After this post, I am totally beginning to side with some of your ideas above about what tech to buy…”give teachers something they’re currently capable of using. Then help them develop the skills to use the tools in ways that allow kids to be creative and collaborative.”

From Brent: “Kids will learn on their own if given the chance. Kids don’t need to learn how to learn unless they’ve been severely damaged as they grew.”

To you both; Kids will learn, yes. But will they all learn everything that’s spelled out in the state standards? That’s the task that teachers are charged with.

In an ideal world, perhaps this conversation wouldn’t be necessary. But teachers have to go into their existing classrooms tomorrow with their existing students from their existing backgrounds. In the real world, most kids (especially younger ones) need a great deal of support. They need tools to help them build background knowledge before they can be truly empowered to create.

On a different note…We also have to look at teachers’ capabilities. Many are just becoming comfortable with technology and showing a short video via a computer and LCD projector is a huge step for them. If you want tech that’s going to be used (and I agree with Heather below that this is a primary criteria), then give teachers something they’re currently capable of using. Then help them develop the skills to use the tools in ways that allow kids to be creative and collaborative.

Tech-savvy teachers know about free tools to help kids create. If a school has a very limited tech budget (and don’t they all?), why not purchase something that can be used to enhance learning in ALL classrooms?

As far as technology tools I’m not sure how to help. Reading the above comments, tools like Brain Pop and Discovery Streaming sound far too expensive for what can be gotten out of them. For a social studies class, technology seems like a difficult question to me. How has technology been used in politics in the past? All I can really think of is the means of tallying votes and with the way representatives communicate with their people. It seems weird to bring those various technologies in the classroom and it also totally avoids the real question of “what should we spend our limited funds on in order to facilitate learning?” Sorry, I’ve avoided the question so far. I think the real answer lies in Paul’s response: “something that will empower the kids”. I’m not sure what that answer is, but it seems like the only blanket answer that applies to every department is some sort of computing device with internet access for every kid in the class.

I’d also like to say it’s a teacher’s job to guide and grow natural curiosity for whatever subject they are charged with.

We have laptops, but our WiFi never works and many teachers don’t know what to do with them and aren’t able to experiment.

The best way to spend your money is in technology that will be used.

One thing that gets lost in the tech conversation is that “good teaching” must come before “good tech.” No one should ever have to decide what technology to use, the lesson, or unit should demand it. We can become an instant 1:1 school and nothing will change if we have a traditional mindset. New tech cannot get integrated into our current teaching patterns and be effective. Our teaching must change first. Our trust in the learners must change first. Tech simply magnifies the teacher’s personality…

Every class will never become who the teacher wants them to be, they will become who the teacher is.

We do have that role to help them understand the content, and I think that is where that “good teaching” comes in, and is missed by people who believe you can just through computers in front of kids and they will “learn.”

If we give them a cell phone they’ll learn how to text and download apps, but will they find any apps that are educational?

If we give them free use of the Internet at school, they’ll find their house on Google Maps, but will they research a class related topic?

With all the technology at their disposal, kids still need to learn how to learn. And many (most) times they need to be guided in the process.

Putting technology into the hands of kids is as threatening to teachers, as protesters using the internet is to the regimes of dictators in the Middle East. When it is not in the kids hands the teachers choose what they learn, how they learn it, what sources they will learn from, and the final product. When a kid cannot conform to that, we create an IEP to force them to do what the teacher wants then to do.