
But with
current technology so pervasive in society, commerce and culture, it's
not something that is being left to the schools alone to teach. Kids
are also learning about technology in their daily lives.
Many
teachers have not been trained in technology and have limited
experience with it. They are virtually forced to learn how to use
technology or risk being run out of class by kids who know more about
it than they do.
"Trying
to juggle what your curriculum is with this higher level of knowledge
of the kids presents a challenge for some people," Baron says.
Barry
Burke is president of the International Technology in Education
Association (ISTE). He says that the case is the same in his Maryland
school district, where many teachers took up a recent opportunity to
get training on applications and hardware. The training project was
funded by the NSF.
The ITEA
is running a similar campaign that shares training for elementary,
middle and high school programs through a consortium called CATTS --
Center for the Advancement of Teaching Technology and Science.
The
challenge of getting technology into the classroom has more than one
face, though. Another area that presents a bit of a dilemma is the
logistics of "wiring" a school.
Logistical
problems, such as Internet servers being overloaded or shutting down in
the middle of a lesson, are common.
"A lot of
this equipment was designed for home use, not industrial use. And when
they get the heavy use, things tend to break more often," Baron says.
"But fortunately, most school boards have repair services. These things
can be back in service relatively quickly."
Computer
acquisition has been made easier in some parts of Canada and the U.S.
through public and corporate initiatives.
For the
long term, educators and associations are concerned that sustained
funding for technology acquirement will run out and leave them with
dusty computers and ancient technology.
In
Quebec, for instance, the five-year government plan that has provided
computers for all the schools in the province is nearing an end. And
with that end comes the fear that the funding, too, is over.
"Let's
say two years ago, a PC 486 was considered great," says Baron. "Now
it's considered a dinosaur. Renewing of the equipment is always a
challenge."
And the
situation is the same in the U.S., according to Williams. She says it's
hard to find sustainable revenue resources from the local level because
communities are frequently tapped out. About 90 percent of most school
budgets is committed to salary and benefits.
"So
there's a real issue around how we create sustained funding to build
out a rich environment that's technology rich, that's pedagogically
sound," Williams says. "It's really the crux of the matter."
But the
fear of stepping over obsolete computer towers in the classroom is not
as great as the hope that the funding will continue to pour, or at
least trickle, down. Amundrud is confident that it will.
"It's a
broken front," she says. "Technology is making inroads in many ways: in
terms of what people study and the delivery of information."
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