Interview on Current Trends in Educational Technology

639 most important thing blog week 2

I had the great privilege this week to interview Shasta Grimes, my lovely wife of almost ten years. This interview provided me with some information from her perspective about the current trends and issues in the field of educational technology. She spends half of each school day teaching students and the other half of the school day helping teachers as one of the schools "Technology Integration Specialists." She likes that she is not alone in this role, there is a team that collaborates on what the needs are for their school in regard to technology integration. Perhaps the most important thing that stuck out to me in the interview that I had with her was that she desires to help teachers become familiar and comfortable with using technology and help them to be able to bring that information to the classroom. She mentioned that one of the challenges those working in the field of educational technology are facing is the inability to keep up with the advances of technology. She also said that proper training for administrators and teachers is important. Along with that, she mentioned that it isn't enough for teachers to have been trained in technology, but that it is very important that teachers are able to keep themselves informed about current trends in using educational technology. Spending just to have the latest technology/gadget is not what staying current means, but being able to use the resources that work best for their school and in their classrooms.