In this country, as well as our overly-large school district, we spend a huge amount of money on instructional technologies each year.
Miguel suggests we might want to consider taking a two-year moratorium on ed tech spending.
His rational for this radical move (at least radical for a dedicated techie :-) is pretty good.
WAIT! Does this even work? Should we be spending precious education funds on technology that will NOT be used due to the current policies in place? Let’s stop now. Let’s not waste the money. Let’s just NOT spend money on technology for 2 years. Let’s take a breather and consider how we’re really going to do this in the current high stakes testing environment. Spend the money in supporting teaching and leading shown to work without technology.
He makes a compelling argument.
We talk a good game about integrating technology into the classroom. But the reality, at least in our system, is that the technology for most teachers is still an add-on after years of spending and working.
It’s something grafted on to the traditional curriculum and teaching methods. For many students, the computer is still being used as a reward, an extra, something to be used when the time and/or equipment becomes available.
Some might say that the reason for this is a lack of equipment and that we need to spend even more money.
For me, that would be pouring even more resources into ed tech that most teachers are not prepared to use.
Not to mention putting even more resources into an educational system unwilling to make the huge changes necessary to truly make technology an integral part of teaching and learning.
Maybe we do need to take a break.