The Top 10 problems in Ed Tech

[Michelle Davis]

What are the major problems you are facing? How do you plan to solve those problems?

[Mike Souden]

I am an Educational Technology Consultant for a regional service agency. I work with 28 school districts providing professional development and consulting services. The key issues facing Educational Technology are:

1. Addressing Social Web (Web 2.0) issues in a constructive and responsible way. While students should not have to unplug when the enter school buildings, schools do have a responsibility to keep students safe. Solutions: Finding safe sites and building county wide access to things like Moodle and WordPress. Working with districts to revisit their AUPs and highly encourage parent training and involvement as districts revisit their filtering policies.

2. Putting technology in schools for the purpose of improving student achievement continues to be an issue even though schools are a place where, if students were given the opportunity, could learn to use information literacy tools to improve their ability to achieve and to learn how to learn well.

Solution: Oddly enough this problem is closely related to the Social Networking issues. The tools for ongoing learning and working with free online tools that address specific content are ways that student learning can be addressed. Google Docs and writing is a very good example.

3. As school funding decreases in Michigan, Technology Directors, Library Media Specialists, and technicians are being layed off. The result is the huge investment previously laid in educational uses of technology is being wasted. Solution: Regional centers have to become more assertive in working with districts to expand their professional development opportunities and share resources to maintain equipment. At the center in which I work - some districts are included in our recycling of technology process.

[Drew Murphy]

I teach in a secondary school and I deliver my program through a community web system. I've been working with kids and staffs for some time regarding the integration of technology and from my perspective, we are still looking for technology solutions that make the efforts of integration worthwhile. I do believe the issues that Mike stated in the previous post are relevant, however, there's a more fundamental issue that, I think, needs to be addressed and that is why should teachers change their current practices and go to all the efforts of integrating technology.

Right now most of the technologies are still rather abstract and require a lot of extra time and effort to integrate effectively. I'm still finding only the most inspired tech savy educators are willing to employ the tools and mine their value. Things are slowly improving but we still haven't communicated well enough with the designers and programmers as to what our needs are as teachers in the trenches, managing classrooms, planning lessons, assessing student work, etc.... Blogs, wikis and other web 2.0 tools are useful but they aren't the solutions that are going to offer real change in the long run. In my mind, a major issue is the lack of tech solutions that help teachers get their jobs done faster, easier, and more effectively than before. That's when technology will catch fire with a critical mass of teachers and induce them to integrate and mine its deeper values.

[Michelle Davis]

Both Mike and Drew mentioned Web 2.0 tools and how to use them constructively in the classroom. How can district IT folks help that process along?

[Dave Solon]

I am an Instructional Technology Coordinator, also for a regional service agency working with 22 public school districts along with some privates as well. Some things I'll be dealing with are:

1. Much like Mike's #1: Utilizing web tools for collaboration in and amongst our local districts - The web filtering of blogs, wikis, Google Docs and other useful Web 2.0 sites seems to be the main hindrance in both classroom and inter-district collaboration. Some districts block everything, others pick and choose, while others understand that these are powerful learning tools for today's students and teachers. It is challenge enough just to introduce these tools to teachers -- but combine that challenge with the 'filter de jour' across multiple districts and it is close to impossible to get districts working together to advance learning for our kids.

Possible Solution: chat with district tech directors to get a concrete list of 'allowed Web 2.0 technologies' so we can start to collaborate on both the county and global stages.

2. Lack of Bandwidth in schools - to this day some of our school buildings still have inconsistent and slow wireless connectivity to the internet. I'm not talking about wireless laptops, I'm talking the school building relies on wireless antennae for whole building connectivity (if the wind blows too hard, the internet is down!) It is hard to introduce bandwidth-intensive learning tools when the information flow is like a kinked garden hose.

Possible Solution: we are writing a grant to try to obtain funding for high speed fiber connectivity to all buildings.

3. Changing the culture of teachers' acceptance of technology integration in the classroom - I think in previous years many have made the mistake (myself included) of trying to introduce tech in the classroom for 'technology's sake.' I believe this approach has turned off many a teacher from even considering the idea of introducing tech to their classrooms. We must strive to choose only those tech tools that will make a direct impact on the learning process and forget about "technology for technology's sake."

Solution: Simply work harder when analyzing teacher and student needs for classroom technology integration. If paper and pencil work, then forget the Smart board - unless that specific teacher will truly utilize the Smart board to bring an added dimension to learning not available through pencil and paper. You'd think this would be a 'given' when it comes to good Instructional Technology implementation - but I think we need to refocus on using fewer tech tools for greater learning gains.

[Rita C. Longo]

Dave,
I have to comment on item #3 - previously, as a Tech Director in a small school district, I made the mistake of pressing for "Technology for technolgy's sake". But over the years that followed, I was able to see how integration of (I hate using the word "technology" because it is so all-encompassing) "digital tools" can be much more successful. My thinking is much like yours - find the things that teachers will use, things that engage the teachers and students, and help them to succeed! Rita

[Ted Chambers]

I am a middle school teacher in historic Charlestown, MA (which is part of the the Boston Public Schools), and I have a very heavy emphasis on technology in my classroom. I have been teaching either middle school science or social studies for nearly 12 years. And just to prove my bonafides as a technophile, I am writing this post at 7:00 in the evening, on a Friday which happens to be the first day of summer. A beautiful summer evening it is. I should be somewhere else, enjoying myself and instead I am at home standing in front of computer channeling my inner-nerd.

At any rate, a few problems (not sure I'll shoot for 10 at the moment) that I can see regarding technology and education.

1. In all of the discussions about standards and improving instruction within the classrooms, there is absolutely no mention by policy makers or education officials about using technology and the internet as a tool for helping support teachers in underperforming and/or isolated/underfunded schools. I am talking about creating the highest quality, most engaging lessons possible - lessons that are aligned to standards and weave ICT, multi-media and best practices together.

Actually, I shouldn't say there is 'no discussion' about this. In my years of researching this topic, I finally came across Scott McLeod at Iowa State who has written about a similar idea on his blog "Dangerously Irrelevant". Funny to see that Dr. McLeod is also a member of this forum. I hope that other members check out his blog (www.dangerouslyirrelevant.org), particularly the letter that he wrote to US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings regarding his idea about creating a series of virtual, interactive textbooks. Excellent stuff.

Whether we use standards based lessons, or virtual textbooks akin to those described by Dr. McLeod, my point is that every teacher in every classroom should be able to access the highest quality, most engaging lessons EVERY SINGLE DAY. And they should not be left alone to create and author these materials themselves. Which leads me to the next problem.

2. The culture of public schools regarding technology has to change. Absolutely, positively - no two ways about it. When it comes to authoring lessons, teachers need to stop acting like 19th century cobblers sewing shoes together at home...........with handtools...........by themselves....................by candlelight to boot.

I like to use jukeboxes as an example of this. When we were younger, jukeboxes played a limited amount of info that came in different formats that were held exclusively within the box. Not any more. Today's jukeboxes don't contain records, or CD's. Instead, at the push of a button the box searches for your favorite song (among tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of songs) and then downloads it.

When it comes to music, we can get any work from any world-class artist the world over. But when it comes to lessons we are left with the garbage from traditional textbooks, or our own devices and resources.

Excellent teaching can not be guaranteed with 'the push of a button', but the path toward it can certainly start there. There needs to be a database of really, really amazing lessons for every single standard. Lessons, created by experts (teachers, multi-media and graphic designers, computer programmers) that teachers can download at the push of a button and modify as needed. Not just teachers in wealthy, suburban districts - but teachers in poor urban and rural districts as well.

The fact that there is a national movement toward standards, and yet no corresponding effort of this type to support standards based teaching is just completely, and utterly unconsciounable. Especially in light of the fact that the technology exists to make it happen. The only thing lacking is the vision and funding. Unfortunately, when it comes to increasing student achievement, policy makers and officials seem stuck in the 20th century 'solutions' that preceeded the ICT explosion of the last 10 years (ie. charters or pilots? longer day or status quo? unions or non-union? more of the say curriculum delivered this way or more of the same curriculum delivered that way?).

How about this: revolutionize classroom instruction by ensuring that classroom teachers will be able to download best practices based lessons that are guaranteed to rock their students every day!

3. We need lesson planning software that is more than just a traditional gradebook in electronic form. We need software that teaches teachers how to create best-practices based lessons (with thinking objectives, language objectives, a launch at the beginning, an engaging presentation and activity in the middle, and a creative processing activity at the end). There is similar software for other industries/jobs (ie. screen writing software comes to mind). And yet, as far as I can tell all of the available lesson planning software is little more than calendar and scheduling in nearly the same format as the traditional 'plan book' that every teacher still gets on the opening day of school.

Whew, I think that is probably enough for now. I've enjoyed reading everyone else's posts so far and I will comment later.

[PJ Gildernew]

As a classroom teacher I find the major problems implementing technology in the classroom are lack of training for teachers on not only how to use their new technology but how to integrate it into the curriculum to make them better teachers and make the curriculum more interesting and current for the students.
Secondly, I find our district tech dept controls the flow of technology to such a degree that if they can't control it or lock it down we can't use it. I understand legalities in the new world order especially when it comes to digital content and tools. But if we are true educators and we are in academia for the students then we as a whole must find solutions that will allow the professional in the class some autonomy and control. We must also find ways to integrate the students into the decision making when it comes to technology as it is their world and it is tools they will need to be able to use and access to be successful in any endeavor!
Last, as a whole our district wastes the majority of its funds and resources on technology that never makes to the class on time and when it does it is outdated in four years or so. We have one full time tech on our campus and have 500+ computers and that is not counting other pieces of equipment such as printers, smart boards and the like! I know of 10 monitors that were received 3 years ago and still have not been delivered to the classroom. I recently submitted a request to replace a set of 25 laptops for the special ed department and it took the purchasing department over a year to order. When they came in, in April, they sat in the storage area and are still there today because I was told that some type of software needed to be installed on them and district techs were the only ones allowed to do the install and that wouldn't take place until summer. So now the laptops will be 6 mos old before they get their first use. Can anyone say WASTE??!?? (as a taxpayer I will NEVER approve an educational bond issue due to senseless waste such as this) Other than that its all good. :-) PJ

[Troy Patterson]

There are many issues that education currently faces in terms of technology.
1. Technology moves faster than schools. Let’s face it, schools move slowly. The adaption of new ideas takes a long time. This has to do with a variety of things. One is the issue of budgeting. Dollars are budgeted on a yearly basis. This makes it difficult to have technology be introduced, figure out how it works, and verify that it is effective. Another issue is the idea of making sure that the technology works “as advertised”. This is a process that does indeed take time. Technology companies will “sell the sauce” of how wonderful things work. It’s only have some time and effort that we can figure out how things really do work. 


2. The rarity of educators who understand technology and can make decisions. This one is absolutely huge. There are many people who understand education. There are many people who understand technology. There just aren’t that many people who understand both. This is much more pervasive than most people think. Even much of the software that is developed doesn’t work the way that educators need it to work. Since the people who are running the networks rarely understand education, they tend to keep strict control of the technology. They like to stick with what they know.


3. The establishment of excellent models. Sorry, but there just aren’t that many examples of excellent uses of technology that I’ve seen. Some of the things that are touted as excellent aren’t. We need to establish a wide range of excellent ways to reach students. These need to be differentiated for teachers as well. The lesson plans should include technology and non-technology methodologies.


4. Reality vs Theoretical - The theory of kids using technology is very different than the reality. It is easy to talk about what we want kids to do with technology. It’s a different thing altogether as to what they will actually do. There is not a strong culture of technology use by students in school right now. This leads to....


5. Education would need a major shift in the educational paradigm. This is unlikely given the current legislative position in the United States. It’s also unlikely until training takes place for the educators.


6. The availability of technology. In many cases, we are missing that last link- the technology in front of kids. Kids have a access to a variety of technology pieces at home (at least a good number of them do), but we don’t have the kind of technology (computers, handhelds, etc) in place in the numbers needed. Quite frankly, that is a huge expense that we are not currently funded in a way that we could even come close to accomplishing yet. The average usable lifespan of a laptop is supposed to be about three years - desktops are five. Then there is the care and feeding of the technology. I’d love to say that all kids will respect the technology and treat it well, but things happen. We also have situations where some kids have access to the latest and greatest, while other have nothing in their homes. Still others have computers that are hand me downs of hand me downs. 


7. Training for teachers. The vast majority of our teachers are digital immigrants not digital natives. Teachers, in general, are very comfortable how they were taught. In the end, that is the fall back position for teachers. Plus, much of the technology that we have implemented in schools doesn’t work flawlessly. The first time a teacher works up that great lesson that has students using computers and the network is down, or the computers aren’t finding the wireless access point, is probably going to be the bell weather event that makes one teacher decide that “technology” isn’t for me. Teachers need to be involved and using technology. How much do we actually require of our teachers in terms of technology use? The number of teachers who still struggle to use email is phenomenal.


8. Professional development- It should go without saying that professional development is a big part of implementing technology. However, professional development is important in many areas, not just technology. Where do we find the time? How about the expertise? 


9. NCLB- The fact of the matter is this. We are evaluated on how well student do on a multiple choice test in language arts and math. Yes, it is more complex. But that is the bottom line.


10. Technology and why it is developed. Technology isn’t generally developed with education in mind. Rather, generally technology is developed to make money. As noted early, education doesn’t spend as much on technology as some other areas. (Education does spend quite a bit of money though). Technology is also still in its infancy in many ways. Technology doesn’t always work the it is sold. The technology companies will tell us that things will do x,y and z. In reality, it rarely works that way.

[Rita C. Longo]

You have many excellent points, Troy!

[Lisa Schell]

Everyone has made excellent points. I tend to believe that the last post hit most of the points that I would have made, so I'll add only a few side notes.

The training that teachers are getting is not the training they need to introduce technology into their lessons. We are very fortunate to have recieved a large grant that brought IWB's into all the core course classrooms, along with teacher laptops and 14 carts of computers to be shared--we will get another 10 carts this year. With this grant we are required to take courses about the need to introduce technology and how students see technology differently than we do (ie digital nataives vs digital immigrants) this is all fine, but this is not the training that is needed--most people understand these differences already. The need is to have the actual technology applications demonstrated and to have time provided to share the things that are developed and so that others can contribute to making them even better.

I agree that we need to let the programmers know what we need. The one thing that is not mentioned frequently and perhaps that is because I as a math teacher it is a big focus for me and that is the need for software that types mathematical equations. I'm not talking about just subscripts and superscripts. We need a good equation editor that interacts nicely with many applications and has to be available in/for all types of software. The only software that has a really good equation editor that I or colleagues have found is in MSWord/Powerpoint. The problem is that even if you try a cut and paste into something like MOODLE it isn't a simple cut and paste. If technology is going to be integrated more in the upper level math classrooms, this is a tool that we need. I'm sure other areas run in to similar issues but we need to put them out there as perhaps someone has located something that solves the problem.

Thank you for creating this forum so that we can share and hopefully help provide solutions.

[Dr. Bill McIlwee]

As a science teacher for 17 years, I agree with the comments and postings. I offer a few thoughts and comments, some of which do not necessarily reflect my district or building but those teachers with whom I network. I will keep my posting brief, please contact me for more details and insights.
1. IT departments make IT decisions. This does not reflect the mission of schools – to educate. Educators, chiefly classroom teachers, need to make education decisions and IT departments in schools in schools need to support education and not IT programs.
2. Professional development tends to center around district-level applications. What professional develop that is offered tends to be a one size fits all approach. Little time and resources are spent on grade/content applications directly related to student instruction. Differentiation and acceleration, hallmarks of today’s classrooms, is seldom in the curriculum of IT professional development.
3. Web 2.0 is a vital resource for instruction. District-level decisions tend to govern its use and access in the classroom. A better model would be to allow teachers to have the responsibility to monitor and adjust access and applications in their classrooms.

[Rita C. Longo]

I think there are numerous disconnects in "technology in education" - first calling it technology in education has already "aged" out. Because technology has taken so many routes away from strictly having computers in classrooms. "Project Lead the Way" has it's own initiative to engage students in CAD and mechanical/electrical topics; Science is moving forward with Microscopes, Probes, and many other peripheral devices for curriculum; Web 2.0 is a better track for Internet access and communication. Digital tools are in vogue, including podcasting, videocasting, movie-making, pictural stories, digital journaling, music making, playwriting, blogs, wikis and on. We have many teachers (K-8), in my current school district, integrating the items above into their curriculum. It takes planning, sometimes a little assistance and technical guidance, and away they go. We have 1st through 5th graders creating slideshows of topics they have researched, story-boarded, and created by the students. Then they add animation, sound (including their own podcasting), and other links.

The challenges are many. Some of the obstacles are lack of small equipment (cameras, handhelds, microphones, headsets) - but many obstacles are our attitudes toward change. I look to try to evoke enthusiasm with hints of things that teachers and students can do, with what we have.

Some of my frustration comes from seeing computers and labs not fully utilized, and idle at any time. But again, the larger equipment I see as peripheral tools. The integration comes from the content in the curriculum, and/or in project-based content - it comes from the "people"..

Great forum! Good input by everyone.