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Just-in-Time Training

By Doug Johnson

I'll confess I have little patience for most classes and workshops, whether they’re about technology or anything else. Sitting, even for a few hours, and listening to a presenter drone does little for me except help develop a strong empathy for our kids.

Which raises the question: Is technology training a good investment of our energy and time, or is it just another fad? Technology is a permanent fixture in education and virtually every other industry, so if you, as a teacher, have scarce time to devote to learning new skills, learning the ones that will last you the rest of your career is a sound investment. And all teachers need to be technologically literate. If we aren’t, we are as unethical as a doctor who refuses to learn how to take advantage of a CAT scan.

The International Society for Technology in Education does a good, if ambitious, job of describing what teachers should know and be able to do with technology in its National Educational Technology Standards (see www.cnets.iste.org/teachers ). But until somebody invents a brain chip that imbues the implantee with these skills instantly, teachers will need learning...