Support for Technology Integration

On the yearly PDAS appraisal, teachers are evaluated on a number of things. Two of those things are technology integration and also professional communication. Often teachers are advised to incorporate technology into their lessons and to use cutting-edge research based strategies within their instruction.

In practice, this becomes very difficult for the teacher and student due to the policies set in place by the same administrative structure that requires the use of technology. For instance, at almost every campus, YouTube is blocked. YouTube happens to be the most popular video host. Sites such as Khan Academy and others use YouTube to host their instructional videos. Another example is social networking. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook can be very useful to the creative instructor, yet, in most circumstances they are blocked. Recently, a policy change at the region level has lumped blogs into the social networking category. Blogs are now blocked in many schools.

To further confuse things, many schools are now using C-Scope. C-Scope in its intended function is a wonderful tool, but as it grows it is flourishing into a monster. Take this document for instance: Link. This is C-Scope's "principal tool." An innocuous document at first glance, it becomes sinister when viewed from the lens of an innovative educator. The document presupposes a traditional classroom structure. This is evident primarily in the focus on teacher questioning and also the 5-E model. In a traditional didactic classroom, Socratic questioning will be abundant and apparent. However, in a classroom where students are working independently and engaged in a project, this type of questioning may not be as visible. Furthermore, there are many good methods other than the 5-E model. Perhaps a teacher is using a current lesson format from an online-source or scholarly journal. Will that teacher be downgraded on their performance because their methods did not line up with the "principal tool" expectations?

Their are a lot of question to be answered when it comes to technology integration, current policy and current administrative practices.