Epiphany!

In reading this week's assigned reading, I think I finally got it!

The purpose of this Ed Tech class is not only to teach us the technology that is out there, but to teach us how to teach with it: what works and what doesn't work based on the affordances of that technology and based on what we going to teach.   The Alternative Certification program assumes I know my content and strives to teach me pedagogy to transform that knowledge in to teaching.  This class is designed to take those two together and add technology and help us be more efficient in our teaching.

This goes beyond traditional tech training and really embraces what we should be doing with teachers in schools.  We spend so many hours going to tech workshops, sending teachers to learn about Windows 8 or the latest I-pad apps, but not how to use that tech to teach or how it relates to their content.

This year, our district spent a day of tech training by providing one hour workshops and allowing teachers to pick what they wanted to learn.  In theory, this allowed teachers to train on specific items they felt they needed training in and allowed them to pick topics that apply specifically to their content. As the devil's advocate, I might say this was not enough training to really help teachers and I would venture to guess some teacher's don't know what they should be trained in for their content.  While it is better than forcing the entire staff to sit through grade book training, there still needs to be improvement. 

The technology gap between teachers poses a real problem to technology training.  Some of our teachers are very tech savvy and need only be pointed in the direction of new tech to grasp its content and its pedagogical uses.  Others need help turning on their computer or basic troubleshooting skills.  What is the solution?  I don't know.  Maybe I will figure it out.