Should tech training be required for all current teachers?

Hostile, Karen! Your robot activity might be the tin can and string of someone else.

A math teacher said, "I absolutely agree with a previous poster that technology is a tool for education, not the goal." Technology is anything man-made, from a pencil to a Smartboard. The goal should be to use technology to help students practice problem-solving and inventing using math and literacy as tools.

Perhaps if the "TE" in STEM were "tested" we might have more innovation, computer scientists and engineers. That test could be to program a robot to spell a word as one example, something my K-5 students have been working on. Until the focus in the classroom and accountability is hands-on projects created from the learners' mind, the debate will continue. A major point in the State of the Union Address was about the need for researchers and scientists. Math and science focus does not seem to be producing what we need. Maybe it is time to change the focus to CSE.

I absolutely agree with a previous poster that technology is a tool for education, not the goal.

Identifying my desired outcome determines my choice in tools. For example, when I am working with my students in comparing and ordering number forms & different number representations, there are some days when I hand out an iTouch to each student and each student works independently, and there are other days when I hand out stacks of laminated cards and they work in pairs or small groups.

Usually the biggest obstacle to me in using high-tech is access -- can I get the iTouch cart?, can I get the computer cart?, is the wireless internet working for online laptop work?, etc.

Finally, and getting to the poll question about requiring tech training for teachers, it is my observation that using the high-tech materials requires a certain skill set from teachers. I may not always ~want to go or have time to go to required trainings, but I usually find that it has been a valuable experience once I have gone.

[quote]We cannot teach students more than we know.

I'm not sure what this means and I hope I have misunderstood the intention of the statement.

I think that a truer statement is that teachers shouldn't allow their own lack of content knowledge get in the way of students pursuing learning through whatever means they can. Teachers must become comfortable with the facilitator or instructional coach role that allows students to move forward. Teachers can then apply their skill in creating instructional opportunity and meaningful standards-based assessment that results in student growth. Identify and incorporate the technology tools that students are using, connect them to standards and the curriculum, give appropriate, rich feedback and don't stand in the way.

Students do already know the technology. Tech training for teachers will help a little bit, but unless we use the technology as much as our students do we will always be playing catch up.

Instead, we need to train teachers to teach to higher order thinking skills.

Plus, we need to use what students know to teach them what they need to know.

Technology is just one tool in a whole toolbox that teachers need to use in order to teach effectively. Training teachers to teach well and to teach higher order thinking skills will result in the teachers seeking out the best tools for the job. Sometimes that will be tech, and in those instances, the well-trained teacher will also seek help with the technology tools...even if that help comes from a student who happens to know more about the equipment.

In short, the technology is not the goal; education is. Use the best tool for the job - tech or otherwise.

Teachers must, at the very least, be able to keep pace with their students. That being so, it is imperative that all teachers be tech-proficient. It doesn't matter whether they take a test to prove proficiency or complete a technology course to do so. The bottom line here is that any teacher worth her/his salt should be ...must be... willing to do at least this much. Times are changing; teachers must keep up.

OK, really a computer lab teacher, but I like to think of myself as moving up a step. I think that the technology training needs to go up a level. All teachers should be Internet of Office software proficient by now. To add rigor and relevance I think all teachers should be introduced to computer science concepts, the backbone of digital computing. With so much free software from Scratch, WeScheme, Kudo, Alice and lots of others, teachers need to learn the basics if programming. All teachers should learn a little about HTML as that code can be used on blogsites. Even this site, has the "Allowed HTML" button.

Bir çok ülkede teknoloji ile daha yeni tanışıyor.Türkiye'de bunlardan biri .Ancak kendi imkanlarımızla birazcık vermeye çalışıyoruz .Ama yeterli olmadığını düşünüyorum.Sizce teknolojisiz bir hayat sınıfta ders işlenir mi? Nasıl ? Teşekkürler.

For real? This is something that should be debated?

Read this: http://technologyinclass.com/blog/2010/10/11/the-teachers-that-discourag...

Tech training should be required if a teacher has not had much. But it needs to be done gently because many older teachers are afraid of technology. I know an assistant principal who hates email. Rather than large classes, I think it should be done one on one with a more experienced teacher teaching a less experienced one (technologically) what she needs to know. I called my system's assistive tech dept. frequently, but not for assistive tech. I needed to know how to do a Powerpoint.

It also needs to be differentiated with special educators learning more about assistive tech and regulars getting an overview of the same but more intensive training in subject oriented tech they would use. Special ed. should be able to opt in to those courses or get an overview to see what applies to them.

For things like Microsoft office and special equipment like Skype, Smartboards and the more advanced equipment, everyone should take it, but in small groups with a lot of support unless they can demonstrate proficiency before they take the course. Large group classes are frustrating and it is impossible for the less technological to keep up. Getting frustrated makes a teacher feel incompetent and unwilling to use technology. It is like when a math teacher goes on to a new concept before the child has learned the previous one but she says you can "learn it later" or "finish it at home" (where, of course you won't learn it because you don't understand it).