I am currently working on my Educational Technology endorsement. The past couple weeks we have spent time reviewing our district and state technology plans for education.
As we have done this we have been challenged with coming up with how to use what money we have effectively, but also how to use the technology effectively.
A general take-away I have had from these discussions is this: Educators who have stayed current with technology are loving it, using it, and begging for more. Educators who have ignored technology are letting it gather dust in their cupboard and hindering their students. The problem becomes how to get those educators on board and make better use of the technology we already have in our schools.
The idea I most liked was technology coaches. Similar to literacy coaches or GAINS educators, technology coaches could be assigned to multiple schools with the job of providing professional development to the faculty regarding technology. As always the problem comes down to who will pay for it? The idea is fantastic! It's a proven model! But it's expensive and to fund technology coaches long term is even more expensive.
It seems to me that the great stumbling block of education is always the money. Who is going to pay for it? I get it. It doesn't make me happy, in fact, it infuriates me, but I get it.
Maybe what I should really do is figure out how I can teach kindergarten in a sports arena and convince hundreds of thousands of people to pay ridiculous amounts of money to watch me shape the future of our nation by teaching the basic skills of reading, writing, arithmetic, and to always wash your hands after using the toilet. Who wouldn't pay to watch that? After all they pay to watch grown men throw balls at nets. I think I'm onto something...
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