edutwist.com - teaching and technology

We’ve run out of room in our schools for the clunky technology of yesterday, both figuratively and literally. We need to get rid of the old equipment, along with the old mindsets, instructional methods, and philosophies that keep us pinned in the past. But change is exploding all around us at speeds and in directions that are impossible to keep up with.

We need tour guides.

In American education, we call them instructional technology integrators, technologists, ITRTS (Instructional Technology Resource Teachers), or a variety of other terms. These specialized tour guides must be multifaceted and able to stand on either side of the fence: above all, they should be experienced, recognized master teachers (not IT personnel) in order to understand the pedagogy and learning theory required to meet curriculum objectives; yet, at the same time, they should be technologically savvy enough to seamlessly incorporate the complexities of technology into an educational setting.

Finding such a blended combination of expertise is more challenging than one might think. A few years ago, teachers grew or stepped into those roles through their own experience with (and love for) technology. Those were days when technology still maintained a relatively low-key presence. Computers were new, the internet was Web 1.0 and schools still were limited in their connectivity.

In the last few years, however, innovation has fueled itself into a rocketing explosion of inventions, improvements, and emerging technologies, changing so fast that we can barely keep up enough to even know what’s out there and what it can do. Visit a website that reports on and reviews new technologies and one must scroll endlessly to view a complete list — updated daily — of new gadgets and tools. (Check out Wired’s Gadget Lab or Endgadget, for example.) On the internet, Web 2.0 sites have multiplied at a dizzying pace, opening an unexplored universe of interactive, collaborative web workspaces in which students and teachers can create, share, and comment on each other’s ideas, not just with each other, but globally with others around the world.

It is no wonder that many school districts are paralyzed in their technological advancement. And it’s not surprising that many teachers and administrators are overwhelmed.

Districts often blame their sluggish progress on budgetary constraints — and this is undoubtedly a sad reality in our crunched economy — but I suspect technological ignorance, naivete, and culture shock are also tying districts down and they aren’t even aware of it.

Because of the complexity and ubiquitous nature of emerging technology, instructional technology integration now has become a specialized field. University graduate-level masters programs offer instructional technology degrees and certification programs from which candidates (usually in-service, experienced teachers) gain many hours of focused training and immersion in both pedagogy and technological skills.

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Who’s hiring?

Even though there are experts to call on, there are still many districts holding out, believing they can do without the experienced help of technology integrators. Some have laid off or repositioned the ones they had (I am a recent example; my position as an instructional technology integrator was eliminated due to budget cuts this past year). Other districts are still at ground zero, having never initiated an instructional technology position at all. School districts either do not recognize the importance of technology integration, or they expect teachers to learn the technological applications on their own without support.

But on their own, the best teachers can’t possibly do a thorough or excellent job teaching and keep up with technological advances. This is not meant as an insult to the abilities of teachers to handle the complexities or additional demands; rather, it is an affirmation of their professional commitment to their career. Teaching — for those of you who are blissfully unaware — is an overwhelmingly demanding lifestyle that requires at least 50-60 hours a week when schools are in session to do well. To expect teachers also to keep up with emerging technologies is asking for superhuman accomplishment and sacrifices to other aspects of the teaching arena.

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Who’s buying?

When school systems spend hundreds of thousands of dollars buying upgraded technology equipment, relying on IT personnel to make the purchasing decisions seem counterproductive. Of course the technology engineers and network specialists should weigh in heavily on these decisions because they understand the infrastructure, the technical specifications, and the security issues inherent in a district’s equipment purchase. But balancing the purchasing power by including instructional technology personnel in the decision-making would help keep the focus where it belongs: on education and learning. (Case in point: please stop buying short little ethernet cords for classrooms with only one or two network drops on distant walls.)

Combining instructional and technology personnel in buying committees would also require these two often-divided camps to communicate and exchange ideas. Unfortunately, this is a novel idea in many districts, in which the cliche fits: “The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”

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Move out of the graveyard

The secret to managing change and staying grounded in the midst of evolution lies in having the luxury of time to adjust to the newness and having time to reconcile old mindsets and habits with new ways of thinking and new approaches. At today’s pace of change and innovation, school systems need “tour guides” to help with this process. It’s all coming too fast to sort out and sift through. Gone are the manageable days of slow progress: In the past, the pace of change was easier to tolerate. The evolution of multimedia tools in the classroom, for example, moved at a slow-walk pace from slide projectors to filmstrips to 16 millimeter movies to TVs with VCR players to DVD players and then to LCD projectors.

But today’s pace has accelerated to a supersonic whiplash flash. Teachers and administrators — and students — need the support and guidance of instructional technology integrators as experts who can research new technologies, suggest and model ways to use them in the instructional process, and weed out the junk, fluff, and trivial toys from the serious tools that encourage critical thinking.

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Update: July 27, 2009: I just read and strongly recommend “Jeff Gordon Can’t Change His Own Tires” on Free Technology for Teachers, Richard Byrne’s blog. His post emphasizes the necessity of maintaining a clear division of duties between IT technicians (hardware/network, etc.) and ITRTs (instructional technologists). He offers a pithy analogy between a NASCAR driver serving as his own pit crew and an instructional technologist maintaining computer hardware and networks.

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Related posts:
“Scapegoats and White Elephants”
“John Deere vs. a Hand Plow”

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Photo of overhead projectors courtesy of Wesley Fryer, from http://www.speedofcreativity.org/
Photo of tangled wires by Sharon Elin, laughing, using a cellphone

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This blog expresses the personal opinions of the author and is not affiliated
with nor representative of any company, employer, or other entity.
Posted on July 3rd, 2009 by Sharon Elin
Filed under: Uncategorized