Casey Doyon

SLM 521

Created 7-7-02

Article Critique #3 – Article “The Connected Teacher.” http://electronic-school.com/2002/01/0102f1.html

The technology article I read was, “The Connected Teacher.” The article was about how technology and on-line training has influenced teachers. With the ever changing demands on teachers to keep up with new standards, testing and instructional technology, the responsibilities of teachers has become greater than ever before. Unfortunately the teaching model is old and doesn’t address the current expectations. On-line professional development has helped teachers to meet their needs. Teachers use technology for the convenience, flexibility and cost effectiveness to learn teaching strategies, earn graduate credit and get recertified. One of the strongest benefits of being online is to connect with teachers over all geographic areas. These teachers are then able to access the same training materials and support. This comes through video broadcasting, video conferencing, online learning communities and self paced lessons. The response has been positive to this type of learning, and participation has shown to be more active. Problems associated with on-line courses are mostly technical, but they also lack personal contact. A variety of on-line training exists; the article warns that you should find one that works best for teachers. The measure of success in on-line professional development is scarce and has been hard to measure. They suggest having a teacher create something to show the progress, i.e. – a project, to use for in-class teaching to help with this dilemma. Remember technology is one of many teaching tools, along with study groups and or mentoring, to be used in teaching. On-line professional development answers the call for convienience, flexibility and cost effectiveness but it also helps with new standards, new technology and the growing student diversity.

I believe on-line professional development is awesome. This certainly didn’t exist when I started college, but has grown quickly. I like it because it offers so much. It gives people like me the flexibility of time. I can do my assignments at 5am or 9 pm whenever or whichever I choose. I can travel during a course and use my laptop instead of worrying that I would miss a class. The downside of being on-line they say is the technical problems, I think there are fewer and fewer problems. I do agree that the loss of personal contact is difficult though. The suggestion to have projects as part of the evaluation to show how good on-line professional development is must have been heard by our professors at McDaniel. I think a project not only helps evaluate courses effectiveness, it becomes useful for a teacher later in teaching. Technology becomes a tool for learning; it also becomes a tool to help teach.

Lottie L. Joiner. (2002, January) Electronic School [Online]. Retrieved 6/12/02 from the World Wide Web: http://electronic-school.com/2002/01/0102f1.html