Speak Up Research Report
I reviewed the Project Tomorrow Speak Up 2016 infographic. The Speak Up Research Project for Digital Learning asks K-12 students, parents, and educators about the role of technology for learning in and out of school. You can find out more about the Speak Up project in general by viewing this website. The infographic in which I am focusing this blog post on compares responses of teachers in their first year of teaching to teachers with elevan or more years of experience on the topics of how technology is used within their classes. You can view the infographic by clicking on this link.
(http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speak-up-2016-first-year-in-the-classroom-april-2017.html)
When viewing the first section of this infographic as shown in the image above, I was surprised at the fact that when responding to prompts such as, "Use digital games with my students," "Customize digital content that I find online to meet my class needs," and "Create investigations for my students using digital tools" the statistics showed that teachers in their first year did these things less than teachers with eleven or more years of experience. The reason why I was originally surprised by this is because typically novice teacher, at least in my personal experience, are more likely to utilize technology within their classrooms for various functions such as the ones mentioned because they are more comfortable with the technology because they use it so often in their personal lives or have experience using digital tools in education more recently from their undergraduate courses.
As I thought about this data more, it made more sense to me that the results ended up this way. I thought back to my first year as a teacher and how I was in survival mode all year. After being hired two weeks into the school year and having a weekend to prepare my classroom and plans for the year, I felt as though I was constantly treading water just to stay somewhat afloat enough to make it through the year. I had no time or energy to go above and beyond making my lessons digitally interactive because I was just trying to get to know all of the curriculums without any training (because I was hired after the trainings already happened), and get to know the school routines and environment. Therefore, I'm sure that other first year teachers feel as though they are in survival mode, just trying to get to know the curriculum and routines, that there is just no time to even consider the thought of making accommodations to lessons by digitizing learning. Teachers that have eleven or more years of experience know the curriculum and routines down to a science, so they can more effectively spend their planning time and energy finding ways to supplement learning to support 21st century skill development.
(http://www.tomorrow.org/speakup/speak-up-2016-first-year-in-the-classroom-april-2017.html)
This next chart displayed results comparing first year teachers to teachers with eleven or more years of experience on the topic of their interest in various tech tools in their "dream school". This did not surprise me because those first year teachers that reported not using certain technologies/digital tools for teaching and learning most likely didn't utilize digital learning because they didn't want to. As mentioned previously, first year teachers are just trying to get used to curriculum and the profession as a whole, so they probably didn't have the time to incorporate digital aspects into their teaching and learning, but have hopes for it in the future. Veteran teachers are slightly less eager for change because there are so many changes in education all the time, so that is why their bars may be slightly smaller in this case.
When viewing the first section of this infographic as shown in the image above, I was surprised at the fact that when responding to prompts such as, "Use digital games with my students," "Customize digital content that I find online to meet my class needs," and "Create investigations for my students using digital tools" the statistics showed that teachers in their first year did these things less than teachers with eleven or more years of experience. The reason why I was originally surprised by this is because typically novice teacher, at least in my personal experience, are more likely to utilize technology within their classrooms for various functions such as the ones mentioned because they are more comfortable with the technology because they use it so often in their personal lives or have experience using digital tools in education more recently from their undergraduate courses.
As I thought about this data more, it made more sense to me that the results ended up this way. I thought back to my first year as a teacher and how I was in survival mode all year. After being hired two weeks into the school year and having a weekend to prepare my classroom and plans for the year, I felt as though I was constantly treading water just to stay somewhat afloat enough to make it through the year. I had no time or energy to go above and beyond making my lessons digitally interactive because I was just trying to get to know all of the curriculums without any training (because I was hired after the trainings already happened), and get to know the school routines and environment. Therefore, I'm sure that other first year teachers feel as though they are in survival mode, just trying to get to know the curriculum and routines, that there is just no time to even consider the thought of making accommodations to lessons by digitizing learning. Teachers that have eleven or more years of experience know the curriculum and routines down to a science, so they can more effectively spend their planning time and energy finding ways to supplement learning to support 21st century skill development.
This next chart displayed results comparing first year teachers to teachers with eleven or more years of experience on the topic of their interest in various tech tools in their "dream school". This did not surprise me because those first year teachers that reported not using certain technologies/digital tools for teaching and learning most likely didn't utilize digital learning because they didn't want to. As mentioned previously, first year teachers are just trying to get used to curriculum and the profession as a whole, so they probably didn't have the time to incorporate digital aspects into their teaching and learning, but have hopes for it in the future. Veteran teachers are slightly less eager for change because there are so many changes in education all the time, so that is why their bars may be slightly smaller in this case.
That is some great information! I think that you made some great connections between the data and what you have experienced yourself. Taking you connections, I wonder how the data could change if you compared 1st year teachers with teachers who have been teaching 3-5 years. Do you think that the data would look the same? Do you think that first year teachers would more likely try new things with technology if they had more support?
ReplyDeleteI definitely think that first year teachers would be more likely to try new things with technology if they had more support.
DeleteYou are correct in that first year teachers may *know* technology a bit more due to age and exposure they don't necessarily know how to use it meaningfully. This comes in time when pedagogy becomes more solid.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely about the new teachers being in survival mode - doing anything other than covering the curriculum is daunting! And, as Nicole stated, knowing technology and implementing it successfully into your teaching are two different animals. With time and experience, we all find ways to integrate technology and make it meaningful for students.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that one of the main reasons first year teachers don't use technology as much as experienced teachers because they are trying to navigate everything else! I also got hired right before school started so I completely agree that I was just trying to get through the year usually and I didn't have time to research and implement technology use in my classes. Another reason I didn't use technology in my first year is that the student's didn't have Chromebook 1:1 devices until my 2nd year and in our classrooms all we have is one apple computer and a tv screen. If we don't have access the technology, it is hard to use it!
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