When our school's technology facilitator left to go to another school in our county, I inherited the technology facilitator position at my school. Last year, I was also a part-time tech fac, but I worked as part of a team. Now, I'm alone.
In the first three work days of the school year, I think I've been approached by about 40 teachers with technology issues. I've even gotten e-mails over the weekend. The main problem seems to be the printer management software system our district installed over the summer. It's supposed to save us money, but we have a ton of people that can't print at all. There are other problems, too, of course, and I'm playing catchup trying to get everything resolved.
One thing that has struck me about the teaching profession is how technology-illiterate so many teachers appear to be. When I worked in the TV business, no one asked me for help, because we all had a basic level of "technology competence," for lack of a better term. Since I've started teaching, I've helped plug LCD projectors to laptops umpteen times, exhorted people to clean out their e-mail when it hits 100% capacity umpteen times, and helped many a folk with a mere point-and-click.
I don't mind helping people; I actually enjoy it. But I'm wondering what goes on in education colleges in terms of technology training. Is there any? And why do so many veteran teachers insist on not learning anything new? Did they cling to their chalkboards when the district was installing dry erase boards?
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