I couldn’t agree more. Another edu-blogger and I had a brief conversation related to your “aha” moment. http://bit.ly/ARojS

What is “technology”? One might argue that a pencil or chalkboard are forms of technology. Why is there so much emphasis on “integrating technology” and not nearly enough on how to become…simply…a better educator? Your quote near the end of the post seems to sum it up well: “To make a difference, it has always been about good teaching, reflecting and focusing on (relevant?) student learning.”

I’m not anti-technology at all. If so, I wouldn’t have spent three years of my life working on a graduate degree in curriculum and instructional technology. Using it appropriately and effective while delicately balancing the urge to jump aboard the bandwagon of the latest tools is a challenge – hopefully one that will continue to rise in popularity in the days and weeks to come. Great post.

We have national curriculum guidelines, which are tailored locally to a small extent. They are from 2003, and hopelessly outdated. What’s more, teachers hardly know what is written in the guidelines, since they use the textbooks as their curriculum. (NB. In my country textbook industry is very different from most. Although commercially organized, the big author teams consist of active teachers and expert professors, who closely follow the national curriculum guidelines). Even though the guidelines vaguely mention ‘learning to learn’, ‘versatile use of ICT’, ‘collaboration skills’ and other important goals of today’s education, on the grassroots’ level business goes on as usual, and the majority of teachers teach in isolation, largely using methods that they were once taught with eons ago. Quite a few subject teachers in my country entrench themselves behind their own discipline and the great amount of autonomy that teachers have here, strongly protesting against any proposals of change while routinely covering lessons, raising a secure monthly salary (which doesn’t require any further training!) and counting the years till retirement (ours is a fast aging nation, so young teachers are a minority here!).

The points you raise about what would enhance student learning at the end of your post are really fundamental. But how to initiate the shift – that is the question! Curriculum alone is meaningless, if teachers don’t need to come together at the school level to interpret it and develop their own school culture accordingly. Teacher training plays an essential role, but there, too, a lot of cobwebs need to be blown away. Strong and wise administrators with a clear vision could achieve a lot, but then there is also an old-fashioned, but highly respected, almost awe-inspiring, system of national final exams here that binds everybody’s hands. The list of hurdles goes on and on.

To finish on a positive note, though, as an individual teacher, I trust I can make some difference, even if isolated from my face-to-face colleagues, and even if it’s only drops in the ocean without collaboration and a common goal for the whole school.
PS. As Cameron, I don’t get many of my colleagues either

I applaud your remarks.
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