Being Wise about Technology for Teachers

In a recent post by one of my favorite ed bloggers The Tempered Radical - Bill Ferriter,  I found a gem of true wisdom:

"There’s nothing magical about any tech tool.  real magic rests in the minds and hearts of teachers using digital tools to introduce students to new individuals, ideas and opportunities."

This expresses a reality that many districts, as Bill points out, fail to acknowledge.  They continue to pour money into technological gadgets, without paying much attention to the way in which the technology will change the classroom.  Another relevant quote on this topic comes from a mentor-friend of Bill's, Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, a 20-year educator who has been a classroom teacher, technology coach, charter school principal, district administrator, university instructor and digital learning consultant.  She aptly summarizes the issue for teachers, "Learning how to use technology is much different than knowing what to do with it for instructional purposes."

This brings me to my thoughts on our exposure to technology over this quarter.  Much of it has been frustrating, I think in part because we have not been able to see how it would work in an actual classroom context.  We've been asked to get to know a myriad of programs and techie sites without a deep understanding of how this would change our work in the classroom.  We have learned how to utilize technology-- without much emphasis on knowing what to do with it for instructional purposes. 

In looking at it from a "hindsight is always 20-20" perspective, it seems that more time could have been invested on helping us learn a few tools that would actually be applicable in our Spring internship.  As with most learners, once we saw the inherent value of the technological tools, and their purpose within our classroom, our engagement would likely increase, and our desire to learn more would grow as well.  Being inundated with numerous new technologies that often did not work in the way we expected was, needless to say, less than inspiring. 

If this is the case with eager and aspiring teachers in training, how much more so for professional educators, who are balancing an overwhelming number of demands upon their time.  If you just throw more technology at them, the real practice of integating the technology into their teaching will never occur.