Yesterday, I had the honor of engaging in a discussion on what it takes to get technology integrated into schools - putting more ed in edtech. Among the top were giving teachers and students voice. However, the most interesting to me was surrounding policies - how can we allocate funds so that technology is viewed as best practices. For instance, instead of allocating a lot of money for textbooks, computers, etc., how can policies change to better reflect classroom needs. In some districts, money is in abundance for items districts no longer have a large need for - like textbooks. However, they lack funds in areas they do need - software, training, etc.
To me, that is one of the largest problems in stopping more ed from going into edtech. If teachers don't view the product as sustainable or as something they will be able to afford. Likewise, they need to see short, observable goals. And, if tools are chosen because of a pedagogical need, tools should not require technical training. And, on that note - should we spend time giving teachers technical training or instructional training? If it requires technical training, is the product for teachers?
To get more ed into edtech, there needs to be:
To me, that is one of the largest problems in stopping more ed from going into edtech. If teachers don't view the product as sustainable or as something they will be able to afford. Likewise, they need to see short, observable goals. And, if tools are chosen because of a pedagogical need, tools should not require technical training. And, on that note - should we spend time giving teachers technical training or instructional training? If it requires technical training, is the product for teachers?
To get more ed into edtech, there needs to be:
- funding policy changes
- teacher and student voice
- short term observable goals
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