Does technology = more work for teachers?

This afternoon, my number one grandson Paul starts kindergarten. His father has promised not to cry until he has left the building after dropping him off.

He and his parents participated in an open house this week. When asked what he thought of his room and teacher, he thought for a while and then said, "Well, I was very impressed with the number of tables in the room."

While Paul was impressed by the furniture, I was impressed with his teacher's web site.  Not only is it not ugly, it contains a wealth of good information for his parents, including calendars (August 31st is Purple Day), policies, reading lists, and the daily schedule. There are (or will be) class photos which require a password to see. All in all, a very, very nice resource for Paul's parents. Were I to meet Mrs. Fairfield, I am sure I would be impressed and glad that Paul has her as his first teacher.

But as I was looking at this website, a recent comment by teacher and blogger, Dennis Fermoyle, to a recent posting on the Blue Skunk kept running through my mind:

 It seems like the more technology there is, the more hours I end up putting in. I'm not sure why that should be, but it's just the way it is. It seems like it makes it easier to do more, so you end up doing a lot more.

Has Mrs. Fairfield's web site increased or decreased her workload?  Is she working on her website when she should be interacting with Paul, preparing a lesson, or taking a well-earned break?

Every technology should make a teacher either 1) more efficient or 2) more effective - or why bother? (I don't  know that the promise has ever been that technology makes one life's easier.)  It could be argued that Mrs. Fairfield's website helps her to be both: it's more efficient to post parent information online than copying and mailing lots of copies, and more informed parents will lead to a more productive class. What I have often observed is that technology adoption often has a big, immediate upstream time cost with  smaller, longer-lasting downstream time savings.

What do you think? Is tech more work or less? 

Comments

[Dean Shareski]

I suspect it is more work. I also would argue that most of the work done related to technology in the classroom resembles intergrating new tools into old approaches to teaching. It will always appear as an add on in that context.

The novelty wears off quickly and it's no longer fun.

Our task as leaders is to provide more support for changing the learning environment and not just sprinkling existing classrooms with technology. That is certainly more work. But the only motivation is the understanding that it's necessary and best for kids.

[Jude]

I offered to set up websites for every teacher at my kids' school last year and to update them weekly. Only one teacher took me up on the offer, and he decided he wanted to learn how to do it on his own using Dreamweaver. I downloaded a 30-day trial copy so I could learn it first, but we both realized it would take him too long to learn (although I was willing to commit the time), so I suggested teacherweb as an alternative. He set up his website in about 10 minutes, and I gave him feedback over the next few months. We figured out that it took him only about 10 minutes a day to update it with information which was helpful to parents and students. This year he is using an easy website template provided by the district, and he's excited about it. He told me his subversive plan--get the other teacher on his team converted to having a web page, then tell the two new teachers coming in, "This is the way we do it." His theory is that if the four members of the teaching team share the load, it will be even easier to maintain the web page. School just started in my district, so I haven't checked with him to see how it's going. My theory is that you have to make time for technology, but in the long run it makes things much easier, and even when it isn't easier, it's better.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Jude,

I definitely think templates/forms are the way to go for helping teachers create and maintain webpages. These also ensure some degree of consistency throughout the school.

I also think our principals need to make this an expectation if all teachers are to participate. (As long as any technology remains optional, some teachers won't use it.)

All the best and thanks for writing in,

Doug

[Janice Friesen]

This is a fantastic example of a classroom webpage. I have been substitute teaching and trying to observe how technology is used in all of the schools that I go to. I am disappointed how FEW teachers use web pages at all. I am also disappointed to see how many school sites have outdated calendars and that sort of thing. It does take time and there is a steep learning curve, but I think in the long run it is SO enriching.

Janice

[Jeff Utecht]

Agree with the above. There is a learning curve that you need to be invested in when ever learning something new. In International teaching you usually sign a two year contract. The first year is a learning year. How does the school run, the system work. You have a steep learning curve and then the second year get to a enjoy knowing how everything works. Technology is the same way, you have to understand that time needs to be invested in the front end before you will see any benefits. You don't learn to ride a bike in a day, but some teachers expect to learn how to build a web page or integrate technology in a day. Over the long term technology does make you a more effective more efficient teacher, but you have to peddle hard up the hill to cost down the other side.

[Andrew Torris]

I can certainly see your point. I am a principal in Shanghai, China and have been saying to my faculty that their EDLINE pages need to be up and running by this coming Monday. I just completed a rather unproductive afternoon uploading documents, prepping a new front photo and trying to organize my life so I don't have to visit the darn thing very often. Essentially, I am working to set up our users to have links to our more "interactive" and informative pages, including our new podcasts for elementary and middle school.

During my rather soft proclamations of needing updated Edline pages, I heard rumblings and grumblings and I saw a smattering of rolled eyes. In short, the teachers can see the same process being successful using simple email and the old fashion weekly paper newsletter.

I guess what I am saying is for those of the learners out the "coasting" (sometimes to a full stop!) technology will never be something for them. For those out there continuing to learn and push themselves, they will see the buy-back on the other side of the learning curve.

[Toni]

Does technology create more work? Well, after spending my first few days in the media center/technology end of the building, it would certainly appear that there are some very busy people (4 in our technology department), working very hard. Unfortunately, no matter how hard they work, it never seems to be enough. Kind of like your "pig with the wooden leg" post.

For me, technology is a wonderful, yet frustrating element of my job. When it works, it's great, but when it's "broken," life is hell. School hasn't even started yet, and I have been putting in time trying to prepare for the year. It was a frustrating week, as our server went down (it never seems to go down at a convenient time). This resulted in lost time and effort for everyone who was trying to get a jump on the school year, not just me.

I would love to see every teacher have a webpage, but our district webpage isn't even updated on a regular basis. Now that I've seen how hard our tech. department folks are working, I can only conclude that there is TOO much work to possibly keep up with the constantly growing demands placed on them and our network.

[Dennis Fermoyle]

I don't have a website for my classes, so now I should probably figure out how to do that. I will feel guilty until I do. That's another wonderful thing about technology. When you use it, you end up doing more work, but if you don't, you feel ignorant, guilty, or both!

[astephens]

I don't know if technology causes more work... but it is different work. Of course, as others have mentioned, there is a learning curve and until people get comfortable with the technology they are using, it seems like it causes more work and more difficult work because it is new and uncomfortable to them.

Let's compare -

Giving quizzes the traditional way first requires creating the quizzes, copying them and then grading them either by hand or scantron vs. creating on-line quizzes in Blackboard (or Quia, etc.) requires creating the quizzes and allowing Blackboard to grade them... sounds like on-line quizzes saves time in the long run

Averaging grades - keeping grades in a paper gradebook requires recording the grades, using a calculator to average each grade and then submitting the grades to be printed on report cards vs. entering the grades in an electronic gradebook like Gradespeed and letting it do the averaging for you... again, it sounds like it saves time

Of course the two examples I gave are pretty cut and dry, but I think even teacher web pages save time in the long run because they allow teachers to share much of the information they routinely receive phone calls about - class procedures, calendar of events, homework, etc.

Maybe technology just requires more work on the front end...

[Judi Wolf]

I think Doug's grandson's teacher "gets it" - She has found this wonderful source for enhancing communication and sees that the time she spends pays off with more aware parents. Very few teachers will spend time doing something more than one or two times if they find it not leading to results. The question is how to get more teachers to open up to new ideas to make things better than they were before. Increased communication has got to lead to a win-win for parents, teachers, and most importantly students.