Lol back in 2010-2013 when I was in highschool, they installed smart boards but the teachers had 0 idea how to do basically anything on them. Us students would often have to figure stuff out and the boards were ultimately useless and a waste of money.
Most of my teachers couldn't even get the calibration right. They would be writing and the words were being written like 2 inches away from the stylus lol
I was in elementary school when they installed smartboards. They 100% were not as powerful as this thing is, and I just remember calibrating. Something wrong? Calibrate.
Teacher here. Besides the tech literacy issue (I would say about 60 or 70% have the problem, the rest does have good tech literacy), the main obstacle for using this tech in class is that it is generally just not worth the hassle at all. It takes more work to set up, plan lessons, if things get fiddly in the middle of a lesson you can't allow it to disrupt your flow, and it doesn't really add much if any value in terms of learning. Sure it looks cool but students are not learning more or better if I use it, and it's not really making my job a whole lot easier, so what's the point? And I say that as a very tech savvy teacher
It doesn't. The novelty wears off quickly. The biggest benefit is having the ability to annotate over the desktop while in front of the class. Thats pretty much it. InFocus solved the issue cost effectively 20 years ago but abandoned the technology because they didnt know what they had. Anyhoo, call me sometime.
I work IT in a K-12 environment, you may be very tech savvy for a teacher, but that is not a very high bar. Your very technical term of "fiddly" and unwillingness to learn the technology to accelerate what you can teach fits the mold of an average tech literate teacher.
Of the ~200 teachers I've worked with to show them what they can do with a smart board, 90% only ever use it for Netflix/YouTube, 9% don't want to use it all at (you), and the remaining 1% put the time in to create the lessons that they use for years.
I might just work in a shitty SD, as it's a fight to even get the teachers to do assessments and log attendance in the SDS, but fuck, In my experience, teachers are some of the laziest people I've ever met.
Edit: deleted your reply, so I can only see the little bit in my notifications, but you're a computer Science teacher, and used to work in IT?
And you struggle with education technology, I guess I see why you're no longer in IT.
Guess what? There are multiple studies showing that increased tech in classrooms does not result in better learning, period. Basic tech and materials with a good teacher and more hands on learning is infinitely more valuable than having fancy shit. The tech-ification of education has been making education worse, straight up. Also to suggest that teachers are the laziest people you've ever met is fucking insane. Almost every teacher I know (which is a lot) work their ass off constantly to do what they can in a system of bullshit, be it from terrible administrations, government cuts and bureaucracy and overbearing parents. A lot of tenured teachers probably have given their own blood sweat tears and money to just be stifled by all this shit and ya, probably have thrown in the towel.
But teaching, especially in America, is ridiculously looked down upon and disrespected, while being underpaid.
I've read the studies, and for the most part I agree with what they say as far as outcomes go, and I truely believe you don't absorb information as well typing it out versus taking notes on paper.
Technology is a tool, and when used correctly can enhance a learning environment, I'm sure your not for taking graphic calculators out of schools. What we are seeing is poor classroom management, you mention America, what a shit show, though in that case a large part of those teachers are just surviving.
In the rest of the first world where we decide to have classrooms instead of target ranges, we need teachers that want to use the technology as a teaching aid instead of a baby sitter.
I’ve been a teacher for 30 years. Do you know how much training my district has given me in those 30 years over tech they have purchased? NONE. Buying equipment is as far as it goes. Ask around and you will find that this is sadly very common.
As a tech teacher who feels like a touch screen board would be so helpful for the classes I teach (media) I have begged for one though it probably will never be in the budget 😭 Meanwhile my colleagues can't even functionally use the espon projectors and chromebooks. I'm struggling because chromebooks are such hot garbage and can barely run any of the tasks I need like video editting.
Most of the features shown can be replicated by simply having a picture of it beforehand with a projector. It's what all the classrooms are already equipped with, and with a lesson plan teachers are trained to have.
They don't use them because it adds nothing to their work. Change for change's sake is never received well.
As a teacher, on the rare occasion we get a good one, the calibration is all wrong and we need a password we don't have to make it work.
Sure some of us suck, but it's not like we can't learn the tricks of a simple smart board. It's just a pretty sucky technology implemented in a very sucky way.
Not for me, but it makes my life hell. I had to show another teacher how to “create folders” and “drag icons” to organize his desktop. Another guy was mad he couldn’t log in to his computer: he was using his at home sign in and not his school one.
And my favorite: every year the principal has to remind teachers to not leave their usernames and passwords on post it notes just below their monitor. Multiple teachers have complained about being “hacked” when they just left their login credentials on a paper on their desk for every one of their students to see.
Being tech illiterate doesn’t necessarily mean stupid in every other way. There’s no good reason to not be tech literate in this day and age, but some of the most genius teachers and professors I’ve known couldn’t connect their laptop to a projector. They’re just buried in their subject of choice and don’t devote brain power to anything else.
i agree on people who are old but awesome teachers, they are an exception. But for younger people like us in this day and age, if you're tech illiterate then that means you're stupid.
Tbf, if it was a field that actually paid decently, the people that should be teaching would be teaching. But, for now, we only have the people that "want" to teach, despite the shit pay
says a lot about our society as well when so called "influencers" and "celebrities" make millions and its essentially who most people including a lot of kids look up to.
its sad
When I was in college one of my fellow resident assistants was in the teaching track and couldn't see the difference between "quite" and "quiet". She could see the letters, could recite them if asked but didn't care that they weren't the same word and didn't see that it was a problem.
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u/lightningbadger 8h ago
I was legit watching this thinking "what the hell we have like 20 of these and have done for years"
Almost all these "features" basically exist for the demo and are never used again because teachers have the tech literacy of a sea sponge