Comments on: TIES: The Influence of Teacher Beliefs http://technosavvy.org/2006/12/05/ties-the-influence-of-teacher-beliefs/ Great teaching and learning with technology Mon, 25 Oct 2010 10:22:17 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 By: Richard Jopp http://technosavvy.org/2006/12/05/ties-the-influence-of-teacher-beliefs/comment-page-1/#comment-29296 Richard Jopp Fri, 08 Dec 2006 17:22:55 +0000 http://technosavvy.org/?p=456#comment-29296 Teacher chiming in here- I have always been enthused about incorporating new technologies into my classroom, but both time and testing have conspired against me. I would say this is true of most teachers. The time taken to gain funding for new technology is often not there or requires hours of grant writing to procure. I have even had the experience of writing a grant along with another teacher to get a set of 30 handhelds for our students. We received the grant, spent hours learning of various applications we could use with our students, yet we are not allowed to connect to the desktops computers in our rooms because of a "security risk". What use is data collection if we cannot even download our data into other applications. I would say that many, many teachers would echo my sentiment. We support and believe in the power of technology but become frustrated by the effort we must put forth just to use it. The other hurdle over wider adoption of technology in classrooms involves testing. Funding and "success" is measured using informational indicators, not skills learned. I small step forward may be the online tests being piloted this spring Minnesota science classes as part of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) tests. Small step....but at least it's forward. Teacher chiming in here- I have always been enthused about incorporating new technologies into my classroom, but both time and testing have conspired against me. I would say this is true of most teachers.

The time taken to gain funding for new technology is often not there or requires hours of grant writing to procure. I have even had the experience of writing a grant along with another teacher to get a set of 30 handhelds for our students. We received the grant, spent hours learning of various applications we could use with our students, yet we are not allowed to connect to the desktops computers in our rooms because of a “security risk”. What use is data collection if we cannot even download our data into other applications. I would say that many, many teachers would echo my sentiment. We support and believe in the power of technology but become frustrated by the effort we must put forth just to use it.

The other hurdle over wider adoption of technology in classrooms involves testing. Funding and “success” is measured using informational indicators, not skills learned. I small step forward may be the online tests being piloted this spring Minnesota science classes as part of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment (MCA) tests. Small step….but at least it’s forward.

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