Mike Bogle’s (2008) article, “Bridging the Divide: Facilitating the Exploration of Emerging Technologies that Support Innovative Learning and Teaching” made many interesting points on the need for teachers to be advocates for further use of technology in their schools as well as the need for teachers to have consultant to help them stay current on the best and newest technologies for the classroom. As ones leading the classroom as well as the liaison between the students and the administration, teachers have a responsibility to make sure the administration knows what students need. While classes have the ability to continue without the use of the latest technologies, Melissa (2009) pointed out in this week’s VoiceThread that teachers have a responsibility to prepare students for the technological world that we live in today. Many schools do not have the type of consultant that Bogle describes, which means teachers have some extra work to do within their schools. This is an intimidating task, but Bogle (2008, p.8) explains that teachers (even one working alone) need to be the ones who begin to use the technology in the classroom and document their usage in order to prove to the administration that what they are doing is important. This task will take a lot of time for a teacher; he/she will need to begin exploring which technological resources will work well in his/her classroom and learn how to use the resources on his/her own. However, this is the type of responsibility that teachers sign up for when they take on the job.
Once the school understands the need to encourage the use of technological resources, it is possible for the school to hire someone on as a consultant. Bogle (2008, p. 4) describes that “the role of the consultant is to engage in all the peer networking and evaluative activities that others cannot perform themselves, and then having done that to share their findings with the wider community.” This position is a great idea. The consultant is someone who is more tech savvy than the average teacher and can work through the different programs to decide what is worthwhile for teachers to introduce to their classrooms. I have a hard time believing that a consultant is a feasible position in every school because of funding purposes. With budget cuts that seem to continuously be occurring in school districts, I am not sure that most schools will be able to afford a consultant.
As someone who is preparing to enter into the teaching profession, the idea that I may have to be the initiator is intimidating. To be a first-year teacher trying to plan lessons and manage my own classroom for the first time and do extra research to utilize the different technologies seems like a lot. In addition, I wonder how receptive a school administration will be to a first-year teacher making suggestions for large changes in a school. This is not to say that I am not willing to take on the challenge if I am put in that position, these are just some concerns that I think need to be addressed while discussing Bogle’s article.
Bogle, M. Bridging the Divide: Facilitating the exploration of emerging technologies that support innovative learning and teaching. March, 2008.
