Taking this course and being married to a teacher is an interesting combination, particularly since it gives us something to bicker about that isn't the usual why I didn't take the garbage out or where did she hide the whatever-I-happen-to-be-looking-for. I generally come home happily babbling about all my science fiction ideas for improving education and after about two minutes of this she assumes her usual posture of hissing like a cornered alley cat. My impression from speaking to her and other teacher friends is that this is the standard relationship between technologists and educators in general.
I'm being lighthearted about it, but I think this might be the fundamental problem with education in our country. Teachers are under constant criticism from parents, administration, and society at large. It's a tricky issue. How can we offer new tools to teachers without being viewed as outsiders? My wife told me about a consultant who was hired to talk to the teachers at her school about technology just before the start of the school year. After a few poorly chosen remarks, the entire auditorium full of teachers stood up and walked out. All of them. While a more persuasive speaker would probably have had a better time of it, this man was clearly treading on much thinner ice than he thought he was.
I think the answer is that the implementation of technology needs to come from the teachers themselves. Few technologists are sufficiently armed to overpower a school full of offended teachers, and even if we were, the technology would be implemented with resentment; we would see the same failures we have seen in study after study. Our culture does not respect the teaching profession as much as it once did or as much as other cultures sill do. If we continue to reflect that negativity onto those who should be our allies, we will all fail together.
We must tread lightly.
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