New teachers… Seasoned Veterans… Educators talk a lot about the importance of knowing what you want to do with the technology before implementing it. I have said it!.. Decide what you want students to do and then find the technology to do the job well. Technology is a tool and we need to use the right tool for the right job… Right? Does this philosophy hold us back at all though?
As a result of the work that I have been doing through the IEAR.org community and as a District Technology Faciliator, I continue to think that this philosophy holds education back in many ways. While I remain convinced that we need to define what we want our students to do, we also need to continue to appreciate that we understand how to use technology better when we just use it as well!
Over the years, I have had numerous interactions with educators in which the person has an excuse/reason for not doing something with technology because they already do something without it or with a different form of technology. Too often we have predetermined ideas on what will work well and we prevent ourselves from “change” or “improvement”. I once had a librarian tell me that she would never purchase any “e-book” capable devices or books in her library because she loved holding a book in her hand. She couldn’t imagine people not having that feeling. Isn’t it interesting to note that Amazon is now selling more digital books than it is wood, paper and pulp books! While school teachers and staff interact and does more workflow over custom apps like EdQuants to reduce paperwork and be able to organize more info in less time. Sometimes we just need to try something different and explore what is being offered! Continue reading