Looking at feedback how is your technology changing teaching practices?

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de276
Community Member

How useful your services have been looking at user feedback and to what extent has the technology been updated due to feedback from users and how much has the user uptake changed in the past 5 years?

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kmeeusen
Community Champion

Hi again, @de276 

This one I will answer even if this question gets moved to another location in this community!

I retired just at the start of the CoVid-19 pandemic, so I have been blessed with the role of armchair-quarterback. It's a great perspective. What I have been seeing happening is a mad rush by schools to online teaching and learning out of necessity. But that rush has been very poorly organized by too many schools and districts. Schools that do online teaching and learning well, they are mostly in higher ed but some K-12, have been doing it for awhile, they took deliberate steps to move that directions, and have had lots of practice.

Working closer with students and teachers is an absolute necessity, as is working closer with whomever manages instructional technology at your school or district. Teachers need to be:

  • Trained to use the technology,
  • Need reliable access to reliable technology,
  • Trained to teach online - believe me when I tell you that online teaching (and learning) are incredibly different than traditional teaching although many of the same principles apply - they are just applied very differently.
  • Need solid responsive technology support,
  • Need ongoing routine online teaching support,
  • Need the schools to recognize that online teaching requires more time,
  • Need to be prepared long before the first student enters their online classrooms! Yes, you heard me correctly, "long before the first student enters their classroom!" Teaching can be an experiment, but our students should not be!

Students need:

  • To have routine, reliable access to good technology. The second I hear someone tell a student that they can go to the Library, or come to a Campus tech center, or use their phone; then I know that school has failed, or at the least has failed that student.
  • Be trained to use that technology. The assumption that our students are part of the digital generation is false. It is not just a generalization; but rather, is a lie. And if we are talking about K-6 students, then their parents or guardians must also be trained - hey, nobody said this would be easy, and if they did then that was also a lie!
  • The technology being used to deliver online teaching and learning must support teacher/student and student/teacher interaction at a high level. And, the younger the students are, the higher a level of interaction the tech must support.
  • The technology should be as comprehensive as possible, and disparate technologies must be as limited as possible. This means that students (and teachers) should be able to do everything or almost everything they need to do in one place. Even college-level students get confused when they are told to "go here to do this, then got there to do that, then go someplace else to do something else, then come back to application A and enter evidence that you accomplished B, C, and D  in their respective environments. Even techie adults get messed up with that crap!
  • Need responsive and effective tech support,
  • Need responsive and effective learning support.

I spent most of my first retired Summer helping faculty in a school district who were told all of their courses for Fall would be online in Canvas. No training, not even access to an account so they could practice. I was happy I could help the teachers, but my heart went out to their students.

There's my $0.02, and I will get down from my soapbox now.

I hope this was helpful,

Kelley

 

 

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