Teachers College's for Educational Techology?

gandrews asks: "I'm looking into advanced degrees in education with a focus on computers. Problem is, a lot of the departments I've found look like they're stuck in the early nineties -- they're still hung up on the possibilities of html and BBSes, and aren't paying attention to organic ways kids are already using chat and email, or how kids become autodidacts ^? using computers. It doesn't improve my opinion any that so many of these university websites are broken. Does anyone know if up-to-date dialog on technology and education even exists in academia, and if so, where is it?"

Comments

cash cow

[bcrowell]

a lot of the departments I've found look like they're stuck in the early nineties -- they're still hung up on the possibilities of html and BBSes
If those schools are able to provide even those facilities, and they're reliable enough that a teacher can really depend on them for instruction, then they're already one up on my school. My school runs Windows on their servers, and can't even keep things running well enough to let students log in and websurf.

Basically most schools seem to think online courses are a cash cow, which is stupid, because they haven't though about all the computing resources that are required.

grate

[tps12]

Im glad somewon is as conserned as me with the state of educational technology. I look forwerd to reeding aboute all the good teachers college's from the smart peopel hear on Slashdott.

No surprise.

[cornice]

Just as with fashion and music it seems that most people step off the technology train at a certain age (late teens to mid twenties I would guess). People teach what they know or at least what they can understand. Combine this with the average age of a teachers and you get quite a few teachers sharing technology that's 10+ years old. Fortunately the basics (reading, math, science, etc), at least at the grade school levels, haven't changed that much. The teching methods have, however. I bet you see the same phenomonon there. Then again it happens in business, engineering, art, etc. Maybe the better choice would be to study this effect.

schools educate, they don't train

[popdookey]

I decided many years ago that I wanted to learn more about the world of computers. I enrolled in a beginner Comp. Sci. at a regional University. Here the shock/enlightening began.

I wanted to learn about networks, computers, and linux. I got a huge textbook and a course in algorithms and basic C++ programming. I was outraged that all this revolutionary technological change was happening (1998) and my University was "stuck in the past." I wanted to learn about new things, and the school just wanted to teach me to think.

I took action. I visited the head of the CS department, the head of the School of Arts and Sciences, I wrote the President (of the school) and I spoke with a state Regent. I learned that schools are institutions designed to react slowly to the changing external environment. The red tape to add or change a program is monumental. This is good.

I withdrew and began teaching myself what I wanted to learn. I got what I wanted. I may not have gotten what I needed. I missed the chance to be forced to struggle with the difficulties of programming. I missed the chance to be taught how to think better.

Years later I know enough about linux and open source software to enable small businesses to compete in a proprietary world. I know enough about networking to maintain routers and an extensive wan. I know enough about computers to build really sweet and thrifty boxes. I know very little about programming: the heart and soul of the computer world. This is what the CS dept. wanted to teach me. I am weaker.

My moral: don't judge a school on what it doesn't teach. Appreciate the methods used to teach you how to think. Visit and speak with faculty. Understand what their vision is for their department. You may find people endeavoring to teach you what you want to know while couching it in more classic studies. If the website for the school is broken, use this as an opportunity to make a difference. They clearly need you.

Universities offer community outreach classes that don't require Regent's approval for credit. These classes are much more current. Try them out in your spare time. In your main time, enroll and realize that a school is only as strong as its students. You will make a difference if you put yourself in charge.

Re:schools educate, they don't train

[HanzoSan]

Schools just give you certification, you educate yourself with the guidance of teachers, and you get training on your own as well.

Schools just need better tools for teachers, I dont think average teachers can teach a class of 30 kids with only a chalk board.

Hope you like eating Ramen

[crstophr]

Being a teacher now is a thankless, low paying job. Both of my parents are teachers and I grew up in that "community". Chained to the public employees retirement system, insignificant pay increases, assuming you don't have to threaten to strike, every time a contract negotiation comes up. You're the first thing the politicians SAY they'll fund, and the last thing they actually provide money for. Our poitical system doesn't give a rats ass about educating anyone because the people running it all have thier kids in private schools. I salute your noble path, Good luck.

A suggestion

[PurpleBob]

Given your skill at using the apostrophe, I suggest you go straight to the venerable institution of Bob the Angry Flower. I'm sure you'll learn a lot there.

One Good Program...

[napoleonin]

If you're not against having to live in the Midwest, I've known a number of people (grad and undergrad), who went to Indiana to study this, and they all seemed happy.

Institute of Learning and Research Technology

[Asmodeus]

..at the University of Bristol, UK

go figure -- nobody answered the question...

[Spamlent Green]

Good old Slashdot -- the peanut gallery always outweighs the actual advice (OK, one or two exceptions: somebody mentioned GMU, which does at first glance appear to have a semi-decent program.)

Anyway, I can tell you from first hand experience that yes, what you have noticed is generally true. I went to the Harvard Grad. School of Ed. for the same kind of program. YMMV, but there was not much thought to newer technologies, and it was still very much mired in bulletin boards and such.

However, it focused more on core educational concepts, so you were generally free to apply those to whatever technologies you deemed fit. It was pretty free-form, so if you wanted to design your own independent research on the technology of your choice, go for it. Just don't expect anyone there to know squat about the tech. you choose.

You've really got to decide what you want to get out of the program: a foundation in educational theory with some intro on how to apply it to technology; an introduction to yesterday's educational technologies (perhaps formerly known as intructional technology); using technology in the classroom; etc.. All of these are available somewhere, but probably no single program offers everything.

Start with the bigger Graduate Schools in Education (Columbia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Harvard, come to mind), look at the faculty, the courses, and their research, and then broaden or narrow your search accordingly, but also look at related disciplines (media & communications, psych., etc..)-- the MIT Media Lab does some crazy stuff, for example. (and you can sometimes cross register from HGSE)

Talk to current students & alumni -- see what they're doing in school as well as where their careers went afterwards. Do these paths mirror where you see yourself?

Also, using the current web sites as a divining rod is not always the best practice. Seems like a good idea at first, but these sites often get left to the students to fix up, and who wants to bother with that when they're neck-deep in course work?

Good luck -- and watch those apostrophes.

Smart board and the internet

[HanzoSan]

This is what teachers should learn