Well as many of you know I moved on from my previous position earlier this year. So 2007 will be a year of change (actually 2006 was a year of change as well – and now I think of it so was 2005!!). I will be working back in the classroom for the rest of this year and working on a new project in the area of digital media technologies ready to launch for 2008 (more on that soon).
This time has allowed me to catch up on some reading… An interesting article today in eSchool Online about a major study on the effectiveness of software applications on student test scores. The article looks into the study results as well as presenting a fine argument about the appropriateness of the study conditions. The lack of appropriate PD is used as the main argument for the negative results produced in the study.
“Brief training at the beginning of the year is not sufficient. Ongoing and sustainable professional development that provides support and mentoring or coaching for teachers ensures that technology tools and resources are used in ways that lead to increased student achievement,”
The above quote from the article, I believe, sums up a greater need than simply making sure staff have the opportunity to attend PD sessions. There is a need to have staff in the institution that are willing to learn and see change as well as staff that are passionate about the opportunities for change who are willing to mentor and coach. Having software companies train our teachers is not exactly presenting a case for effective pedagogies and educational relevance. These people are not qualified to meet the needs of students.
There is also the point of how we decide what is quality educational software and not. There is a sad case that I witnessed over and over again as a classroom teacher, when parents would spend huge amounts of money on software programs for their children who were struggling with a subject area. Quite often this didn’t help and the students who were struggling simply needed more one on one attention from a tutor or even their parents. Software applications promising to deliver results in such a short period of time are like weight loss fads that promise to have us all trim and terrific in 10 weeks of doing nothing more than popping a pill!
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