I recently heard that a college professor teaching a class for soon-to-be teachers had a class period devoted to educational technology. At first, I thought "Great - there is so much to share with these future teachers. They use technology now and he can show them how to adapt it to the classroom."
Then, I found out what he actually did. He told them about interactive white boards and Inspiration and told them that if they find something good, they should buy it. Then, he took them to a computer lab and had them search for "cool sites" and only gave them one as an example.
ARGH!!! This was so frustrating to hear. First, interactive white boards are all over the place and well known. Take a few minutes to talk about them and their use in class. There are many brands, so spending any time on one brand is not useful.
Second, Inspiration costs money. If a district doesn't already have it, teachers should use free versions like Xmind and Gliffy. (http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic91.htm and http://freemind.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Alternatives_to_FreeMind)
Third, he said to buy things!! Schools are always short on money, especially in today's economy. There is so much available for free. Why pay for anything!?
He never gave them an ideas on using social media in the classroom or actual applications of technology in the classroom. This was very frustrating to hear. I did pass more information on to some of the students and I hope that things will change in that class in the future.
