Reading the articles, I was struck by how proud I am to be an online educator working for one of the best cyber charters in the state. It was almost as if each paragraph was a checklist, and I was able to say, “Yep. We do that.” “Uh huh, we have that.” “Duh. We’ve been doing that for years.” As other programs try to catch up to where we already are, I am enjoying taking a look at what research does exist and just how in alignment we are with it.
I was disillusioned to read in the Horizon Report that teacher training for digital media literacy all but does not exist in universities. What? I had to double check that the report was from 2015 and not 2000. I attended PSU from 1991 to 1995, and I remember going to the computer lab as a die-hard “fringe tech person,” waiting for the number I had to call to connect to their internet. I remember posting to online bulletin board systems (BBS) and screaming at my roommates to stop picking up the phone and disconnecting me. There was no mention of using tech (what limited tech we had) in teacher training, beyond making copies and using overhead projectors, and I thought it was a completely separate animal from teaching. It truly wasn’t until I began teaching at PA Virtual 10 years ago that things started to click. I guess I’m just pretty surprised that not much has changed since I was at Penn State.
But how could it not be clicking elsewhere/everywhere?? My daughter attends an awesome school district, super wealthy and one of the top public districts in the state. Her gifted class has a “tech lab” that is a joke. She reports that it is never used because the laptops are antiquated, are missing cords, and have bad batteries. Their connection isn’t fast, and when more than a couple of kids are online, things grind to a halt. Teachers still use the laptops/computer labs for word processing and only for cursory research, and I’m blown away by the ignorance (or fear of using) of all the effective tools provided by apps, programs, software, and hardware. How her teachers can use their smartphones in between classes, scheduling out their social lives on Facebook events and chronicling their every move in their status updates and on Instagram, yet fail to see the relevance and benefits of using Edmodo and Google classroom for students is beyond me. I think the report sums it up well, “…there is a pervasive aversion to change,” and well, this just makes me sad. If universities stepped up their games to focus on personalized, adaptive, innovative instruction for teacher preparation, more synapses would be created to bridge the worlds of personal computing and tech use to student-centered tech integration.
The Gardner and Davis article struck a chord with me in regards to packaged selves and helicopter parenting at the college level. While a positive aspect of an online identity leads to people being more accepting of differences, the idea that a 20-something has a hard time becoming autonomous due to his or her parents’ information at their fingertips makes me a bit worried. Admittedly, I am a parent who has a tracker (MamaBear app) on my daughter’s phone. At age 13, I want to be able to see where she is, if folks she’s with are obeying the speed limit, what she and others post on Instagram, etc. I trust her explicitly, but it’s others I have a hard time with. As she gets older, the idea is to limit the amount of touch I have with her so that she can grow up. I presently teach academically advanced 9th graders. They were moved from 7th grade, skipped 8th, and placed directly into our High School Scholars program. As their teachers, Jenn Burke and myself have to recognize their young ages while also handling those helicopter parents (rightfully so at this age) and need to prove the safety of and benefits of the apps/online tools we use to enhance education. Safe/meaningful use and philosophy must be communicated to parents who may not readily see the benefits of yet another tech tool, and we as the designers/implementers must carefully consider the why’s and whys not’s of various apps. As for avoiding packaged selves online and doing things like volunteering just to brag about it on Facebook and to pad a resume, teachers will need to become versed on passing along cautions and considerations, and getting kids to think critically about their decisions. More than ever, kids need guidance and perspective with using technology, if only to avoid that awful “smartphone neck” that is giving everyone jowls, double chins, and rounded spines. And how crucial is it that kids are encouraged to form true and authentic relationships with actual people, to not settle for connections through online posts as a real relationship? Vital. We are more than the limited characters in our statuses and hashtags.
In the end, I am confident we are going in the right direction with educational reform as it relates to tech and virtual learning tools. There are a multitude of innovators out there (maybe not quite like Horace Mann) who are changing the format and vehicle and location of education. It’s truly an exciting time, but like anything blazing a path forward, the right people need to be at the helm (wielding fire extinguishers just in case), ensuring as smooth a ride as possible in this fast-paced, ever changing environment. Personally, I think there has never been a better or more exciting time to be a teacher.
Inspiration and Perspiration 
I hear the word “fear” and “hesitation” repeated in a few of the blogs that I have read regarding the articles we read this week. Fear is the reason our education system is still hanging out in the 20th century. When we hesitate to do anything, even outside of education, our thoughts generally have roots in being scared of the unknown.
All educators fear the unknown. We have so many standards to cover to prepare our students for testing. We have to utilize every class period of every school day to pack as much in as we can. For a teacher to implement a new piece of technology into the classroom, many thoughts go through their head.
1. “I want to use this technology, but I can’t picture exactly how it is going to work in my class.”
2. “I don’t have time to learn how to use this. I’ll wait for someone else to use it and then show me.”
3. “The students don’t know how to use this technology. I’m going to have to use 1-2 class periods to show them how to use it.”
4. “What if I implement it and it doesn’t work?”
And then the excuses start making an appearance…
1. I have no time to do this.
2. There is no money in the budget. Admin will say no.
3. I’ve never written a grant, so I can’t get the money that way.
In Cindy’s blog, she mentioned reteaching teachers and students how to learn. We are all part of a small group of teachers that have slapped away the doubting thoughts and pushed out all of the excuses and are moving forward. Maybe we won’t see this change occur until we are counting down the years to retirement. But if WE don’t continually push forward past the excuses and haters, who will?
As I read the Horizon report, I wasn’t able to use it as a checklist like you were able to. I would be excited to visit your school to see all of the innovative techniques in action. Although my school has many structures in place for innovation, many of us are still stuck in the safe, traditional mode of teaching. Safe, however, is not what our students need. We need teachers who are taking calculated risks in the classroom to use technology in ways that enhance and lift up student learning. One of the best places to start this change in practice is in the university classroom with pre-service teachers.
Your account of using technology during college made me laugh. I was graduating Penn State during your freshman year, and I can remember the computer labs where my most innovative teacher were having us respond to discussion boards. Dial-up computing in my own apartment was not an issue. I had a word processor, which was not far off from a typewriter. I’ll be excited to see how the college education of teachers will change over the next 10 years. I just can imagine that colleges can ignore the necessity of embedded technology instruction.
I don’t know who will if not us, in response to Jenn’s post. I am hitting this REPLY button as despite the fact that I am new to blogging and being able to post on others blogs, I do not let that get in the way of FINDING a way.(actually, I just figured it out!) I think that is what we do as teachers and teachers that find ways to reach their students. We find a way to figure it out. We find a way to be heard and we find a way to use technology that has meaning.
I too was floored by some of the readings this week in that they were not old. The one I used for my response primarily was dated 2009 = ok, so a lot has changed since then. But the one that Laura was mentioning was recent!!!! My own child is in a great school district and I had the privilege of being able to go to their amazing back to school night last Thursday and meet her 4 awesome teachers (she is 5th grade). This year they have a 1:1 student:computer ratio as the all have new chrombooks assigned to them. The teachers were showing us their embedded google calendars that we could sync with and a remind app we could sign up for (in addition to the usual sapphire and blackboard connect alerts I have with the school district). AND….her HR teacher was even showing us his google classroom! And lastly, her ELA teacher and co-teacher forewarned us that if our kids come home telling us that they did their work on the floor or standing or did some wiggling or stretching in between, to not worry – that is is part of the routine. Her teacher said…..”If I cannot stand still for a 90 minute ELA block, how can I expect your children to sit still in a desk the entire time?” I verbalized – and was the first to do so in the room of parents “THANK YOU.” I nearly cried in public. Coming from a mom and passionate educator that I am and a mom of a quirky and creative kid with OT and some sensory issues, and the like, I very nearly ran up and HUGGED THE WOMAN!
For teachers to have the guts, it seems, to do things a little differently these days, it is almost like we are living on the edge??? She did – and her co-teacher also did – CITE actual research about this idea of moving around, etc. in case there were nay-sayers in the midst. But, I wonder, if we have to deal with an education community that would potentially question the value of children being able to move a bit or have the choice to work on their writing on a pillow on the floor or buddy up with a friend to bounce off ideas in the corner of the room, then what on Earth are we going to do to convince folks of the need for solid technological education practices in the classroom???? I guess I am forced to wrestle with the fact that the ones that are often making the guidelines about what to teach and HOW to teach it may not be the ones that would understand the use of technology or know how to use it themselves. I think when we have administrators in positions of power in education that have been where we are …..now…..we might very well get somewhere.
The fear and reticence involved with change – the perception that it will take a great deal of time to learn to implement – and the problem that there might be some lack of support for educators being innovative it a terrible combination for being STUCK IN A RUT! I am just blessed, I suppose, to have a cool job and while I still have to be grounded in data and use that to support what I do, I do get the chance to try things and worry about the support later sometimes!!!!!!!!! THank goodness! Cindy Willits