Chasing the Dragon's Tale

A portion of this weekend was spent in a Courage to Teach Retreat held here in Nashville with about 20 educators, mostly in the K-12 arena. It was not long after my introduction to the group as a Web Developer that my smaller group discussions included chats about technology issues that teachers face in their personal and classroom lives. Three themes seemed to surface repeatedly...the need for more technology (computers), harware that is dependable/secure, and a general fear that the instructors involved will not know enough to make computers productive learning tools. In so many stories that appear on the internet, school boards scramble to implement technology solutions that include infrastructure, hardware, and peripherals THEN wonder why aren't the teachers using the equipment? One such story appeared today in the The Stamford Advocate (CT): School Technology Purchases Scrutinized.

"Questions are being raised about poor coordination between technology purchases and curriculum, a lack of teacher training on new equipment and an overall reluctance on the part of school officials to heed the advice of outsiders and reconsider spending priorities."

Another report in Sunday's paper demonstrates the struggles of steachers and students with training needs. This is probably an over-simplification: hardware (with 24/7 support), training, and curriculum make up essential sides of the educational technology triangle...remove any one of them and the triangle loses its integrity. Constructing one side of the triangle without constructing the other two at the same time runs the risk of an ineffective and/or wasteful result. I am convinced that the teachers in my retreat were sincere, honest, bright, and dedicated individuals... unfortunately their college degrees did not come with an emphasis in using technology, the training on how to use technology as a resource within a curriculum, or any motivation to include technology in their life long learning.. Many of their students will be more technologically advanced when they walk thru the classroom door than their respective teachers... learning together is not an option, it is essential. Chasing the Dragon may mean that student and teacher are running side-by-side instead of running single file with the teacher out front.