Technology integration and use issues

I’d like to reference a news article in this post. The article is from the March 2007 issue of the eSchool News , pg. 38. Alan November , an ed-tech consultant had some interesting remarks in his speech at the FETC 2007 conference.November says that the key to using technology in the classroom is not training teachers to use it, but to train them in how to incorporate technology creatively into lessons in stimulating and engaging ways. He also states that the assignments need to be more rigorous and demanding. He says, “Our standards are too low.”November emphasized three skills needed to turn classrooms into effective digital learning centers.The first is to teach students to deal with massive amounts of information. He says that we tend to give the student just what they need, when they need it to take the next test.The second skill requires that the classroom become a global communications center. Teach the children to work with people around the world and establish a network of people you can tap to make the student’s learning experiences more effective. November emphasizes that we spend too much time teaching teachers technical stuff and not enough on creative application of technology.The third skill is self direction. “The real change in the global economy isn’t that you get a laptop or an MP3 player, it’s that you don’t have a boss telling you what to do., November said,” The self directed person becomes more valuable. We teach children how to be taught, what we need is to teach them how to organize their own learning. We have created a culture of dependency. “November says that teachers can reach students by tapping into the technologies they already have. Teach algebra on a podcast. Use MySpace to teach social responsibility.This was an interesting article for me in that it moved away from the high tech “Gee Whiz” factor of technology, to concepts of use. This is the issue that sometimes seems to get clouded when talking about technology, whether it’s a new digital television camera to the latest educational software, first we need to state our goals and explore how we can use the technology to help us meet them.