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Education

Teachers College's for Educational Techology? 31

Posted by Cliff from the learning-how-to-implement-new-ways-of-learning dept.
gandrews asks: "I'm looking into advanced degrees in education with a focus on computers. Problem is, a lot of the departments I've found look like they're stuck in the early nineties -- they're still hung up on the possibilities of html and BBSes, and aren't paying attention to organic ways kids are already using chat and email, or how kids become autodidacts ? using computers. It doesn't improve my opinion any that so many of these university websites are broken. Does anyone know if up-to-date dialog on technology and education even exists in academia, and if so, where is it?"
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Teachers College's for Educational Techology? More

Teachers College's for Educational Techology?

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  • It can't be... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Does that really say "Teachers College's"??? Jesus tapdancing christ, that is ironic.
  • a lot of the departments I've found look like they're stuck in the early nineties -- they're still hung up on the possibilities of html and BBSes
    If those schools are able to provide even those facilities, and they're reliable enough that a teacher can really depend on them for instruction, then they're already one up on my school. My school [fullcoll.edu] runs Windows on their servers, and can't even keep things running well enough to let students log in and websurf.

    Basically most schools seem to think online courses are a cash cow, which is stupid, because they haven't though about all the computing resources that are required.

  • Kids don't "become autodidacts." Everyone starts out learning on their own. After twelve or more years of school most people have lost the ability. School has trained them to do what they are told and to trust so-called experts (e.g. teachers) rather than themselves.

    To wit, the frequent demonstrations of bad spelling and grammar right here on slashdot. If you find any TEACHERS' COLLEGES let us know.

    Save The Children: Homeschool

  • grate (Score:2)

    by tps12 ( 105590 )
    Im glad somewon is as conserned as me with the state of educational technology. I look forwerd to reeding aboute all the good teachers college's from the smart peopel hear on Slashdott.
  • Just as with fashion and music it seems that most people step off the technology train at a certain age (late teens to mid twenties I would guess). People teach what they know or at least what they can understand. Combine this with the average age of a teachers and you get quite a few teachers sharing technology that's 10+ years old. Fortunately the basics (reading, math, science, etc), at least at the grade school levels, haven't changed that much. The teching methods have, however. I bet you see the same phenomonon there. Then again it happens in business, engineering, art, etc. Maybe the better choice would be to study this effect.
  • I decided many years ago that I wanted to learn more about the world of computers. I enrolled in a beginner Comp. Sci. at a regional University. Here the shock/enlightening began.

    I wanted to learn about networks, computers, and linux. I got a huge textbook and a course in algorithms and basic C++ programming. I was outraged that all this revolutionary technological change was happening (1998) and my University was "stuck in the past." I wanted to learn about new things, and the school just wanted to teach me to think.

    I took action. I visited the head of the CS department, the head of the School of Arts and Sciences, I wrote the President (of the school) and I spoke with a state Regent. I learned that schools are institutions designed to react slowly to the changing external environment. The red tape to add or change a program is monumental. This is good.

    I withdrew and began teaching myself what I wanted to learn. I got what I wanted. I may not have gotten what I needed. I missed the chance to be forced to struggle with the difficulties of programming. I missed the chance to be taught how to think better.

    Years later I know enough about linux and open source software to enable small businesses to compete in a proprietary world. I know enough about networking to maintain routers and an extensive wan. I know enough about computers to build really sweet and thrifty boxes. I know very little about programming: the heart and soul of the computer world. This is what the CS dept. wanted to teach me. I am weaker.

    My moral: don't judge a school on what it doesn't teach. Appreciate the methods used to teach you how to think. Visit and speak with faculty. Understand what their vision is for their department. You may find people endeavoring to teach you what you want to know while couching it in more classic studies. If the website for the school is broken, use this as an opportunity to make a difference. They clearly need you.

    Universities offer community outreach classes that don't require Regent's approval for credit. These classes are much more current. Try them out in your spare time. In your main time, enroll and realize that a school is only as strong as its students. You will make a difference if you put yourself in charge.

    • Schools just give you certification, you educate yourself with the guidance of teachers, and you get training on your own as well.

      Schools just need better tools for teachers, I dont think average teachers can teach a class of 30 kids with only a chalk board.
  • Being a teacher now is a thankless, low paying job. Both of my parents are teachers and I grew up in that "community". Chained to the public employees retirement system, insignificant pay increases, assuming you don't have to threaten to strike, every time a contract negotiation comes up. You're the first thing the politicians SAY they'll fund, and the last thing they actually provide money for. Our poitical system doesn't give a rats ass about educating anyone because the people running it all have thier kids in private schools. I salute your noble path, Good luck.
  • If you're interested in teaching computer science, as opposed to just using computers in teaching, I know UC Berkeley computer science department offers graduate level classes on this topic. Professor Clancy (http://buffy.eecs.berkeley.edu/~clancy), who taught my computer science class last semester specializes in teaching computer science and algorithms, and teaches many of the classes on teaching computer science. If you email him (clancy NO SPAM at cs dot berkeley dot edu minus NO SPAM), I'm sure he can give you more information on the topic. I hope you find this helpful.

    Oh, by the way, he's aged a little bit since that picture on his web page, so his beard is a little longer, his hair a little grayer, and he has a racing-stripe in the middle of his beard.
  • Given your skill at using the apostrophe, I suggest you go straight to the venerable institution of Bob the Angry Flower [angryflower.com]. I'm sure you'll learn a lot there.
  • As an Electrical Engineer child of one high school and one middle school teacher, and as the husband of an elementary school teacher, I sympathize with your surprise at the lack of truly useful (or at least current) applications of technology in education.

    The lack of understanding of current technologies among teachers/administrators is exemplified in the low wages, budget, and status of school IT departments (where they even exist) across the country. If school systems and the universites that train their staff knew what a danger such conditions posed in the form of internal and external cracking, exposure to "non-educational" ;-) material, time & money wasted on misapplication of technology, etc, then I assure you that far more time would be spent making sure that computers were deployed properly, securely, and for the right reasons.

    I live in Western New York - probably one of the better areas in the country for teacher training. We have several teaching colleges nearby - Fredonia State, Buffalo State, Daemon, UB - and most have little teacher training on the proper application of technology. UB does have a pretty decent campus network, but I'm not sure that translates into good computer training for the teachers that the university produces.

    Perhaps the best discussion of technology and education I've read is Clifford Stoll's 'High Tech Heretic'. It is certainly worth a read for insight into the current state of computing in academia.
  • Here at the University of Arizona almost everything is done online: course registration, book ordering, dialog with instructors and TA's, lesson plans, homework, etc. It really works quite well with very few glitches (though I can hardly imagine the havoc that must have been going on the first year it was implemented). There are only a few peculiarities, such as some online services only being available during business hours. Overall it works great and makes things far easier for me on a daily basis.

  • One Good Program... (Score:2, Informative)

    by napoleonin ( 548802 )
    If you're not against having to live in the Midwest, I've known a number of people (grad and undergrad), who went to Indiana [indiana.edu] to study this, and they all seemed happy.
  • I am a computer engineering student and both my parents are high school teachers. My mom recently graduated from SDSU with a b.a. in French and her teaching credential. She had to take a series of tech ed classes, mainly they taught her about powerpoint, how to build web pages with a simple web creation tool. She had projects where she had to build a whole web site with a sylabus(spelling?), notes, links etc. etc. The gave these educational websites some buzz word name "infotracks" or something like that can't really remember. Personally I think 90% of the kids already know how to use a computer by the time they enter school. Its the teachers just trying to save face by showing the kids they know too. I can't think of any class that has been enriched by the teachers use of technology save my programming classes but hey thats kind of a given. Actually once my math professor brought in a laptop and played some 4d space simulations that was cool but kind of useless. Several profs have tried using message boards and assigning that every student post two site related to clas etc etc Complete waste of time maybe the same two suck up students used the board the same time and eveyone else posted www.computers.com or something lame like that. I think students should be given assignments that require a computer but dont give them any set way of doing (like telling them what software to use) Let them come up with the solutions and use technology how they best see fit, ie instant messeging group mates, and using a yahoo briefcase to share files, vs the group that uses irc to do the whole project whatever but let htem figure it out. As far as education for the teachers I think most new teachers should alread have a good background in computers and they should be more worried about what they are teaching than how they can use the newest wiz bang technology to teach the same old thing. If you teaching computers then you should have a comp sci degree anywyas and will completely ignore any tech-ed class

  • One of my supervisors (god I have like 5) likes to talk about how he can see the "view from 30,000 feet" or somesuch, and that I shouldn't ask questions like the one posted here, because I can't see the whole picture.

    Well, buddy, I can see the whole picture, and it is grim. Teachers and the technology staff that support them are woefully undertrained and underfunded. The plain truth is that there is very little in the way of current training for educators when it comes to technology. In the backwater where I serve as lead web whipping boy, the state instituted (by legislative proclamation) that all (did you read that, all, all as in the coaches and the little old ladies doing Home-Ec) teachers must be proficient in the use of technology by either this year or next...




    Except that there is a problem..
    The legislature neglected to require a minimum standard of proficiency, and also neglected to fund this requirement (that's right, no new money to train teachers to meet this unknown requirement).
    Also, each school district can determine on their own what the requirement is, and only has to supply a one page notification on their level of compliance...

    In other words, they paid it lip-service. There are a lot of other areas where they have done a good job on enabling the schools with technology, like connecting every school to the internet, and making sure we have a god-awful number of computers in each school, but on this one, they dropped the ball.

    In short, what you are looking for, past powerpoint classes and "How to use frontpage and excel to post grades to the web!", doesn't exist.




    (obligatory blurb about how when I post anonymously, it always gets modded up, and vice-versa when posted non-anon.)
  • ..at the University of Bristol, UK

  • My personal experience echoes what others have said - you'd think that Ed. Tech programs would be paragons of technical literacy themselves, but alas. (My alma mater UW [washington.edu] is a case in point.)

    For my masters' degree, I chose a long-running distance program at GWU [gwu.edu]; sort of putting my money where my mouth is, so to speak. I'm looking forward to starting next week, and hope the dialogs are up-to-date and up to my expectations. Other programs I considered were Pepperdine [pepperdine.edu], MU [missouri.edu], and Boise State [boisestate.edu]

    Another resource to check out of course is ISTE [iste.org], and I'm sure there are others like it.

  • Good old Slashdot -- the peanut gallery always outweighs the actual advice (OK, one or two exceptions: somebody mentioned GMU, which does at first glance appear to have a semi-decent program.)

    Anyway, I can tell you from first hand experience that yes, what you have noticed is generally true. I went to the Harvard Grad. School of Ed. for the same kind of program. YMMV, but there was not much thought to newer technologies, and it was still very much mired in bulletin boards and such.

    However, it focused more on core educational concepts, so you were generally free to apply those to whatever technologies you deemed fit. It was pretty free-form, so if you wanted to design your own independent research on the technology of your choice, go for it. Just don't expect anyone there to know squat about the tech. you choose.

    You've really got to decide what you want to get out of the program: a foundation in educational theory with some intro on how to apply it to technology; an introduction to yesterday's educational technologies (perhaps formerly known as intructional technology); using technology in the classroom; etc.. All of these are available somewhere, but probably no single program offers everything.

    Start with the bigger Graduate Schools in Education (Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Harvard, come to mind), look at the faculty, the courses, and their research, and then broaden or narrow your search accordingly, but also look at related disciplines (media & communications, psych., etc..)-- the MIT Media Lab does some crazy stuff, for example. (and you can sometimes cross register from HGSE)

    Talk to current students & alumni -- see what they're doing in school as well as where their careers went afterwards. Do these paths mirror where you see yourself?

    Also, using the current web sites as a divining rod is not always the best practice. Seems like a good idea at first, but these sites often get left to the students to fix up, and who wants to bother with that when they're neck-deep in course work?

    Good luck -- and watch those apostrophes.
  • And it's available by distance education!
    http://www.tamu.edu/ode/disted/

    There's also a Master Technology Teacher certification in the works for this Fall.
    http://cecoe.tamu.edu/
  • This is what teachers should learn

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