Journal #1: Do Teachers Need A personal Trainer?

Owens, Aileen. (June, July 2009). Do Teachers Need Personal Trainers. Learning & Leading With Technology, Retrieved July 23, 2009 from http://www.learningandleading-digital.com/learning_leading/20090607/.

In the article Do Your Teachers Need A Personal Trainer, Aileen Owens discusses a program implemented to aid elementary teachers in their usage of technology in the classroom. Ms. Owens is the instructional technology coordinator for the Mt. Lebanon School District in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Though she enjoys her job, she had admitted that the system in place was flawed. There was one technology coordinator for 365 teachers. She would generally hold 4-6 meetings each week lasting 45 minutes with the teachers. The system was time consuming and inefficient. She then came up with a system in partnership with Duquesne University in which students advanced in technology skills would become interns for elementary teachers. The interns would help the teachers implement their lesson plans, and design their own lesson plans, integrating and using technology in the classroom. The interns at times also held workshops for the teachers to advance their own knowledge and fluency of technology. The results were fantastic, the system appeared to a success. The interns were helping the students use all different kinds of technology; Podcasts, Powerpoint, Word, etc. The benefits of the system proved to be two-fold; the teachers as well as the interns both gained a lot from the system. Teachers got much needed help, and the interns got in-class experience. Not too mention that the program was extremely cost efficient.

At what expense are children learning more about technology?
I think children learning about technology in the classroom is a great idea and needs to be done. With a limited number of school days, and a limited number of hours in each school day, where are the teachers finding time to teach about technology. I am only wondering how much time each day is spent on technology. With the increased pressure placed on teachers for students to do well on standardized tests, how much time do they have to spend on teaching technology. Is the time they are spending on teaching technology all for nothing? Eventually certain programs are going to become obsolete, like Powerpoint for example. Is teaching technology in elementary school taking time away from other vital subjects such as language arts and social studies?

Is becoming an intern taking away from the Duqusne students' educational experience?
Are the students that become interns really gaining anything by teaching teachers and elementary students technology tools? The article claimed that the interns were gaining practical experience in the classroom, but what are the technology students that don't plan on teaching gaining from the experience? I can obviously see the benefits for those that are going into the teaching profession, but those that are not seem like they are volunteering their time to help elementary student and teachers. Of course their is nothing wrong with volunteering time, but I'm sure it costs a lot of money to attend Duquesne, and the students have the right to get as much for their money as they can.