What is happening to the technology classroom?

As some of you know, I teach as an adjunct professor at Westminster College in the School of Education. I teach the "Teaching with Technology" and/or the "Instructional Technology" courses. It isn't something that I do all the time but usually once or twice a year I get to teach a course. I love doing this! It helps me to keep current, and gives me the satisfaction of passing along some of the lessons I've learned.

Yesterday I was told that there is a good chance that the technology classes in the Westminster School of Education will be going away. There is a big push at Westminster (and many other schools) to help students be able to graduate in 4 years. This is particularly hard in the Westminster School of Education- there is a lot of "fat". I applaud the administration for making the choice to trim the fat.

I'm not happy that the technology classes are the first thing that the School of Education administration thought of slashing. This is a crushing blow to me personally, just because I enjoy teaching these classes, but mostly it makes me sad for the state of teaching. I think this shows a mentality that many educators have about technology. Typically decisions like this are made by people who don't understand technology. I think we should cut out all classes that I don't understand- let's cut all chemistry classes because I don't understand it- so it must not help anybody (I'm being sarcastic).

A colleague of mine has a mother who teaches in Arizona as a computer teacher. She has recently lost her job because the school district decided to integrate technology into the classroom- thus not needing the computer class anymore. While I find it fantastic that a school district would encourage technology integration into the classroom- it saddens me to think of removing these important classes from the school.

Here are some of the reasons why I am concerned by the trend of removing technology courses and the technology teacher from the classroom:

1. Technology needs an advocate. Without the technology teacher, there are very few faculty who will be innovative and push for technology integration in the classroom.

2. Faculty won't integrate unless they are given the resources. Obviously this is not true of all educators, but most of the faculty I know do not see the value of integrating technology in their courses. There is a reason why they teach and are not computer programmers.

3. Administrators often assume that students know technology "We don't need to teach them technology, they already know it". These students are often more technologically skilled; however, it isn't focused. Just because a kid knows how to use a cell phone, play video games and surf the internet does not mean they know how to use technology appropriately. Students need to be taught information literacy, ethical use of technology, and technology application relating to careers not just entertainment. Faculty need to be taught to be more like their students and explore and implement technology without fear.

4. The schools and teachers who turn their head at technology are the ones who are going to struggle in the years ahead. To those administrators who think technology can be cut- you clearly are out of touch with your profession. If you don't embrace it, you are going to be beaten by it.

I hope that Westminster does not cut the education technology classes, I hope I can still make a difference!