My response to Sarah’s blog. The original post can be found here: https://reflectwemust.wordpress.com/2015/08/16/blogging-and-social-media/

I have been having so much fun reading all of my classmates blogs, identifying with them, responding to them and gaining insight from them. I have also gained a wealth of knowledge from the articles and professional blogs they are referencing. In many of the articles I have read recently through social media, I get this feeling of ‘get on the bus or be left in the dust’ when it comes to using and implementing technology in using innovative programming.

As referenced in Mark’s blog from Steve Wheeler:

“Technology won’t replace teachers, but teachers who use technology will probably replace teachers who don’t”

And as Superintendent Lisa Brady said in the Modern Learners white paper:

“I expect your classrooms to be places of innovation and experimentation, and I trust you to fail well and learn from those failures.” She knows, as do many other modern leaders, that classroom practice and curriculum can no longer be about getting incrementally better. Now, classrooms have to look and act and feel different.

There is a growing amount of research on the barriers to teachers implementing technology, using social media and using innovative teaching methods to inspire and motivate students.

In a paper by Hew and Bush (2006) they state in the abstract, “In this paper, we first identify the general barriers typically faced by K-12 schools, both in the United States as well as other countries, when integrating technology into the curriculum for instructional purposes, namely: (a) resources, (b) institution, (c) subject culture, (d) attitudes and beliefs, (e) knowledge and skills, and (f) assessment. We then describe the strategies to overcome such barriers: (a) having a shared vision and technology integration plan, (b) overcoming the scarcity of resources, (c) changing attitudes and beliefs, (d) conducting professional development, and (e) reconsidering assessments”.

And in a paper by Burke (2014) she saw that “major findings indicate that not all teachers felt prepared and confident to integrate technology in the classroom. Qualitative data indicate that teachers were willing to integrate technology, but many felt ill prepared or unsupported to change their practice”.

Which made me think about myself and the colleagues I have worked with over the years and what some of our personal barriers are to implementing technology and innovative programming. I have worked with amazing teachers who put their students first and strive to excel each day. They work hard, are motivated, and are open to change and innovation. I know that I am open to new technologies, feel confident in my abilities and knowledge and see the benefits of integrating technology and using innovative programming that is more indicative of 21st century competencies but I am no where near where I would like to be in changing how my classroom looks, feels and operates. Why is this?

I thought about how technology has changed the communication of teachers, students and parents. Yes, this makes it easier to communicate, but it also takes up a lot of a teachers valuable time responding to each email that comes in. Parents expect a response to each email they send, and each response takes time. Every colleague expects a response to the email they send, and each response takes time. This takes away from a teacher being able to update a blog, send out a tweet or make changes to how they deliver a lesson.

I agree that professional development is important and gives teachers great ideas and resources, but after a day of professional development teachers need to be prepared to teach a full day of lessons and deal with social issues that arose the day before and get the field trip permission form ready to send out to parents. There is little time for reflection or implementation and what is learnt can quickly become a bookmarked website or saved power point presentation that is never looked at again.

In many schools teaching is still a very isolating profession. For the majority of the day you are teaching alone. There is very little opportunity to see how others teach and to learn from others through first hand experience. Teachers do so many great things but they rarely have time to share or see colleagues in action. I think it would be so valuable to spend a day in another teachers classroom, just watching and listening. We have so much we could learn from each other if the time was there to discuss and reflect.

And then there is all the other stuff. The marking, the meetings, the duty, the cleaning, the planning, the  coaching, the report writing, the photocopying, the prepping, and the list goes on and on. All this other stuff is important, but it is amazing how it just sucks up time.

I agree that teachers can be intimidated by technology and that attitudes and beliefs sometimes need to be changed and that resources can be barriers to implementation. But from my own personal experience, I think the biggest barrier is time. I think that in today’s classrooms and schools time is a very real problem. Teachers are being pulled in so many directions and have so many things to do that there is little time left for technology integration and innovative curriculum planning.

In a reflective activity done at one of our staff meetings, teachers were all asked to write down on a sticky note the ending to the phrase “What if?” in relation to themselves as teachers and the school environment. One of the most frequent answers: Time.

“What if we could have more time to develop our vision of 21st century learning?”
“What if we could spend more time teaching and less time on the ‘red tape’?”
“What if we could really give kids freedom to learn what they want…”
“What if I could take something off my plate to create a more vibrant learning community?”
“What if I could dedicate the time to fully explore the changes desired?”
(R Powell, Personal Communication, August 17, 2015)

“Schools that truly challenge their use of time find that it holds the key to liberating innovation” (Litchtman, 2014)

Yes, What if we had more time….

References:

Burke, L. F. (2014). Teachers’ perceived self-efficacy in integrating technology into pedagogical practice and barriers to technology integration (Order No. 3624471). Available from ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global. (1553436093). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.royalroads.ca/login?url=http://search.proquest.com/docview/1553436093?accountid=8056

Hew, K., & Brush, T. (2006). Integrating technology into K-12 teaching and learning: current knowledge gaps and recommendations for future research. San Francisco, CA Education Tech Research Dev, 55(3), 223-252. doi:10.1007/s11423-006-9022-5

Litchman, G. (2014). EdJourney: a roadmap to the future of education. San Francisco, CA: Josey-Bass.

http://steve-wheeler.blogspot.ca/2013/03/technology-wont-replace-teachers-but.html

http://modernlearners.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/The-eight-new-attributes-of-modern-educational-leaders-9.pdf