Technology at the Educational Front

The infantrymen in the U.S. Army refer to themselves with pride as “grunts”. They are the people who, when the generals and commanders decide something, make it happen. They are the people who face the day to day hardships and realities of decisions and commitments by the higher ups. Sometimes when implementing these decisions, foot soldiers have to take things one step, one building, or one road at a time. They get that part done and then move on.

Teachers are the grunts of the educational world. (This is not said in a disparaging way since I still consider myself one of them.) We teachers are the people in the trenches who have to take all the mandates, policies and directives and attempt to implement them.

Along with these implementations comes a mix of daily classroom management procedures and other issues (those who have taught understand the myriad of things schools expect teachers to do), kids coming to school with a host of societal and familial problems, and special education and other special needs students with a multitude of disabilities mainstreamed with “regular education” students. Then there are the “lack of time” and the “coverage vs. in-depth” issues. Include technology concerns such as filters, network issues, glitches with computers and printers, instructions, monitoring etc., all of which can take up a significant amount of time. Using technology effectively becomes “nearly impossible” as one of my graduate students stated.

Another teacher said “I can see that when we are pushed to teach so much 'to the test' … the time constraint really is tough. I can't lose a day because technology is down so sometimes I am afraid to do all the great things that I know are out there.” I think that this statement says a lot. It’s not so much that teachers are opposed to web 2.0 and the wonderful communications and therefore learning opportunities it brings. It’s that teachers (who are already concerned that their technology skills are not adequate enough) are going to have to implement these ideas using the tools and support available to them and are apprehensive about wasting time.

Dan McDowell in his blog The History Teacher said "This hits at the core of the problem that most teachers face when trying to do new things. Time. There is simply not enough time. For all the cool ideas that Will Richardson, David Warlick, and others have, those of us actually in the trenches have to find the time and resources to actually put these great ideas into practice. There are some schools and districts that are making these ideas happen ... , but for most it is difficult. How can we tell the new story or have new conversations when we barely have time to do the same old thing."

In the end, teachers who are applying something new, like the infantry grunts, need to take one step at a time. As one teacher said “I think that sometimes when we learn about a new way to do something, we feel that we have to do a lot of it. We don't. If I create one WebQuest, that's ok. If it's good...excellent...and useable...and reusable...and shareable...then I've used my time well!”