Standards-Based Educational Technology Professional Development

Introduction

When teachers walk down the hallways of a school, they may hear students talk about updating tweets using Twiterific, contributing to a wiki, or being splogged. At the start of the 21st century, these are common technical terms, and it would be reasonable to assume that most young people know how to use the hardware and software associated with them. However, having the ability to socialize online does not make a student technologically literate or proficient. To be considered technologically literate, students must progress beyond the trivial, and instead acquire skills that will allow them to use information in analytic, evaluative, creative, and ethical ways (Cech, 2008; Culp, Honey, & Mandinach, 2003; Manzo, 2009). It is unlikely that students will reach these and other 21st century levels of proficiency until the teachers themselves employ and model these skills. In order to improve students’ technical abilities, schools must first educate the teachers through targeted, effective educational technology professional development (Garry & Graham, 2004). The challenge is that many teachers need assistance in reaching the level of technical skills Garry and Graham noted in their research. Educational technology professional development is a key component in the growth and sustainability of technology education (Culp et al.).

Teachers, who for the most part, did not grow up with digital technology, need to learn to incorporate technology into classrooms where the “chalk and talk” mode of instruction once dominated to the technology age of the Net Generation (Hasmemzadeh & Wilson, 2007), with podcasts and Web 2.0 tools. Educational technology professional development that is collaborative, ongoing, multi-faceted, and reflective is one way to develop teachers who can reach today’s digital learners (Gaglioll, 2008; Ornstein, Pajak, & Ornstein, 2007; Prensky, 2005-2006; Salpeter & Bray, 2003).

This study explored the relationship between the National Staff Development Council (NSDC) standards and the educational technology professional development model known as enhancing Missouri’s Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies (eMINTS). When studying this relationship, I ascertained that the cycle of technology use in the classroom reaches far beyond the standards-based professional development sessions. I assumed relationships exist between standards-based professional development, technology-rich classrooms, and students’ acquisition of specific skills. Figure 1 illustrates the cycle I proposed (Stanfill, 2010).

Figure 1.

Technology Integration Cycle: The cycle created when integrating technology into classroom learning