Teachers need Tech!

Image via WikipediaThis is my first blog post from the AACE Elearn Conference in Las Vegas. Today was in fact a warm-up / pre conference day with a few tutorials and workshops. These weren't included in the entrance fee (I wish they had said that in the brochure) but I managed to sneak into a workshop on "using videos for learning" without paying.

The workshop was full of teachers and trainers. The majority did not participate as the content was awful (awful). But listening to the teachers that did speak was both eye-opening and terrifying. The problem was that these teachers seemed to be totally tech-iliterate. I have a real problem with this.

The objective of today's teacher is to prepare students for tomorrow. The internet has increased the volume of information and the pace of change and now, the future is more uncertain than ever. Educational systems around the world are notoriously slow moving, but we have to come to terms that the role of teachers is changing. This problem is not just about policy and curriculum, its about teachers skills and the fact what a good teacher needs to be is changing.

Teachers that were trained yesterday need to be retrained today to prepare students for tomorrow.

For example, Open Source projects harness the power of global communities and are transforming the academic world. The long tail of Open Source is extremely long - it applies to all disciplines. But I realised that there are too many teachers who are afraid of technology and dont use it. Not teaching the new social and technological regime is a huge disservice to students and a big barrier to reaching the cutting edge. It isn't teaching for tomorrow.

Another example of the skill-deficit is more technical. I remember being shocked the first time I heard teachers used powerpoint in lectures. Not just shock, I was scared. After working as a consultant for many years, I was trained in the "secret" art of creating presentations and using visuals to transfer messages. I learnt that bad powerpoint kills content, but I had constant training in how to use powerpoint effectively (e.g. not mind-numbing text filled slides).

The teaching profession has had hundreds of year to perfect the art of blackboard writing. But good blackboard writing does not translate into powerpoint. In general, use of powerpoint in schools is worse that primative, and the risk is that you make content boring. If teachers want to use powerpoint, they need to be trained in how to use it. E-presentation skills are an example of a new technical standard thrown on teachers which they aren't ready for.

Whether its basic technical literacy or the wider inclusion of technology as a learning and communication medium, the role technology plays in teaching must reflect the immense changes we see outside the classroom. Its not giving technology skills to young students that worries me, its giving it to teachers thats the real issue!