Saturday, July 19, 2008

Chapter 5: Professional Development

Sometimes my brain struggles when the authors describe the future they write about; however, they do such a good job at describing the dismal state of current professional development that I am inclined to believe the future the present.   

Teachers hate professional development; even if a session is interesting, there is no follow up for implementation.   Teachers basically have to spend their own money and their own time trying to upgrade their skills and rework their lessons --all while working.  A trainer years ago said that she felt sorry for teachers as they were one of the few professions where continuing education was on their own time and own dime.  Having professional, non-teacher friends, I see how true that is.  

No wonder some teachers are resistant to change.  Another problem is those well-meaning teachers who try and  add web 2.0 requirements to their assignments without having competency themselves and without examining how web 2.0 impacts the teaching and learning in their classrooms and without allowing for the social network collaboration which is the crux of web 2.0.

Instead of Business Ed. classes, there should be web 2.0 classes for students.  We shouldn't assume that they are digital natives just because they are teenagers.  For years I have felt that computer classes should have included internet research classes that would cover not only the various databases but how to use google effectively.  We've turned students lose on computers and missed an opportunity to really educate them on the web.

1 comment:

Robin Turk said...

You've made several good comments here. I guess I'm fortunate to have had some good professional development through our school and even inservice days!

Your point about teachers needing web 2.0 competency before using with students is a good one. Sometimes they (we) can learn right along with the students, but that takes some special talent. Teachers have to be willing to show how they are learning and how they figure things out with the students. Then it can be great modeling!

I really agree with your last comment about kids being digital natives. In public schools it is certainly not all! I think as educators it is our job to make sure all students have equal opportunity in their technology experiences. I find that when we are in the lab we are a long way for equal abilities!