Day 7: Maybe I’m Just a Fish Vendor

I’ve been thinking a lot about professional development for teachers, particularly in the area of instructional technology. I’ve been involved in teaching teachers for more than 15 years, and I am one of an army in this area. I’d love to see a total of all of the money and time spent on these efforts in just our diocese, though this would possibly depress me.

The results, well, I can’t say that nothing has happened. Almost all teachers are able to use a computer, do word processing, use the grading software, and make PowerPoint presentations. However, as I look at the world of education, it seems that most are working at least a generation behind. PowerPoints are used as overheads; Smartboards are used to show PowerPoints, and students are being taught to make PowerPoints to accompany oral reports.  It’s a PowerPoint world, and we just live in it.

However, true transformation of thinking and practice in the classroom and out doesn’t seem to be happening.  Some of this can be attributed to a lack of equipment, but most of it is about mindset.  Technology is still in a box, a set of tricks, rather than a way of navigating the world.  

I think my frustration is more fundamental.  I just don’t know how you teach someone to operate in a technology rich environment.  I can teach skills and show people new programs, but I can’t often make them self sufficient or able to grow independently.  I can give fish (or sell fish), but I can’t seem to get them to fish on their own.  

Partially I think has to do with the complexity of this changing environment.  If someone were to ask “Teach me to be like you,” (no one does) I would have to say, I can’t.  The way I relate to technology is based on daily immersion in reading articles, listening to podcasts, and using every new tool (both hardware and applications) that I can get me hands on, and I have been doing this more or less for 15 years.  I’m not saying this in self-satisfaction, rather this is a source of frustration.  How do I replicate this experience in an inservice session or a talk or a blogpost?

Expectations exacerbate the problem.  Many teachers seem to believe that technology is a skill that can be learned through limited training, like riding a bicycle.  In reality it is much more like learning a musical instrument, taking extensive practice for competency and always with new level to master.

I think the real message is not one that will be popular, because ultimately the message is that it is up to the individual.  There is no workshop, video, or demonstration that will change the way a person relates to the world.  Unless you fish, you will never learn how to fish.

if you see a tech Buddha on the side of the road…kill him.