Last week the tech trainer in one of our schools was told by her AP that all the classroom computers would be put in storage next year while the building was being renovated.
In a district as big as ours, there are always some buildings undergoing renovation and schools do a good job of moving instructional spaces around the construction.
As far as technology is concerned, our IT department is pretty good at extending network connections into the “learning cottages” which serve as temporary classrooms.
Of course, there are always problems with some equipment damaged or stolen during major upheaval like that. But it’s usually far less than you might expect.
However, in this case, the decision of this AP didn’t disturb me as much as his justification.
In effect, he said that it didn’t matter whether students had access to computers since nothing in the curriculum makes their use mandatory.
How do you argue with that? He’s right.
Look through all of the materials distributed by our curriculum specialists and, other than a few middle and high school classes, there is no mention of technology being a necessary tool for teaching anything.
We don’t need a connection to the web for learning and students are not required – or even encouraged – to present their ideas to an audience outside the four walls of their classroom.
There are certainly some teachers in our system who make excellent use of the technology they have available every day. For them, losing their computers for a week would be difficult.
However, except for administrators expecting teachers to use email, most classrooms would function just fine if all computers were locked away.
How do you argue with that?
Sounds like the curriculum needs some major revision. In another week, I’m taking our teachers (k-12) on a web 2.0 ride, through social networking, web 2.0 collaborative tools, and they’re going to produce something that has few words, but a lot of pictures in it.
Changing school is an ugly business, but I imagine those teachers you mention should fight for their access.
The curriculum may not demand it, but taxpayers should.
I’m torn, but I think there are two questions/points here:
You can teach without technology. You don’t need pencils or computers to teach. In that way, it’s not a big deal.
Most administrative processes, however, can be highly optimized on computers, and I’d presume that many teachers take advantage of that. I trust that the teachers will make the classes work, because that’s what teachers do. The problem is that, without technology, the redundant administrative tasks will take up a lot more time.
After reading some of our recent survey results, I can’t imagine taxpayers ever advocating for something that would cost money. Ideas like investing in the future and continuing to improve education seem to be completely lost on the general public. : (
They do that to libraries, don’t they…
Getting schools and school systems to realize the importance of technology to instruction is an uphill battle. I DO see change happening, but there are way many more dinosaurs out there (like this AP) than innovators.
BTW – Love your blog!