For those of you who are unaware of what #Edchat is, it is a weekly discussion involving thousands of educators discussing a specific educational issue. The discussion takes place on Twitter with two sessions, each discussing a different pre-selected topic. A common bond of an interest in education is only one of several bonds common to a majority of participants. Most chatters are technology literate or at least Twitter literate in order to participate. One may also assume that their participation indicates a common interest in the specific topic being discussed. The majority of the group is teachers. Others involved would be administrators, educational consultants, educational vendors, parents, authors, and people who were interested in the topic that was being discussed on social media channels in preparation for the Chat.
The many factors of commonality among the participants often foster agreement as to solutions for the problems being discussed. That does not mean that the solutions are weak or less warranted, only that they are recognized and agreed to by many of the participants. Educators, being who they are, often challenge these ideas to test their worth during the chat. It would seem the profession attracts those who love playing the “Devil’s Advocate”. This agreement on solutions among participants has labeled Edchat among some as an “echo chamber”. Unfortunately, labels sometimes cast doubt over what are very sound ideas as people place the emphasis on the label rather than the idea.
Changing education reform from discussion to action was the topic of last week’s #Edchat. It was one of the most active chats we have had since we began #Edchat. It was obvious that another interest common to #Edchat participants is the belief that there is a need for education reform and a need for educators to have some say in how that will happen. The resulting Blog posts during the week provided some answers to a growing frustration with things either not happening fast enough or not happening at all. People put forward some strategies for action.
The whole idea of connectiveness among educators for collaboration is still new to many. Again, labels seem to get in the way of progress. Twitter is connecting tens of thousands of educators around the world. They are successfully exchanging ideas and collaborating around the clock and over every time zone. Tens of thousands of educators collaborating sounds great until we consider the fact that there are millions of educators out there. Even if 200,000 educators were connected and collaborating, it is still a minority. There is a stigma attached to the technology label among some educators. There is a huge stigma attached to Twitter a s a legitimate form of collaboration or conveyance of ideas. The approach to Social Media and technology in general by educational institutions go a long way in discouraging participation in any collaboration amongst educators.
Technology is still viewed as something separate from education. People are still debating its place in education. They are still debating whether or not it promotes learning. There are some who insist on discussing if technology can ever take the place of the teacher. There are some who demand more research must take place before we can accept technology in education. All of this stalls any forward movement to change.
If we accept that “Ubiquitous” means omnipresent: being present everywhere at once, it would certainly apply to our everyday lives in regard to technology. It has affected most of what we do or come in contact with. Our health, transportation, entertainment, manufacturing, communication, appliances, and leisure time have all been infused with technology. We never debated it. We never questioned it. We never researched it. Except for a Will Smith and a Robin Williams movie of fiction, we never really questioned whether technology would replace people. Yet, in education, these questions are debated all of the time. ENOUGH ALREADY!
Technology is only a tool. It is the Platform that our children must use to earn a livelihood. Our children need to have skills that use the technologies that are ubiquitous in our society and the world. Educators do not need to teach technology, but they need technology to teach. Yes, one can be a great teacher without using technology, but what good does that do for a child who must use those learned skills in a society where technology is ubiquitous? A teacher providing the skills without technology is providing an incomplete set of skills for what today’s children need. It will be up to that child to fill in the blanks in his/her education. That child will need to pick up technology skills on his own. He will need to correlate the acquired skills from that teacher into a technology rich environment, which the teacher failed to do, in order to succeed.
There is no longer a debate to be had on whether or not educators should employ technology as a tool. It is already ubiquitous in our culture. It is here to stay. It is developing and moving forward. Our education system is not keeping up with that change. Our children are either on that train prepared to move forward or waving bye-bye at the station. Relevance is now key to our educators, because it is key to our children. There is now a new literacy required to use technology successfully. How many of our educators are lacking in that literacy? How many educators are now illiterate?
There are so many problems to address in education that it is always a challenge as to where to begin. My suggestion is to stop creating impediments by debating the need for something which is ubiquitous in our society and will only be more evident in the culture of our children. We need to encourage the smart use of technology. We need to teach and develop the smart use of technology with professional development. We need our administrators and teachers to model the smart use of technology. We need to provide exposure, education, and participation of parents in the smart use of technology.
We need to understand that teaching writing with an Underwood typewriter and erasable bond paper is not the best way to teach today’s children to be writers. Let us not debate whether it could be done that way. Of course it could, but why would we do that? We as educators must be relevant and that is a day-to-day struggle. Educators can use technology to accomplish this. We need to educate the educators how they can maintain relevance.
Feel free to comment
I agree with your thoughts about how technology can no longer be seen as separate from education. I think that those who do keep them separate are in places where the value of technology is felt but not happening. If teachers and schools were asked what it is they want money spent on, many would say technology. But for those districts where the money is not coming in…well they are making due with teaching in the fashion they can…without it. I really like the thoughts presented here, but I also understand what it’s like to be a teacher who doesn’t have all the technology I would like for my students to learn with.
I volunteered for my child’s last field trip and overheard her teacher saying that she didn’t know how to email photos from her digital camera. This simple sentence said so much to me. I had recently asked the school principal to invite the teachers to #edchat. I’m guessing that’s not going to happen, but all we can do as parents is try our best. Speaking of #edchat, does anyone have a tech tool that sends an #edchat reminder or ping? I often realize after the fact and then have to settle with the archives (which I’m very thankful for). Someone should create the “I want an #edchat ping” group!
Do you use Google calendar? You can set up #edchat as a repeating event and then have an email or text message send you a reminder an hour before or maybe 15 minutes before it will begin.
Tom I agree! I’ve seen educators in my district receive gadgets but not get the follow through professional development training needed to make those tools relevant. Also, educators need to take the reigns on their own professional development. Stop waiting for your administrators to find you the next “program”. It’s about the process, not the program!
This is a really great post and it so true, wherever you are and you teach. Problems from “illiterate” teachers, parents, come all the time. I realize that it doesn’t matter whether you are, in Greece (as I am), Great Britain or Germany.
all educators share the same thoughts about integrating technology and about the movement forward to change. Mr Whitby I have already translated and shared other statements of yours about collaboration and PLN before. With your post, with which I totally agree, you give me another chance to say how mutual all ict educators think about the education of today and tomorrow. Thank you.
Agreed… we need to get past the ‘will you use technology’ and get to the ‘how are we using’- it all has to start with good teaching practices and technology needs to be an accepted part of the process.
Sometimes I sit at meetings and think, ‘yeah, we are moving ahead with tech integration/infusion’ and then someone says something like, ‘let’s add a separate section to this school wide plan called technology’. They think they are being forward thinkers by bringing technology to the forefront. My point is that it shouldn’t be separate, but a part of every section of any district wide plan. If we are writing an Instructional Guide for our district then technology should be infused in ALL sections, especially curriculum, instruction, and assessment pieces. It is not a separate tool, but an intricate part of the learning process…
Thanks for the post, I enjoyed reading it. I missed #edchat last week (summer schedule doesn’t always fit), sounds like as usual it was a great discussion.
Dodie
Yes! Can I get an amen from the congregation! How is it that technology literacy is not one of the first questions when interviewing a new teacher? How many teacher prep programs are having students establish a PLN BEFORE they go out and teach? How can it be that nearly everyone I know in my PLN sort of fell into it by accident. This attitude of sticking to tried and true traditions is so systemic in education that it pervades every aspect of it down to the school lunch. Nothing. Ever. Changes. I tell you I am read to start a revolution!
Tom,
I enjoyed reading the post! #edchat has been a great learning experience and a tremendous way to build my PLN. The greater point is to stop talking and start moving. The challenge is highlighted because of the relatively small number of educators collaborating in this medium. Yet, we must remember that we are all able to start as small agents of change within our own classrooms. If a school doesn’t embrace the technology which exists, provide the admin with reason why they must embrace the tools available. It will take time and effort but the best part is you will be the one who will be able to model the usage and help direct where the path will lead.
We must begin to use our conversations to connect with each other to help push this movement. You are correct that technology will not leave our society, but we must help other see why we must embrace it.
Thanks for the post!
Hi Tom,
Thanks for stating, “There is no longer a debate to be had on whether or not educators should employ technology as a tool.” At ISTE10 this year I heard and felt a sift in the conversations around me. We were not looking for the hottest new tool, but were more concerned with best practices, lessons learned, policy, filtering, student projects etc. But the people I had conversations with have already embedded technology into their lessons everyday.
When I return to my school this year, I will be reminded that there are still so many teachers who are stuck in the “industrial age” instead of becoming members of the “digital age.” How many teachers have read the newest NETS for Teachers that ISTE released in 2008 http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/NETS/ForTeachers/2008Standards/NETS_for_Teachers_2008.htm, or for that matter even know what NETS stands for?
Teachers need to stop blaming the lack of training on their school system and demonstrate how they are “lifelong learners”. Take the “professional development bull” by the horns and be responsible for their own learning by attending free online webinars, watching how-to videos, reading blogs, and conversing with others through social media. The opportunities are endless as we who are part of the “digital age” already know.
My plan for the coming school year is to send out a weekly email on Friday to everyone in my building. This email will contain all the links I gather from my PLN during the week. Next I plan to set up a Diigo account for our school and show everyone how to access the things I will bookmark there. Then I will have my fourth graders use Jing to make short video how-to’s on the various tools we use in our classroom. That is my plan to help move teachers in my building into the digital age. What is yours?
Your excellent post gets to the heart of critical divides found in the current state of learning work in our schools. Our learners are caught in the middle of a transitional “torch-passing” across generations who currently work in schools. Our young people can’t afford to wait for non-tech literate educators to exit our schools to get the learning spaces they want- and need. Our employers can’t wait another decade to get the tech-literate employees who are a must in just about every job today. Your point about moving past arguments for or against technology in our schools is well taken. Our kids already flood schools with their tech devices- whether we like it or not. It’s time to set the expectation that proficient educators use a continuum of technologies to accelerate learning. It’s time to provide our educators and learners with tech tools they need. It’s time to provide the job-embedded development support so our educators can reach the expectations for best practices that will benefit all learners. Most importantly, it’s time for the federal govt., states, and localities charged with funding of public education to realize we need an infusion of infrastructure, resource, and development funding akin to that provided when our leaders prioritized its importance during the USSR/US space race era. Sadly, RTTT does not get us there.
I agree with @doemiso: How can educators teach the next generation and tout learning without being real learners themselves? It really is time for others to look at their own learning and extend themselves. Let’s reward that instead of berating others and telling them that they do not have time to… (fill in the blank.) It really is sad that many others do not value learning in their lives.
Thank you so much for writing this post, Tom. You have so clearly articulated the problem with the ‘echo chamber’ argument. I think this is a must read for every educator.
I hear ya, Tom. I too say, “ENOUGH ALREADY!” But as we discussed in the last #edchat, how do we get change?! It seems that Duncan and Obama are forging ahead with their agenda without listening to us. If we can’t get them to try a new direction then how will we get the changes we need? I know more can be accomplished through collaboration than through competition, I know rewards as incentives don’t get the results we need yet RTTT doesn’t seem to be going away. And Duncan and Obama’s excuse for keeping it going? They point to all those who have played their game to show how good their agenda is. Not all educators think RTTT is a bad idea. Yeah, right. So if they’re not going to stop, if our leaders aren’t going to change, what is our next step?
Thank you, Tom, for this post. I totally agree – “We need to encourage the smart use of technology. ”
Thank you for sharing your insight and getting me to think!
Tom –
At last, the analogy I wanted about tech replacing teachers. You’re right – the microwave hasn’t replaced the chef, why would we think tech would replace teachers?
I was glad when the chat topic turned toward actually doing something! We’ve got to keep moving forward, and even while we are still trying to convert others to “the cause,” we’ve got to actually do the things we’re talking about.
Thanks for all you do to keep us all moving.
I love this post, Tom. Your leadership in the PLN and #edchat is not just great, but necessary. It strikes me that you are preaching to the choir here, me included. Everyone reading a blog by the co creator of #edchat is in agreement that technology is critical and ubiquitous. So what now? I think that you’ve provided a strong call to action – to get the choir singing loudly and in unison, one powerful voice making a difference for the students we teach. That voice needs to be heard by the federal, state, and local ed agencies. We each can make a difference.
As I said in an earlier post of mine, put up or shut up. Bluntly speaking, we have to be the changed educator that we want others to emulate.
Advocate and act… Time is wasting.
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great post…keep up the fight and keep it in the face of educators who are unwilling to learn because of their fears…time to move aside folks or get over it! Speaking as an almost ready to retire educator.
Hi Tom,
As a retired librarian, I am amazed at the librarians who are not only not tech savvy but do not allow their students to use technology as they know it. I sell material to school and public libraries and have been told that ‘I don’t like sports so I do not buy sports books’ and ‘I do not see the need for e-books since I do not like reading books on a screen’.
Personal bias is only eliminated when you have a strong administration who is more concerned with learning than test scores and realizes that test scores improve when learning embraces technology and reading. Both are losing out in the resource area, particularly in our urban and rural areas and yet both are essential resources to improve test scores.
Check out Stephen Krashen who has written extensively on the need for libraries and increased resources to make it a truly 21st century resource.
Tom,
Great post. I enjoy reading your reflections and thinking about them in the context of my district. I think you are so, so right when you state– Technology is only a tool. Educators do not need to teach technology, but they need technology to teach. I am a curriculum coordinator in a small district in Iowa and we will begin a 1-1 initiative in grades 7-12 this fall. We have a strong district leadership team composed of administrators and teacher leaders and this group has done much planning for implementation so the goal of the “initiative” is not the laptops themselves, but rather the goal is to change the classroom environment. In other words, use the technology to change teaching and learning. So, as we keep saying over and over–it’s not about the technology, it’s about changing instruction and learning using technology. It’s about changing the classroom so students can experience lessons within a particular content (including interdisciplinary) that allows them to be problem solvers, innovators, communicators, and creative thinkers while using the appropriate technology and web tools. That’s a huge task, isn’t it?
Great post, Tom. Gets us thinking.
I’ve read the comments of the others, and I do want to put a good word in for those educators who haven’t totally embraced technology yet. I taught language arts for over 30 years in a public school district. I did embrace technology, and I used it extensively, but I understand the plight of those who have not. My district was progressive with technology integration. I’ll never forget the first time we had a computer wheeled into a department meeting, back in the mid 80’s. My brain went tilt when I realized the potential uses it had. As a classroom teacher, I immediately started learning and using information technology. IT enhanced what I could do in my classroom for teaching and learning. My students enjoyed the fact that I loved using IT. Heck, my 7th and 8th graders would stay after school just to work on the “first” school webpage with me, and some of them still do projects with me, even though they are now in college and I’m out of the classroom!
But, I had to make a huge time commitment to learn and implement IT for myself and my students. I spent many hours teaching myself and learning. I signed up for inservice courses. I loved what technology could do for my classroom, but I also understand what it means for teachers in general. I am out of the classroom now and travel to different states and many school districts offering professional development workshops and keynote addresses. No matter where I go, I see the same problems. Teachers have layers of responsibility. Some have been successful in integrating technology; others want to embrace the changes, but they have so many responsibilities in their jobs, they must make decisions about what comes first, what is the most important.
Having been a classroom teacher for so many years, I understand what it’s like for them. Making the transition becomes another add on. Every school faces its own problems of budget restraints, acceptable use policies, offering professional development, limited hardware, etc. We can’t just put the hardware and software into the classrooms and expect teachers to just start using them. We need to offer ways for them to see exemplars – ways to use the technology for teaching and learning. They need to see how the technology enhances what they already do. They need to understand how our students need technology in a digital age. We need to give them ideas. Then, we need to offer them professional development opportunities so they can move along the continuum. Although I did accept the responsibility for my own learning, my school district also offered inservice opportunities. It was a combination of my own interest/motivation and my school district’s encouragement that led me on my own path of technology integration.
I do think we need to have school administration be the leaders for offering change in their districts. If the opportunities are there for the teachers to learn and grow, most will. But, I think there’s a definite role for school administration to be catalysts for change within their school districts. Of course, I don’t mean that the teachers themselves should not be proactive; that’s always important. If teachers are in an encouraging environment, they will embrace changes. I do a lot of professional development workshops. Often, I’m brought into a district by a superintendent, and the entire faculty must attend my trainings. I’ve had teachers come to me and say, “Please don’t call on me. I don’t know what I’m doing with technology.” They want to learn, but they feel insecure about their abilities. As with the students, they are timid about making mistakes in front of their peers. I must tell you, when that happens my immediate goal is to make that teacher feel comfortable and feel as if technology is attainable, not an enigma. Once they feel as if they “can” do it, magic happens. They start using the technology, and they start integrating it. Let’s offer these educators a time and place to learn new technologies. Help them carve out time to learn; give them opportunities; offer PD opportunities; encourage peer mentors; and above all, understand all the layers of responsibilities they have in their jobs.
Thanks for the post, Tom and the follow up from the interested educators. One way to move forward is to validate PLNs and give educators the gift of time to explore these new tools. Professional work from home days where teachers can explore new technology tools would be a good place to start. Additionally, school administration must put some faith in teachers and not have so many controls on the computers at school. As a veteran elementary ed teacher for 30+ years, I was given two superintendent’s conference days a year. We were allowed to choose from a small selection of workshops, but were never given the time to explore on our own. This model no longer works. Elementary teachers are interacting with children all day long and often spend several hours after school answering parent email or phone messages, planning lessons, and correcting student work. They also are on numerous faculty committees and most have families to go home to just in time to prepare meals and do laundry and read to their own children. Good teachers then spend time completing school work, reading professional literature, and exploring technology. Unfortunately, that time is limited and does not offer enough of an opportunity to explore all that is out there. Most teachers also have very limited budgets and can not afford some new technology. Some districts buy lap tops for students, but wouldn’t think of getting them for teachers.
School districts should recognize that teachers can learn from each other and give teachers professional development days in school, where they can spend several hours exploring what is new that can make their lessons more relevant and therefore more effective. Working with each other in a collaborative model will help these teachers further their knowledge and skills. Unfortunately, there is often a sense from elementary teachers that they are not respected to use that time effectively and accountability becomes the word of the day. Teachers should also be allocated some funds for technology. Instead of districts buying Smartboards for every classroom, they should ask teachers what technology tools they need or want.
In the late1980s and 90s, I collaborated with and formed a true learning community of professionals in my building. We often spent our own time and money to attend conferences and to join professional organizations. We read and discussed current educational journals and we examined our students’ work samples. Teachers can create those informal communities in their own schools as well as on line. My hope is that collegial, collaborative learning will take hold in all of the schools across the world.
As I teach adults, my students are either ahead of me or behind me. I use my limited but growing knowledge to try to help them educate their children. I now have children (at a great age!) of my own and feel totally committed to keeping up to date for them, for society, to be part of the age we live in. But the resistance from my colleagues, from some of my students (as parents of children) is frightening. I can relate to this conversation as I would say I am the only one of my colleagues on Twitter. Scary as to what they are missing. I try to educate on technology yearly at a conference in Switzerland on my endeavours and am getting a growing fan club of oldies! So I do my bit and love it while doing it!
I was surprised (and a little embarrassed) at how much strong emotion this week’s edchat topic brought out of me. I thoroughly enjoyed the intellectual interchange. My challenge now is to find a non-whining way to charge forward.
Tom,
I’m new to EdChat, and I’m so glad I’ve discovered it. So many of us toil in isolation, and it’s vital to meet other kindred spirits out there.
As an incurable idealist, I do think Technology can and should transform education the way it has transformed nearly every other industry. It’s time for the people that run education to open the floodgates of innovation to make schools more exciting, not to mention efficient and attractive to the end user, the students.
In a sense, I disagree with you, in that I think improvements in tech will result in efficiencies that cost some people in education their jobs. Certainly teachers will always be needed, but technology has the potential to eliminate many positions. With more online learning, the number of teachers can actually be reduced, and the less qualified and competent would need to find work elsewhere. It seems like smaller districts in rural areas that have limited budgets would be the first to realize the advantages of technologies, but eventually the innovations in smaller districts would spread to the larger ones. Having a well-qualified teacher in every classroom has proven to be impossible. It’s better to have the most qualified people teaching and the less qualified playing a supporting role.
“Technology is only a tool. It is the Platform that our children must use to earn a livelihood.”
Well, which is it?
And, what does that second sentence mean, exactly?
As an “older” teacher, my business ed degree certifies me to teach “typing” and “bookkeeping” among other things. As we all know, we have come a long way from those times. What my knowledge and “expertise” was 15-20 years ago isn’t “expertise” today. Not only do students need to keep up with the pace of more productive learning, –so do teachers. Today, I find myself being the “computer” teacher. As we all know this is an ever changing/constant learning time. I do believe most teachers want to explore new technologies but time becomes a major factor. With expectations of “x” amount of assignments graded and recorded per semester, as well as daily grades up for parents to see pronto–it’s no wonder more of us are slow to experiment with other “new-found” technologies. (By the way, where do you find time to DISCOVER new-found technologies)
One answer is to change the belief that teacher inservice needs to keep teachers “busy”. I long for the day that we can get into departments and have an inservice day whereby each member has an opportunity to discover one new technology–experiment with it, get an idea of how it could be used within the curriculum, and create a “how-to” to distribute.
Great post Tom. Thank you.
As a recently retired Primary Headteacher in the UK I worry a great deal about what you might call the ‘illiterate educators’ we have in our schools. A quote of yours from Twitter said, “Technology is the new literacy of the 21st Century. What percentage of our educators are illiterate?”. The problem is that for most it is not their fault. In many of our schools teachers follow the same routines in terms of meeting and professional development as they have always done. So few of our school leaders are encouraging their staff to do things differently – to make use of that ubiquitous technology. At a recent conference I asked the audience of 70+ Heads & teachers how many used Twitter to collaborate with other teachers; how many regularly read blogs or had their own; how many used TED.com as a source of professional development….. and so on. At most 5 hands went up!
Part of the problem, at least here in the UK, is a tired, exhausted and under pressure work force. Many Heads may want to ensure that their children are ‘on the train rather than waving goodbye at the station’ but never find the time to do it. Often because they are bogged down with targets, government initiatives, etc.
If we are really going to move along the road that you so eloquently described we need to take on board some of the ideas that Sir Ken Robinson talked about in his 2010 TED talk, ie. we need a learning revolution. We have lots of reformists but reform is just trying to mend what is basically an out of date and largely irrelevant education system.
In the UK we have a new coalition government who, alarmingly, are not even debating the use of technology in schools. They appear to be more interested in moving our education back to a subject based curriculum with an emphasis on ‘learning facts.’ This sort of climate is not going to help Heads and teachers to be more creative.
Mike (from the UK), it sounds like things are the same no matter what side of the pond you live on!
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