Discussion #5 - Instructional Technology Planning

MEDT 8462 - Leading and Managing Instructional Technology Programs

Jeremy Trimmer

The resources we reviewed regarding Technology Planning go over various thoughts &
opinions regarding the factors that should be considered and/or developed to create effective
educational technology in the classroom. All of the articles and resources laid out various areas
that must be developed or examined and while each article detailed a variety of areas, a few
common themes appeared in almost every resource.

The rst reoccurring theme is the Professional Development and training of not only the
classroom teachers, but also the technology specialists, media specialists, subject area
coordinators, parapros, and administrative staff. While word processors, computers, and more
recently, devices have been used in classrooms in the past, teachers mostly use those
technologies as a substitute platform for the lesson(s) and rely on their past trainings and
experiences to teach and perform as they have in the past. To truly integrate transformative
educational technologies “requires a fundamental shift in the very way that teachers were trained
and have been teaching for years, so don’t underestimate the support they will need in making
that shift.” (Knowing Technologies, n.d.). Professional development strategies should ensure that
teachers, school library personnel, and administrators know how to effectively use and
implement the technologies.

However, it is impossible to just erase all prior teaching experiences that could create
some obstacles with technology and start anew knowing fully how to use to all of the content,
platforms, and software that are available. How does a teacher just suddenly create a technology
rich curriculum and do it effectively to cultivate and enhance student learning? Classroom
teachers are aware of this challenge as only 10% of K–12 teachers feel con dent incorporating
higher-level technology into student learning (PWC, n.d). Teachers want more support from their
districts and of the same teachers surveyed, 79% of them say they would like to receive more
professional development for technology-related subjects.
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 This data held true across grade level, school af uence, and teacher experience level
(PWC, n.d.) and shows that all teachers need and acknowledge they need additional resources.
School districts and their leaders must prioritize creating a technology training team that works
for the district and only provides training and support to teachers. One training specialist for six
schools isn’t good enough anymore. It must be a team and would be more ef cient and effective
if there are trainers for each subject area. They would learn and research various software,
applications, and platforms speci c to their content area and come to the schools every two
weeks to a month to train and facilitate the teachers and staff. Having faculty meetings once a
month during planning periods where the band director is in the same tech training as the
Spanish teacher isn’t ef cient and bene cial to the teachers - or the students.

The second theme resonated with me and that is technology plans including devices such
as tablets. While devices come up in almost every study/article we reviewed, there is some
disagreement as to how they should be utilized. One report stats that technology plans shouldn’t
center themselves around devices such a tablets - or even software. Technology changes and
develops so quickly that creating a program around a device creates a program that lasts only as
long as the devices do (knowingtechnologies, n.d.). However, the most versatile platform
currently available is a tablet/iPad. The number of applications, how easily and often they are
updated, the ability to use them in multiple classes and/or with multiple students, and save/
submit student work in the app or to a cloud makes them a very cost effective and attractive
educational technology tool.

One obstacle is that not every student has access to a device. A signi cant portion of
teachers at underserved schools report that some students do not have home access to devices
(64%) or the internet (69%). Comparatively, only about one-third of teachers in af uent schools
say some students lack access to devices or the Internet at home, 27% and 30% respectively.
(PWC, n.d.). Schools having large amounts of devices on site and available to students is very
helpful and while software and apps develop/update rapidly, they are useable for years. As long
as schools and school leaders can provide support and quality infrastructure for easy updating
and maintenance of the devices/software, this shouldn’t be as big of as obstacle as some experts
believe.
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 That brings me to the third, nal, and most important theme - actually having a
technology plan/vision. While good pedagogy has to come before technology selection or use
(edweek, n.d), a technology plan must be very clear about what instruction is going to provided
to students and how technology is going to be transformative and not just substitutional. The
overwhelming issue is that there is just so much technology out there available for educational
purposes. Teachers/administrators aren’t suffering from a lack of resources, they are actually
swamped by the sheer amount and it’s dif cult to zero in and learn/utilize the most appropriate
ones. A school district who has a committed and clear technology plan is the rst step and must
be in place before any of factors, including the other two themes I’ve listed above have a chance
to be successful.

While school districts should look to other school districts who have led the way with
instructional technology for guidance and examples, this commitment should also be coming
from local government. For example, the Ontario government announced in 2014 that they
would invest $150 million dollars over 3 years to support the integration of technology into the
classroom (Government of Ontario, 2014). This integration included improving both access and
support for students and teachers, including purchase of devices (tablets, netbooks, and cameras)
and software, improvement of connectivity, and teacher professional development. If local
communities all band together for the long term development of impactful and effective
education technology design reform, then teachers have a better chance to enhance student
learning past just using the software to substitute writing a report.

References:

Knowing Technologies. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://knowingtechnologies.com/

PricewaterhouseCoopers. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://pwc.com/

Education Week. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://blogs.edweek.org/

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Government of Ontario. (2014). Technology in classrooms helping students succeed: New fund
will improve access to leading-edge learning tools. Toronto, ON: Queen’s Printer.