So welcome to my blog. My name is Julie Anderson. I am a recent graduate from West Chester University who is persuing my Master's degree in Secondary Education. For EDT 510 we were asked to create a blog inspired by Karen Cator's video and the National Educational Technology Plan.
While watching the video I was inspired by the passion that Karen Cator had for technology. She showed the auidence that technology has the power to connect us instead of dividing us like it had been previously thought. She mentioned that in order for the United States to be successful in creating new educational technology we need to spend more time in research and development. Karen mentioned that in the US we spend less than 0.1 percent of our budget on research and development. Potato chip companies spend more of their annual budgets on research and development than educators do. Imagine a world where we only had plain potato chips. Goodbye days of barbeque salt and vinegar and even (dare I say it) pickle chips. Imagine your Fourth of July party only containing one brand and one flavor of potato chip. How boring would that be? So why do we do that to our children? So one of my questions to Karen is: Can teachers be a part of the research and development team? I don't know about you but I would love to try out new products. If companies can test products on people why not educators?
One of the things that disturbed me while reading the National Educational Technology Plan was the notion that all educators have some sort of formal training when it comes to educational technology. In my own personal experience I have found the opposite. With all the budget cuts that higher education institutions have been experiencing I am finding that educational technology classes are the first ones to be cut. When I started my undergraduate carrer in 2007 educational technology was very much a part of the cirriculum. By the time I started in the program in 2008 most of these courses had been removed. I (despite the warnings from my advisor) took these classes. I found that I was learning new and useful techniques that I was able to carry into my other teaching experiences. So how are we as teachers expected to learn about the latest and greatest invention when other parties find these courses to be obsolete.
Well my friends I feel like I have typed a novel and its only my first blog. (Yikes!) I promise there will be more to come but for right now I am all out of words and ideas. Today I will leave you with the words of Benjamin Franklin: Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
I never thought of teachers being a part of the R&D teams. Good idea and good question. I have also found that professional development in using technology has declined significantly since I started teaching in 2008. While new technology is not being forced upon us as teachers in my district, we are expected to know how to use it effectively. I know this is challenging for some teachers because the professional development opportunities simply are no longer there.
ReplyDeleteExcellent idea having teachers part of the team. I remember when No Child Left Behind came out, teachers and staff were in an uproar ( probably still are) because ideas and strategies were being implemented, with out consideration of teacher imput. I recently went on an interview where students were part of the process. I personally thought this was the best interview process, because the ones I was going to teach had a say. With that in mind why don't we get students more involved in the process too.
ReplyDeleteI find it quite disturbing that potato chip factories spend more time researching and developing their products than educators and the government spend researching and developing. I feel that more options should be presented to schools and educators alike to allow students the greatest access to technology possible. In addition, I think the government should spend additional time and money on creating relevant and meaningful technology applications/programs/equipment to provide students with experiences they will need to be successful as adults.
ReplyDeleteJulie,
ReplyDeleteThe part of your blog that I related too was your thoughts on a teachers training in educational technology. I had a similar question in my blog, and I know there was no requirement for teaching candidates to take an educational technology course. It feels like most times, teachers get thrown to the wolves with technology, and that is why we open our storage closets and find unopened technology from years past that were never utilized. If a teacher does not know how to use something, what would give them the confidence to use it in their classroom. Also, I love the potato chip analogy you made.