I work for a small business college as an Instructional Designer. My job is to work with college instructors to interpret their content and construct a digital version of it, which will be placed into an LMS for students to access there. Often this requires a good deal of brain work because I strive to have the content stay true to the spirit of the instructor, while ensuring students can learn from the content, and maybe, dare I say it?...enjoy learning from the materials I develop.
We have a good system at the college. Instructional designers do the instructional design and instructors do the teaching. We would never ask instructors to design their digital content materials because it would take them too much time to select an appropriate technology, learn how to use it, put their content into it and then maintain it and troubleshoot technical issues. NEVER!
So, when I was working on a project with a local high school, something dawned on me. We ask K - 12 teachers to do this all the time. Since the EdTech movement began 15 or more years ago, there has been an enthusiastic response from most K - 12 teachers, and some have produced some really good digital content as a result. But, unfortunately, the movement has not made it into the mainstream. We have pockets of teachers that are thriving in the EdTech world, and maybe a school here and there, but the majority have struggled and consequently, the movement hasn't moved very much. I think everyone knows this...it isn't big news.
Here is what I struggle with. We would never ask teachers to write their own textbooks. We buy them. So, why do we ask teachers to develop their own digital materials? Maybe we should ask them to write their own textbooks because I think writing a textbook would actually be easier than making their content digital. Every teacher can use pen and pencil, or they can type on a keyboard in a word document. The textbook they would write, they'd have forever, and they could make simple edits to it over the years. Most teachers can organize their material, write out what they say in the classroom and add some graphics here and there, like textbook publishers do. I'm not saying this would be an easy process because it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of time writing. But, I am saying that the process of writing a textbook is probably an easier task for a teacher to do than creating digital content.
Creating really good digital content takes degreed professionals, who don't have a classroom full of students to manage, hours, days or weeks to complete. It is difficult and time consuming to develop good digital materials that stay true to the teacher, deliver the content in ways that are naturally consumed by multiple learning types and that students may actually enjoy. As an instructional designer, who spends her days only designing, I can say I'm pretty sure I could not do my job while 30 students sat in my space and, while I also had to teach those 30 students something, provide them feedback, assess their knowledge and get them and myself home safely.
So, why do we ask teachers to do something that is harder than something we would never ask them to do? Why do we ask them to create their own digital content or materials using technologies, when we would never ask them to write their own textbooks? I still can't figure it out.
Truthfully, I don't think the EdTech movement will ever take off if we hold to the same model we have been for more than a decade. Showing teachers new technologies in an hour or two long training session and then expecting them to add their content to it, seems unfair. The time commitment, even for "simple" technologies is quite large. Then expecting the teacher to maintain that piece of technology and trouble shoot any technical issues, that they likely aren't trained in, is daunting for a teacher, who needs to be focused on teaching, not on creating content (in a textbook form or digital form).
Even if a teacher does make use of some type of technology learned in a training session, it is likely that the teacher isn't assessing if this technology is actually the right one for that particular content. Instructional designers have a toolbox of technologies that can be used to accomplish various educational goals and before using any of those technologies, instructional designers first analyze what type of technology is right for the content and educational goals. If teachers only have time to learn one or two technologies, they don't have the ability to properly assess the the best tool/technology to accomplish the educational goal.
So, to me, it seems that this model only sets them up to fail and then feel bad about it. It is not fair to teachers to pile this responsibility on them while expecting them to be high performing teachers. You wouldn't ask an instructional designer to stand up in a classroom to teach a chemistry class because the instructional designer isn't trained to do that. So why would anyone ask a teacher to be an instructional designer? And, to do that while still being a teacher?
If this approach to getting technology in the classroom hasn't worked in the last 15 years, it probably won't work now. And if this approach hasn't worked, why haven't we started working on a different model?
I want to suggest that high schools adopt a new model to bring 21st century content into classrooms.
I believe it will make all people who rely on schools to prepare students for their personal futures and the future of society as a whole, feel that schools are not only staying current with modern learning science, but that they are the institutions that are driving learners to indulge their innate passion for learning, and also allowing learners to build content knowledge, develop critical thinking skills and become accomplished decision makers.
We have a good system at the college. Instructional designers do the instructional design and instructors do the teaching. We would never ask instructors to design their digital content materials because it would take them too much time to select an appropriate technology, learn how to use it, put their content into it and then maintain it and troubleshoot technical issues. NEVER!
So, when I was working on a project with a local high school, something dawned on me. We ask K - 12 teachers to do this all the time. Since the EdTech movement began 15 or more years ago, there has been an enthusiastic response from most K - 12 teachers, and some have produced some really good digital content as a result. But, unfortunately, the movement has not made it into the mainstream. We have pockets of teachers that are thriving in the EdTech world, and maybe a school here and there, but the majority have struggled and consequently, the movement hasn't moved very much. I think everyone knows this...it isn't big news.
Here is what I struggle with. We would never ask teachers to write their own textbooks. We buy them. So, why do we ask teachers to develop their own digital materials? Maybe we should ask them to write their own textbooks because I think writing a textbook would actually be easier than making their content digital. Every teacher can use pen and pencil, or they can type on a keyboard in a word document. The textbook they would write, they'd have forever, and they could make simple edits to it over the years. Most teachers can organize their material, write out what they say in the classroom and add some graphics here and there, like textbook publishers do. I'm not saying this would be an easy process because it requires a lot of thinking and a lot of time writing. But, I am saying that the process of writing a textbook is probably an easier task for a teacher to do than creating digital content.
Creating really good digital content takes degreed professionals, who don't have a classroom full of students to manage, hours, days or weeks to complete. It is difficult and time consuming to develop good digital materials that stay true to the teacher, deliver the content in ways that are naturally consumed by multiple learning types and that students may actually enjoy. As an instructional designer, who spends her days only designing, I can say I'm pretty sure I could not do my job while 30 students sat in my space and, while I also had to teach those 30 students something, provide them feedback, assess their knowledge and get them and myself home safely.
So, why do we ask teachers to do something that is harder than something we would never ask them to do? Why do we ask them to create their own digital content or materials using technologies, when we would never ask them to write their own textbooks? I still can't figure it out.
Truthfully, I don't think the EdTech movement will ever take off if we hold to the same model we have been for more than a decade. Showing teachers new technologies in an hour or two long training session and then expecting them to add their content to it, seems unfair. The time commitment, even for "simple" technologies is quite large. Then expecting the teacher to maintain that piece of technology and trouble shoot any technical issues, that they likely aren't trained in, is daunting for a teacher, who needs to be focused on teaching, not on creating content (in a textbook form or digital form).
Even if a teacher does make use of some type of technology learned in a training session, it is likely that the teacher isn't assessing if this technology is actually the right one for that particular content. Instructional designers have a toolbox of technologies that can be used to accomplish various educational goals and before using any of those technologies, instructional designers first analyze what type of technology is right for the content and educational goals. If teachers only have time to learn one or two technologies, they don't have the ability to properly assess the the best tool/technology to accomplish the educational goal.
So, to me, it seems that this model only sets them up to fail and then feel bad about it. It is not fair to teachers to pile this responsibility on them while expecting them to be high performing teachers. You wouldn't ask an instructional designer to stand up in a classroom to teach a chemistry class because the instructional designer isn't trained to do that. So why would anyone ask a teacher to be an instructional designer? And, to do that while still being a teacher?
If this approach to getting technology in the classroom hasn't worked in the last 15 years, it probably won't work now. And if this approach hasn't worked, why haven't we started working on a different model?
I want to suggest that high schools adopt a new model to bring 21st century content into classrooms.
I believe it will make all people who rely on schools to prepare students for their personal futures and the future of society as a whole, feel that schools are not only staying current with modern learning science, but that they are the institutions that are driving learners to indulge their innate passion for learning, and also allowing learners to build content knowledge, develop critical thinking skills and become accomplished decision makers.
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