Question+2+Response

==**Has educational media and technology paid off over time? Has teaching labour been historically displaced by educational media and technology? **==

On-line courses still require a teacher so the labour of the teacher has not been replaced. The introduction of technology has also introduced new roles into educaton such as the technology specialist. Course design now needs to be designed to fit technology. Courses also need to be modified as technology continues to morph such as the migration from desktop computer to mobile devices. Class time has been extended from face to face time blocks to extended hours that provide flexibility for students from different geographic time zones to participate. Labour hours are shifting but there is no indication that they are lessening.
 * Impact of educational technology on teaching labour**

Before value of educational technology can be determined a few key questions need to be answered including: 1. Is value measured in dollars, an increase to student knowledge, or student motivation? 2. How do we indicate success of educational technology when it is always changing? 3. Is the quality of teaching impacted by ET e.g. is the focus of the teacher too much on the technology and not enough on the lesson? Does this then lessen the value of the ET?
 * The value of educational technology over time**

//Rachel Fales:// This question raises many questions that I have with ET myself. Has ET and EMedia paid off over time? This depends on how you decide to measure the idea of "paid off". Do you mean investing money and making money? Or do you mean that students have increased their knowledge base because of ET? Or do you think that students have become more motivated to learn? I think that these questions still remain unanswered. As technology changes, so does assessment and therefore how can we indicate success? In terms of labour being replaced, I don't think this is the case, yet. Even with the invention of online courses, there still seems to be a teacher or body behind that program. I think that labour isn't displaced perhaps it is manipulating ET. - Rachel Fales

//Dave Horn:// I think I like the idea of determining whether or not ET has paid off in terms of has it increased student knowledge and learning. I don't think schools should be throwing money down the drain, but really the key for me is finding away to help students. I think that it is possible that additions of ET to the school system does pay off, though I would agree that I don't think that our time as teachers or our role as teachers has been reduced. I would say that perhaps the amount of time consumed to effectively incorporate ET into the classroom has increased the amount of time we spend working.

Diana I like your thinking Dave. Student knowledge building and learning capacity should be at the forefront of reasons for why we invest in technology for our schools. Without this focus much money is wasted and potenital for collaboration and we need to remember to work smarter- not harder. Technology is there to assist us- if only we all knew how to use it to its' maximum potenital.

Lucy My experience with ET especially in the past has not only been time consuming, it has been frustrating. My lack of mastery over new media does affect my effectiveness as a teacher as well. And it's understandable why some teachers opt not to use ET. Technology is changing so fast that it is really tedious to keep up. Fortunately, most schools in Singapore have technical staff to aid teachers in managing technological hardware. My school, with a population of 1,500 students and 150 teachers, has 4 technical assistants to help teachers manage the hardware. And with such support, it was easier for me to incorporate ET in my teaching and learning. I believe it's a matter of time that all teachers would use ET. Hence it is important for schools to not only provide the hard ware but to provide the support staff to enable teachers to use ET.

Joey I will echo Diana's sentiments in saying that I too really like what you had to say Dave. To play devil's advocate for one second, my only concern in regards to ET and whether or not it has paid off is how do we measure this? Being an advocate of ET, I believe that it has, but could it have come at the cost of something else? I also agree that I do not believe at all that our role as teachers has diminished and in fact, much like Dave, I would argue the opposite.

Perdeep I do not think that ET has "paid off" to its' full extent at the public school level. When new educational technologies are brought into schools I find that they are not always fully embraced. For example, our school has numerous Smartboards but, very few teachers use them. At times it appears that school boards do not have enough money to sink into purchasing different technologies. With the two issues above one may argue that ET has not been given a great chance to "pay off" within the school system. I do not believe teaching labor has been displaced as teachers are still needed to run their classrooms. However, it may be unclear whether this will still be the case in the distant future.

Julie I wonder if there is a lack of training for teachers when new technology is introduced such as smart boards? I think that it's really hard to use a new technology if you don't have proper training in how it can be applied in the teaching situations. Plus, are lessons reviewed and updated to take advantage of the new technology or are we just replacing a white board with a smart board and taking the same approach?

Lucy I have the same experience as you, Perdeep. We have smartboards in almost all the classrooms but most teachers don't use them. I think it's a luxury we could do without. Most teachers are fine with the use of laptop and projector and visualizers which are available in all our classrooms. It's not the case of the lack of training in my schools, Julie, as we have 4 technicians on hand to train teachers. Not all ET are created equal. Some are just better than others. And teachers have to make the effort to try out the media and give frank feedback to the administrator or whoever is in charge of ET.

Dan Education is about providing opportunities. We can never know in advance which particular teaching strategy or teaching style or specific course content or access to ET will inspire and motivate students.What we can do as educators is provide all students a variety of these. ET plays a crucial role in its ability to do this. As for the fact that some SmartBoards are not used as often as the could be.It's the same with all resources. They are there.They are available. Who knows - next year's new teacher may use it in a profound way? One thing is for sure, she won't be able to if its not there. Also, Et is part of the bigger picture, in concrete terms, it's measurement of success is in Et's ability to increase a teacher's ability to differentiate a key goal in 21st century teaching. Et has impacted labor by forcing teachers to work harde rand longer hours. The border between home and workplace has been shatered.This has also impacted those in other jobd as well. It is becoming increasingly difficult to leave the job at work!

Dave I have to agree and disagree with Lucy about the smartboards. First I agree that too many teachers do not use them effectively, which is currently one our tasks at the school I work at. I do however find it an excellent tool for teaching my students because I can have them come up and interact in front of the class and have the whole class involved as well. I can have internet up and flip back and forth between programs for the students to see and for those students who have troubles writing (a common problem for students at our school). I can save all the notes and examples that we do as a group to our school server and the students can go print them off or access them later. Perhaps it is not a tool that is effective for every school and it is important when judging budgets and expenses whether or not you are getting the best use of your resources.

Lucy I agree with you, Dave. Schools need to make the technology available as we have to consider user's ingenuity. There are those who can create uses for it that may go beyond what the technology was originally meant to do. And it is subject bias as well. Teachers of certain subjects may find it excellent for their teaching purpose. I know that Maths teachers find it useful.

Lindsey I think this is a great discussion. I too think more research should be done on whether the technologies we are placing in the classroom are actually benefiting students. Are they learning more? Are there grades going up due to the technology? What is the purpose of tech implementation was it for convienience for instructors/students are to modify student achievement?

Ben At its best, educational technology can provide a lynchpin for bringing different subject areas together. We try to maximize learning by creating more authentic, project-based, cross-curricular assignments. Computers are well-suited to this sort of thing. Computers may ultimately demand that teachers broaden their knowledge-base or plan more effectively in teams.

Alison

I do think that in some ways ET has cut down on teacher labour time. For example: remember when we used to do report cards on word? Guidelines were minimal and we had to write at least 1 page of personal comments for each child at every reporting period. It would take about 1 1/2 hours per child after all the assessment was complete. Today there are programs like Report Writer and Report Central which streamline the process.