Are Schools Listening to Teachers about #EdTech?

Feedback & Shout Outs (1:19) 2022 House of #EdTech Smackdown! Coming in episode 215 - Submit your entry by December 9, 2022. EdTech Thought (3:30) Paying for Twitter Verification. Don't be a Sneetch! EdTech Recommendation (7:16) Scribe Chrome Extension Use the Scribe Chrome Extension to automatically generate step-by-step guides for any process in seconds. Spend less time explaining and more time doing. Scribe generates an interactive screenshot and text description for each step. Easily share with colleagues and students. Featured Content (8:38) When It Comes to Picking Edtech, Are Schools Listening to Teachers? (EdSurge) When your school or district decides to invest in and make a new edtech product available, the goal is to transform student learning and add value to their experiences in the classroom. But where in the process do you fit in? If you're a teacher what, if any, is your role? And how much say do you—or should you—have in edtech decisions? In a survey released earlier this year, the edtech company Clever found that 85 percent of administrators say teachers are involved in choosing tools. When the company asked teachers, more than 60 percent said they were hardly ever—or never—involved in those choices. So which is it? Do You Have a Seat at the Table Is there enough teacher voice in the edtech selection process? NO. Why? Well first, teachers aren't the people in a position to spend district resources and sign contracts with vendors. At a fundamental level, this puts distance between the companies and the teachers. #2...when it comes to purchasing #edtech focus is usually on the tech and not the education. So your tech personnel is usually more involved because the tech needs to work before it can be used to teach. Striking a Balance So how do we find that balance? A major obstacle is that teachers, and I've been guilty of this, don't always see the big picture and have that birds-eye view. Think data security, FERPA, & COPPA. Schools and districts can easily involve teachers by running pilot programs before widespread adoption and implementation. Let some teachers kick the tires with their students and get feedback. This makes perfect sense because at a basic level people want to be heard and valued and if technology is just being mandated then, teachers don't feel heard or valued. Speaking of mandates...that's not always the best idea. Making everyone use one specific tool isn't always what's good for everyone. Choice and options are powerful. Who Gets a Say? Typically it's people out of the classroom who have the most say. Sometimes that's completely valid. There are plenty of organizations, certifications, and degrees that can give a person the knowledge to make those decisions and have a lot of pull in the conversations. But if a person is all books smart and not street smart - and by street smart I mean 5 or more years of classroom experience - then their opinion and POV don't hold as much water - in my opinion. Technology can make a teacher's life easier but it will never replace us and there is no magic pill that will solve all edtech issues. So beware of those that sell this brand of #edtech snake oil.