Dr. Harland’s Hangout

I just read Karl Fisch’s post titled, “Is It Okay To Be A Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” This post won “Most Influential Post of 2007.”

You can read the post http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html

I consider my self new to the educational technology community, and I’m still getting used to hearing people say the things I’ve observed and never had the guts to say (or had anyone to say it to for that matter!). Like, Karl I was often offended when parents would say “Well, I never did well in Biology either, so I wouldn’t expect my kid to like it either.” It was as if they were giving their kid permission to give up and settle for mediocrity. All teachers–no matter the content area–are most likely offended by this statement. So why do we give teachers a pass on their ability to use technology?

Students use technology in every aspect of their life and they thrive on multitasking. When they come to school and are forced to sit through a lesson that could just as well have been taught 30 years ago, its no wonder students are bored and don’t see the connection of what they’re learning to their personal life. As one student so eloquently said, “I have so much to learn, and I’m stuck here in this classroom!”

On the other hand, future teachers often don’t see the power of the same technology they use for socializing in the professional world. Therefore, if even the young teachers coming up, keep technology compartentalized and out of their teaching life, we are doomed and students will continue to be bored!

The problem may be with how we teach future teachers, or the types of individuals who are attracted to education in the first place. Very few college students I’ve had in my courses have had high school teachers (or college for that matter) model the effective use of technology in their courses. If future teachers don’t see technology modeled well, they won’t use it. We can talk about how to use technology (just like we can talk about using cooperative learning, instead of modeling it) but if they don’t see it seamlessly used as part of the educational process, technology will continue to be viewed as “something else” a teacher has to do.

Frustrated but trying to make a difference!

I’ve recently made the jump from teaching high school to the university and I’ve noticed quite a few differences–some obvious and others not so much. As you will learn about me, I like lists. So here are my observations categorized–as all good thoughts are!

The obvious

• The bells don’t run my life anymore
• Reduced F2f time with students

The less obvious

• I can go to the bathroom when I want
• Maturity level of the students NOT that different
• Camaraderie among the faculty at the university is refreshing

Technology-wise

• Its easy to access all sorts of technology at the university
• My pre-service teachers think they will have access to the same technology they’ve gotten used to at the university (ha)
• Informality of students with their professors. A pet peeve of mine is when individuals email, skype etc.. and use super casual/IM language. Where has our sense of proper grammar gone? Snicker if you like, but still enjoy capitalization and punctuation!

Most surprising to me

• While my student contact hours have drastically been reduced at the university level-the preparation and grading is as much or more than it was at the high school level
• The university student’s belief that instructors should be available 24/7 for questions (that are clearly answered in the syllabus!)
• I feel like a first year teacher all over again, trying to keep my bearings of deadlines, who to contact when etc…