One of the many feeds that I read is “The Pulse – District Administration”. The great thing about it is that it is an online journal of articles intended for district administrators.

I spent most of yesterday reading (when not working in the yard and watching football of course!) I came across this article on Technology in Teacher Education Training dated November 1 by Ron Canuel. I must admit that the article hit home with me. I’m VERY blessed to work in a district where it is ‘trying’ to change what Ron is talking about in this article. Let me quote the portion of his article that I find the most hard hitting:

“New teachers, in the absence of effective teacher training programs, will replicate and model the approach and methodology that their past favorite teacher, elementary or high school, had on them. Much of this impact is based on two fundamental elements: positive relationships between the student-teacher and deep knowledge of the subject taught by that teacher. This also means that technology may not be an element that is considered as important. The end result could be that we would have new generation teachers not using approaches that could be further enhanced by technology.”

I took the liberty to underline the portion that I thought was most important. Ron’s conclusions are very much right on the mark here. What I would add to his conclusion is that the new teachers coming into the profession will also take on the methodology and practices that are set in place at the school level. I can safely comment on this from personal experiences.

Like I said before, I’m very blessed to work in a district that values the use and true integration of technology into the curriculum and teaching practices. They work very hard on winning grants and awards that they use to reward teachers for their hard work and efforts. It however is not mandatory to take part in these professional development/growth opportunities.

Herein lies the conundrum. If the new teachers coming in, are not willing/wanting to take the time out of their already hectic first year schedules to work technology in (this is assuming they were not exposed to true integration theories in pre-service experiences), who is left to share these educational philosophies? Not the district level administrators. It’s left to the school level administrators to take on this role.

To further muddy the waters here. One of the conversations held around the edublogosphere is the need to change the teaching practices in the 21st Century classrooms today out of the 20th Century methods being employed. I have to ask the obvious question here though. Are not the majority of our school level administrators evolving from these 20th Century classrooms where the “TRIED AND TRUE” best teaching practices have been indelibly ingrained into their mindsets?

So what is the solution to this ever growing trend? Seems pretty obvious to me. The solution is 2 fold. And the great thing about it is that it can be attained at the very same time. I’ve spoken before of technology peer mentoring programs (see here and here) Having been a member of a peer coaching team I can say from firsthand knowledge that it WORKS. It works WELL! For the program to work it needs administration buy in. But the real solution is not buy in, but total participation from administration. They must be full participants to truly understand the influence integration can have on student performance. Unfortunately, the only acceptance I’ve encountered is that of signing off on subs needed to cover and the funds to buy the hardware/software needed. And I find that sorely lacking.

Seeking the Wisdom of the Ages…

Tom.

Article Citation: Canuel, Ron (2007, November 1). Technology in Education Teacher Training: Oh, Oh. The Pulse District Administration, Retrieved November 26, 2007, from http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48634

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