Sunday, July 25, 2010

Research Dispels Common Ed-Tech Myths

This is an interesting piece of research that suggests new teachers are no more likely to use technology than are veteran teachers even though they may use it more in their personal lives. Is this because we teach as we were taught and school has traditionally been a place where one is required to "power down"?

1 comment:

  1. I just found another resource that you might find interesting. Check out www.planbooks.eduI think are multiple reasons why all teachers, new and old, are reluctant to use much technology in the classroom. One is that there are major physical barriers to use. 20 COWS when I have 35 kids in a classroom creates challenges, for example. Another is that many of the applications for which teachers receive training are primarily for industry use and do not have immediate, easily accessible, and intuitive educational use. An example of this is sharepoint. The third is that there is a dearth of education in the university programs on what technology is out there (and it changes often) and how to use this technology well in the classroom. It simply isn't taught well. We also don't learn how to deal well with parents either - but we are forced to learn that in our first few years of teaching. Sink or swim!This is where web 2.0 tools are filling a gap. They are intuitive, often very specific in task, and there are beginning to be many that are purely educational in task. I think we will see some changes as these sorts of tools become more frequent and are developed further.

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