With the nation spending an estimated 7.5B, that’s billion
with a B, (http://blogs.edweek.org/edweek/DigitalEducation/2011/11/prek-12_ed-_tech_market_estima.html
) in preK-12 edtech it is time to ask
what we are getting for our money. Are
we getting 7.5B worth of improved student learning? I bet not.
One of the reasons we might not be getting our money’s worth are the
protectors of technology (POT). As
individuals, schools and districts invest in educational technology they
inevitably invest in hiring technicians that take care of the investment. We forget that these people are not educators,
and after a while they tend to forget that the purpose of educational
technology is student learning. For
these individuals it is all about protecting the technology from the students
and often from their teacher. Their priorities
are the technology and keeping their jobs simple. Student learning isn’t even on their radar as
a goal.
Why do I bring this up?
I am currently sitting in a classroom that has 20 student laptops but
only 5 of them can currently talk to the Internet. A problem my students or I could easily solve
by assigning the correct wireless router but we are not given access. Students cannot save any work on these
computers and the computers are so locked down they will not even recognize a
flash drive. So here am I with a MS in
instructional technology, student log-ins set up for Edmodo, Glogster, Animoto,
Mangahigh and many others. I have curriculum
designed around Web 2.0 tools and ready to go.
I have access to a commercial online curriculum. None of it I can use. I can’t even access, on the teacher computer,
the teacher CD that comes with our text books.
I can on and on. I have a
Smartboard but I can’t update the software because I don’t have access on the
laptop that came with it. The list is
long. A POT stopped by my classroom
today but told me “I don’t have time to fix the student computers, update the teacher computers, or install the
requested software.” When I asked for
access to the teacher computer so that I could do what’s necessary (I really am
technically capable in a past life I ran software engineering groups) I was
told that “There is only three of us and we don’t have time to run around
fixing things.” Implying that it I wasn’t capable or trustworthy enough to download
and install updates on my computer.
This is the problem.
POTs do not care if the technology is being used by the students. They do not care about the students learning. In their fiefdom technology is purchased to
be kept safe and provide them easy jobs. Somehow the goal for technology acquisition-student
learning- has been lost in the process of buying, distributing, enabling and
maintaining the technology. In the minds
of the POTs the purpose of school s and school districts has been twisted to
goals centered on technology not students.
What would happen if students were given administrator access
to the student computers? Yes they would
get messed up. What if we required them
to fix the computers? The students might
actually learn something. But wait that’s,
as far as the POTs are concerned, that is not the reason the technology was
bought. Hard earned tax payer money was
spent on the technology to be locked up and protected from teachers and
students. Technology’s purpose in
classrooms is to ensure the POTs have cushy jobs.
What are we getting for our 7.5B? How much student learning does 7.5B buy? I believe the answer is inversely related to
the number of POTs hired.
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