The two realms of Ed Tech - part 3

full article here

Pedagogical

The goal of educational technology is to strengthen learning.

Individual teachers need to decide why, where, when and how to use technology in their classroom to teach. Technology should not be put upon a teacher - with no support, training or guidance. Teachers should decide when to use technology to support classroom learning.

Showing teachers what is out there. Teachers normally attend professional development conferences and read content-specific magazines. Many teachers also participate in listserves, or group-email discussion lists. Although it is ultimately incumbent on teachers to stay on track with new teaching methodologies and technologies, any technology program must showcase, and demonstrate new technologies. It is appropriate to mandate teacher attendance for technology training and professional development, it is not appropriate to mandate teacher-use of technology for teaching.

Supporting teachers. Instructional technology specialists (ITS)‘s are very important. You need to have someone around to help teachers use technology in their classrooms when they are teaching. There is no other way around this. When using technology to teach, technical support must be available immediately. An ITS must be in the classroom with a teacher when they are using technology to teach. When technology fails, learning and teaching stop.

Education drives technology. As mentioned above, technology must be a “bottom-up” thing. The worst way to do technology in the classroom is to simply tell a teacher to use it. Some schools simply put technology in a classroom without asking the teacher! If Mrs. Smith wants to use technology to teach semi-permeable membranes, then she should approach an ITS or the building technology coordinator and coordinate the logistical details.

Infrastructure. Schools should have ubiquitous, fast, and stable internet access. Internal networked resources should be available with a minimum amount of hassle. LCD projectors should be available in all rooms.

Availability. Acknowledging scarcity of resources, technology is best used when it is available - this makes laptop carts and laptop/LCD carts ideal. It also makes computer labs a horrible idea. The closer the technology to the learner, the better.

Proving it works. Much like other means of instruction, teachers should use pre/post test to ascertain if their students are learning. Teachers should be able to clearly prove the lesson has improved student learning (teachers are not responsible for proving technology works better, mind you - just for meeting learning objectives).

Supporting the technological pedagogical needs of teacher involve:

1) Immediate technical support: support should be available within 2 minutes
2) Providing a computer which meets the educational needs of the teacher
3) Available and accessible howto-type training
4) Ensuring access to networked resources, such as printers, shared filespace
5) Of course, adequate bandwidth (internally and externally)

Administrativia use of technology lends itself to top-down style of management (organizational and technological) - one in which we are all familiar.  Pedagogical use of technology requires far more flexibility than administrative use. Technology should be available, flexible, moveable and open (hardware and software) to accommodate the widest possible range of potential uses.