I was teaching a bunch of teachers how to use blogging with their students and a teacher mentioned the invasion of technology. WHAT A MIND BLOWER! I am an integrationist, not an invader, but ultimately, this is how the teachers view these changes to their curriculum. I know where they are coming from, no one likes to be told to do something that is not of their own choosing and teachers have had to deal with NCLB and many more mandates for years. They are fed up. I have to walk on eggs sometimes because they are so adamantly opposed to technology. Don't get me wrong, they act like they are interested, they do their best to "fit it in," but I can hear them the second my back is turned, complaining to each other about what they have to do now. Technology upsets their pacing charts, it gets in the way of content during the learning curve process. They make little digs about technology and I have to really try not to get upset and take it personally. But I am the face of what they are hating and that is difficult.
I have to remind myself that there are things I do
not like to do either. After all, I hate math, I really really hate it, and I try to act excited about it when I have to teach it, but lets face it, we all have different interests, and that is what makes us interesting to other people. I respect the teachers I work with and pray that I keep understanding their pain as they try to change the way they teach to fit the interests of the generation we are teaching. It IS hard, technology integration is unlike any other educational reform that has ever taken place. It is constantly changing and shifting and is sometimes like working on quicksand.
You have to get it done and fast because the internet could go down, the moviemaker could freeze up again, the edublog logins will fail due to timing out. It is stressful and uncomfortable for anyone who doesn't love and embrace technology. For all the teachers forced to integrate technology, I feel for you. My hope is to be less of an invader and more of an organic presence over the year.
Hey there,
ReplyDeleteThe reaction of the teachers is a known quantity in technology implementation rollouts - change resistance in target audiences are one of the things that we try to do when implementing a new upgrade or product. There is sad to say, an age demarcation line that actually increases the percentage of change resistance and it is also exacerbated by years and success rates on the job.
Interestingly technological change is more readily accepted over the age of 60, there is apparently an expectation of change at that point and perhaps more of a desire to be "in touch" 45-58 is the most change resistant group, successful people who are not early adapters by nature tend to view such changes as "arbitrary" or a threat to their senior hierarchy status. Also depending on how steep the learning curve is it creates a feeling a little like trival pursuit - even if you win you can end up feeling stupid.
The other realistic part of any kind of human based change implementation is the time suck factor of technology - it takes time and a certain kind of thought to set things up, plus research unless you have an experienced user right next to you.
There are strategies to break down tech resistance after it's identified as change resistance for adults. The best way to think about it is that there is a strong similarity to the things that undermine girls in math and science - expectation is part of the self feeding cycle and all tech is seen as interconnected.
Reality is different, but if they got scared off trying to program VCRs then they will assume they are bad at computer based things - however VCRs were horrible user interfaces with limited inputs. But they're sure that they're all the same.
It's a complex issue - but it is navigable.