“Transforming a school culture based on significant shifts in pedagogy requires opportunities to learn how to effectively integrate technology” (Sheninger, Eric, 2019). According to the 2015 State of Education Technology survey, the top two challenges teachers face in providing access of education technology were budget and inadequate professional training. In my experience, one of the biggest concerns of technology in education is the lack of professional development.
An example of when professional development was needed was when I first began teaching, some teachers were given a Promethean board in their room. Everyone was so excited of course because it was something new and we were excited to integrate it into our classrooms. First year teaching is already overwhelming but then adding new technology I’ve never heard of and wasn’t taught about in my educational program was extra stress. I was expecting to have a staff meeting with someone who is an expert to teach me how to use the Promethean board but instead I was left to figure out how to use the Promethean board on my own. Thank goodness there were other teachers who had the boards in their room for a while and I was able to ask them to teach me the basics. It was unfortunate that the teachers who had the Promethean Board in their rooms for a while were also not trained.
I think that myself and the other teachers were at a disadvantage because of not being properly trained on how to use the interactive Promethean board. The lack of training forced us to have to take extra time to figure out the ins and outs of the board on our own. To this day I still haven’t been trained on using the Promethean board and I feel like my students don’t get to experience the full use of it.
As teachers we have tons of different professional developments about important topics, but we also have professional developments about useless topics. I think that technology professional developments take the backseat often and if we want to integrate technology and stay updated on engaging programs for our students it is very important that we change that mindset. “Professional development has to be relevant to teachers, contain numerous choices, and be hands-on. More often than not, this can be done with teacher leaders present in all buildings” (Sheninger, Eric 2019). What I took from this quote is that if a professional development wasn’t available for learning how to use the Promethean board then having a teacher who maybe is experienced using the technology could be a leader and hold a training.
“If successful change is the goal, then investments have to be made into job-embedded, ongoing professional learning before, during, and consistently after any technology rollout or implementation of large-scale initiatives” (Sheninger, Eric 2019). In order to be effective as a classroom teacher and school we need to take all the steps to ensure when we bring in a new technology that we do it the right way so we can use it effectively. The consequences of not doing all the necessary implementation steps with technology would be that we would not be using the technology to its full potential. The reward would be that students would be engaged, and it could possibly raise student achievement. So, without the proper training the vision will not be achieved.
References
https://thejournal.com/articles/2013/06/04/6-technology-challenges-facing-education.aspx
Sheninger, Eric C. Digital Leadership: Changing Paradigms for Changing Times
Garland, Virginia E.; Chester Tadeja. Educational Leadership and Technology: Preparing School Administrators for a Digital Age.