First of all, teachers rely on us to help them understand how they need to be using technology in their classrooms, not only to engage students, but to prepare them for the future as well. We have to know all the new tools that come out and are offered so that students will learn these. Teachers are the ones who supply students with the knowledge they need to have in order to compete with others from around the world. It's a technology integrator's job to make sure that teachers are armed with knowledge to make them more confident and prepared to teach students what they need. Wolfram's talk kind of ties into this by explaining that we spend too much time on teaching the tedious things. If teachers know what kinds of technology to use in order to help students gain a deeper understanding of content, then we can spend less time worrying about things that take up more time than they should. Technology can do that computing that takes years to teach so that we can go further than the surface with our students. Teaching and education could drastically change if we were to allow this to take affect.
Something else that technology offers to students is all the different mediums in which a person can create or complete a project. I remember thinking many times in school that I would love to create a short video or something using my computer, but I had no idea how to do that. Today it's so easy for students to pull up a free app that will help them create some really neat and memorable projects that they can be proud of. The thing that gets me is how many there will be in 5 or even 10 years down the road. There is no telling how many more cool things will be invented to help students complete projects or understand content. It's important for technology integrator's to know what is out there so that students of all different abilities have their needs met. Teachers may have a gifted or special needs student in their class, but not know about any resources to help that student out and a technology integrator could make things much easier by showing them how to find that resource and how to use it effectively.
One idea that I thought of recently is how technology integrator's can actually help build relationships between teachers by connecting them. The response time is quicker which leads to greater productivity and connections with others that might have never happened. Along with this tech integrator's could help teachers understand why technology is important and should have a role in their classrooms. Technology integrator's can help teachers find new tools for old lessons and with a network of teachers making connections they could eventually help each other out. The spreadsheet activity we did is a great example of how teachers can help out their students and each other by organizing their data so that students who need help get it.
The last thing that I have taken away from this course is the role that technology integrator's play in making sure that others can make informed decisions about technology. This could include administrators looking to add more types of technology into the school, or getting rid of a brick and mortar library, or even helping parents determine if virtual schooling is the best option for their child. I think that we have a responsibility to others to make sure that they make good decisions based on what we know about technology. This is, to me, one of the most important reasons that we need to be constantly updating and perfecting our craft. We are depended upon to make decisions for the future of our students. That's pretty important if you ask me.
Great post Julie! I agree that we need to remember that some teachers may be depending on us and the administration as well. I also like your point about technology offering different ways for students to learn and show what they learned. It has really helped with differentiation of instruction, as a special needs teacher myself, I think it's wonderful that there are so many products out there that help them to level the playing field so the struggling students can participate alongside their peers. I read a blog post recently about how a teacher uses QR codes to differentiate instruction. Have a great break!
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