By Miguel Guhlin, CIO Advisor
In January, a retired colleague shared this intriguing point:
Years have gone by, and still ... integrating technology into the curriculum has not happened. I know why and so do you.
I asked, "Why hasn't it?"
She replied:
1998: District-wide one computer in science classrooms with Internet connection. One person [me] to meet with all teachers (that did not want to meet with me).
2007: Lots of stuff but the school day is still as it was when I was in school in the early 1960s, and teachers do not have the time or the teamwork to make anything happen.
2014: Still the same. District-wide but now a group of about 12 go to each campus to model for teachers and then leave, and there is no backup after that.
[My old district] has a two-week tech session for teachers and they love it and learn so much but they still must go back to the daily schedule of one conference period, and—if they are lucky—no parent meeting, no staff meeting and no time to plan with their peers.
I've been around long enough to know that what comes around just comes around with a different name and after all of those years I still see that many district administrators, principals and teachers only worry about testing.
Is there an app for putting things off? It's so frustrating to plan (and for districts to spend the money on so much stuff.)
One other thing. Most do not see the integration of technology into the school day as a seamless tool; they see it as a separate "another thing I have to do."
How would you respond to these points? Are you "settling for nothing?"
Image Source: Keep Calm and Do Nothing
Miguel Guhlin is director of technology for a 5A school district in Texas and past president of the statewide TCEA Technology Education Coordinators group. This blog is cross posted at Around the Corner.
