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College Teachers Technology Illiterates?
By Flora Morris Brown, Ph.D. | April 2, 2008
Yesterday I posted about a teacher who uses Twitter, a social networking tool, for high school homework and field trips. On the other end of the technology spectrum are teachers who not only are not up to speed, but who take pride in being computer illiterates.
A post which was voted the “Most Influential Blog Post” in the 2007 EduBlog Awards deals with this very topic. In his post, “Is It Okay to Be a Technologically Illiterate Teacher?” the author, Karl Fisch, Director of Technology at Arapahoe High School in Colorado, sees being technologically illiterate as being akin to the inability to read and write in the late 20th century.
I agree with him, especially for college teachers.
After having watched my college’s English Dept. move from accepting handwritten compositions to now only accepting computer-generated assignments by email or on flash drives, it’s hard to believe that there are still some teachers on campus who have skirted around becoming computer literate.
Even our job announcements no longer ask for “computer literacy preferred.” It’s now “computer literacy required,” sometimes identifying specific software.
K-12 teachers are less likely to be in this group of technology illiterates since many states are now incorporating computer competence as part of their requirements. As a matter of fact, K-12 teachers expect their students to submit homework and reports using programs that were at one time only used by business.
But college teachers have no such requirement. As a matter of fact, you don’t need a credential to become a college teacher. Because you don’t need a credential, most college teachers have not been through the rigors of curriculum training, test preparation and instructional strategies.
All you need is a Master’s Degree in your field and it is assumed that you know how to teach. Learning how to plan lessons, manage a classroom, create tests, motivate learners and become technologically competent are left up to the individual.
And yet, on the administrative side of education, email is the means of communication, and downloading your own roster or submitting grades are all done online.
I’m not suggesting that college teachers should become computer geeks, but they definitely should be able to send and open email, create documents, download documents, submit grades online and play a DVD. While there is still plenty room for old-fashioned lecturing, class discussions and writing on chalkboards or whiteboards, modern technology stands ready to enhance the learning experience for students if only teachers will embrace it.
The good news in this issue is that most of the sluggards are nearing retirement. As new college teachers are hired to replace them, technological competence will be less of a problem. Teaching and learning will be the better for it.
Fisch ended his blog with the following:
“If a teacher today is not technologically literate— and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more— it’s equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn’t know how to read and write.”
What do you think?
Topics: Twitter, achieving success, college teachers, teacher illiteracy, technology in the classroom |