Chapter 5

Chapter 5 begins by talking about empowering students and teachers and this is a very difficult task to do if you do not have the time, money, or energy to incorporate technology.

I just spent two weeks at a local high school doing a practicum and I was very much UNimpressed with their technology. The teacher I was working with still used overheads everyday. When I approached her about the idea of incorporating technology that is more efficient and newer, she laughed and said she "hated" technology because it always breaks. Later in the practicum, I was doing my part of teaching and I tried to incorporate a united streaming video. This should have been simple but we had every "techie" in that classroom trying to get the sound to come through the television as putting the video on the computer and shown on the screen would have been a nightmare of issues. The teachers are so mad about technology in the schools. The educators want them to use it but they are not getting the funding for the products and they are certainly not getting the professional develpment that this chapter calls for. The teachers are too busy. So I guess another year goes down in the absence of technology... Maybe next year, huh?

The chapter states that the administration needs to be strong and support the change of technology but it is not happening in this high school I was visiting. The chapter was very interesting but I dont' see where these teachers are receiving the development they need. It is simply not happening!

Collier, C. (2001). Staff Development for Technology Integration in the Classroom. In J.F.
LeBaron & C. Collier (Eds.), Technology in it's place: Successful technology infusion in
schools (pp. 61-72). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.