Evidence Based Post #1

Evidence-Based Post #1 – How do teachers keep up with the new literacies in technology?

While perusing the textbook, I noticed that our class text states, “Teachers become more important, though their role changes within new literacy classrooms” (Leu et. al. 25, 2004). Now are teachers prepared for this new role? This question, in the age of No Child Left Behind, becomes interesting when one examines the resources available for pre-service teachers and those provided by districts.
A report was published by the Milken Family Foundation in 1999 regarding this very issue. In an article posted on their website, the Milken Foundation found that “over 70 percent of teacher training programs surveyed require students to take three or more credit hours of instruction with information technology (IT). And on average, pre-service teachers get an equivalent amount of IT built into their non-IT courses. But despite the course requirements, most faculty did not feel that IT training was adequate or effectively modeled for the future-teachers they serve.” This then begs the question of what types of technology courses teachers are taking, and also, how effective is it to teach pre-service teachers, who are still learning about how to teach, about technology but then not even give them strategies on how to implement the technology?
But, how does a school or district hiring these teachers define “technology literate?” One of the researchers on the study goes on to clarify that “’ the institutions that reported the highest levels of student technology skills and experience were not those with heavy computer course requirements, but those that made use of technology on a routine basis throughout the teacher training program.’” Thus, it is not the level of technology expertise a teacher has, but how much they let technology into their classroom and how much technology and technology implementation strategies the teacher had been exposed to.
On the flip side, what do districts do with their existing teaching staff? In an article written by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach, the author examines her experience with the W.T. Cooke Elementary School and details the trials that this particular school had to face in order to make sure that their teachers and students were technology literate. Nussbaum-Beach’s technology integration plan was a school-wide effort to increase the sophistication of the hardware and make every person in the district, teachers and students alike, viable technology users. Her three phase plan took approximately three years to implement. But the question then becomes, in embracing these new literacies, who needs to be taught, the students or the teachers? In Nussbaum-Beach’s experience, the technology coordinator/trainer really trained everyone until the teachers could pass a technology test, called the Technology Standards for Instructional Personnel. However, in the first two phases, the students were trained by Nussbaum-Beach, as well as the teachers.
So, are teachers getting preparation? Obviously, much more research should be done, but my current opinion is that yes, many are getting some kind of training somewhere. However, I am not quite sure about how teachers are getting trained in their pre-service training or by their employer. I also began to wonder if more districts actually implemented something like the Technology Standards for Instructional Personnel, and much like with No Child Left Behind, tested individuals in order to ascertain if their specific district would show compliance. I will be examining this in my next evidence-based posting.

Resources

Leu, D. J., Leu, D. D., & Coiro, J. (2004). Teaching with the Internet K-12: New Literacies for New Times
(4th ed.). Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.

Milken Family Foundation. (n.d.). Information Technology Underused in Teacher Education. Retrieved
April 17, 2007, from http://www.mff.org/edtech/article.taf?_function=detail&Content_uid1=131

Nussbaum-Beach, S. (2003, January 23). Traveling the Techno Trail: Training Teachers to
Use Technology. Retrieved April 17, 2007, from http://www.education-
world.com/a_tech/tech157.shtml