| Technology and teacher productivity
A high school Technology Coordinator from
Southern California shares his reflection about the connection between teacher
productivity and the use of technology.
By Mark La Porte
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|  he multi-billion dollar question that grabs the interest of the media
and the politicians funding technology is "How does classroom technology improve
learning?" The definitive answer to this question will probably elude researchers
for a long time because the variables are too complex. Instead the questioning
should focus on issues of classroom productivity. Why productivity? We need to
look at the experience of business and government in the field of
computing.
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Mark La Porte uses technology to enhance his teaching.
| | he ability to collect, organize and utilize
information is fundamental to business and government. The unexcelled ability of
computers to perform these functions led to the widespread adoption and
consequent restructuring of these industries that today could not function
without this computing power. The early adoption of computing technology in
education was usually by the same data management departments such as payroll and
records that parallel business and government structures. The development of
classroom instructional technology has followed a much more jagged
course.
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|  irst, for purposes of this
article, classroom instructional technology does not include programmed learning
and distance learning both of which attempt to eliminate need for the physical
presence of an instructor. Instead, classroom instructional technology includes
technology that requires the use of a computer for instruction. It is the
author's thesis that the use of classroom instructional technology has struggled
in its goal of universal acceptance because the educational technology leaders
skipped the productivity lesson. It was this increase in productivity that led
business to adopt computing as a fundamental part of its organizational
processes.
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Student works on a class presentation.
| |  n short, all
teachers do not embrace technology because they do not see the benefit in terms
of their time and effort. The learning curve is too high in terms of the
perceived payoff. And to make matters worse, education technology leaders have
habitually focused on the sizzle rather than the steak. An overemphasis on
graphics manipulation, exotic software, and time intensive applications leaves
many teachers to admire these products but then conclude that there is not enough
time in the day to utilize these jazzy approaches. We have forgotten that the
classroom teacher is faced with teaching to demanding content standards,
assessing student performance, and keeping up with record keeping duties. Indeed,
these fundamental teacher work areas are where the efforts of technology leaders
should be focused. The use of technology to improve their ability to function as
teachers will lead to a more widespread adoption of the use of technology by the
classroom teacher.
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|  here to begin? There must be numerous studies that follow a teacher
during the day and track their actual activities. In a normal high school, these
studies would probably conclude that teachers spend a considerable part of their
day preparing resources by some duplicating process, distributing and collecting
these documents, and grading and returning the same papers. Another activity that
consumes an inordinate amount of teacher time and productivity is the preparation
of supplemental instructional material and the notification and posting of
assignments. And lest it not be forgotten, there is also the preparation and
distribution of materials to the absent, the student making up past assignments,
and the special needs learner who may require specialized materials and
assignments. Additionally, there are new emergent demands such as documenting
student performance of student achievement through portfolios and authentic
assessment. These are teacher activities that need to be a substantial focus of
technology leaders who seek the adoption of technology in the classroom. The more
elegant and powerful teaching strategies of Problem Based Learning and
collaboration will more easily follow as teachers have more time to focus on
higher level teaching and a more productive use of their time.
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Students do research for a joint presentation in their AP European
History class.
| |  ow can technology attack
these areas of productivity? Simply, begin to develop systems that expedite the
performance of activities that require a substantial amount of teacher
non-instructional time and energy.
Of all the types of software on the market,
groupware is the most valuable for attacking productivity issues. Groupware is
defined as software used by an organizational group (teachers, parents, and
students) to collaborate and share. It allows the collection, organization, and
retrieval of instructional information. Organized properly, it allows for members
of the school community to access instructional materials, lessons, activities, and
resources. The time-consuming activities of locating resources, notification, and
informing are either reduced or made more efficient by the use of this software.
It should be accessible over the Internet and can include hyper linked resources
and documents. Such resources can readily be edited by browser and returned to
the instructor as an electronic document via e-mail or over a network. Folders of
activities and materials created by teachers or publishers can be readily shared
and collaboratively added to by instructors who teach the same classes. The
production of these documents becomes a one-time activity by either scanning or
the creation by teachers. Retrieved documents can be reproduced, if necessary,
over networked printing resources.
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|  ophisticated groupware allows for the automatic notification of all
involved members of the group of relevant changes and new documents that affect
their program of instruction or learning. Student produced documents can be
evaluated and forwarded to parents, special needs case workers, and students and
placed in secure document repositories. Ideally, this groupware should be easy
enough to learn that the value in its use will be seen as a large time saver for
teachers.
The documenting of student performance and the
evaluation of the achievement of content standards is emerging as a crucial area
for schools. The time that will be consumed by teachers and administrators in
meeting mandated requirements will be huge. Databases of student documents that
demonstrate student achievement of content standards are the only realistic
answer. The processes and technology to create searchable and retrievable files
from digital and manually produced student documents efficiently and quickly
needs to be developed and adopted. Without a simple process to accomplish this,
teacher time will increasingly be focusing on record keeping rather than
instruction.
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" ... the continual effort to find simple and efficient
approaches to make teachers more productive is paying off."
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ortunately, these
timesaving processes and approaches actually exist and do work. The teachers at
Temescal Canyon High have been discovering that technology can actually give them
more time to be better teachers. While undergoing the usual frustrations of
technology startup, they have become increasingly adept at using the resources of
the Internet and our groupware approaches. The result is, after a year's
widespread use these technologies, teachers are beginning to realize actual gains
in productivity in a number of areas. The demand for printing is decreasing,
classroom resources are richer and more varied, home-school communications have
increased dramatically by the teachers who use the electronic resources of our
campus. Just as importantly, the continual effort to find simple and efficient
approaches to make teachers more productive is paying off. More and more teachers
are committing themselves to the learning curve necessary to use the technology
while the technology leadership has focused their efforts on flattening this same
curve.
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