eSchool News

If you don't already subscribe to eSchool News, you should! It is free and they will send you a monthly newspaper with lots of good articles about technology in education. www.eSchoolnews.com
In the February issue there is an article about What U.S. Schools Can Learn From Abroad. I found it interesting. It says that, "the U.S. ranked near the middle of the pack in the latest international comparisons in reading, math and science." It goes on to say that the reasons for other nations performing better is that they respect their teachers and provide them with adequate trainings, pay them well and empower their teachers more. It also says that there is more of an emphasis on pre-school education and that they pair struggling schools with successful ones. Finally, it says that the learning is more personalized for the students.
Technology is a great way to provide more personalized instruction and practice for students. The problem I notice in our county is that we have the technology but not the training that is needed. I am an ITRT and that is my job to train the teachers, so you may think it is inappropriate that I say that. My job is difficult because there is no good time during the day to train and the county does not provide training days for technology. This all goes back to respecting the teachers and empowering them. If we provide teachers the time they need to learn how to effectively learn the technology they have been given, I think we would see an upsurge in the effective use of that technology. Effective, being the key word here. Just playing a video on your Smartboard or using your doc cam as an overhead projector is not effective use of technology. I say we join the nations that are making a positive difference and put more emphasis on properly training our teachers on effective use of technology and less time on meetings and paperwork. Then we may join the ranks of those near the top.