Is it OK for a Teacher to be Technologically Illiterate Today?

Week 6

http://thefischbowl.blogspot.com/2007/09/is-it-okay-to-be-technologically.html

I personally believe that your analogy of “If a teacher today is not technologically literate - and is unwilling to make the effort to learn more - it's equivalent to a teacher 30 years ago who didn't know how to read and write,” would have been more true of an analogy, if the subject would have been a teacher not knowing Mathematics 30 years ago rather than to read and write. There is a TV commercial I see a lot concerning the subject of computer literacy (or a simple solution to computer illiteracy). It is a “Video Professor” commercial advertising a fast and easy way to learn Microsoft Office for those who are “computer illiterate”. In the commercial, there is a woman who states, “My three year old can work a computer better than me,” and ceremoniously laughs it off as if she is part of the majority. I thought to myself how sad this is of someone who is not much older than 30, and still has no idea how to operate a computer in any way, especially if a three year old knows how to operate a computer (and that is probably only how to turn it on and off).

Technology is becoming more and more integrated into everyday life, not just the office or the classroom. Computers have become smaller and cheaper and are now being integrated into hand held devices such integrated cell phones (PDA’s), home security systems, fast cash bank terminals, and a whole lot more. Simply put, computers are everywhere and it is just as strange for a very young person to not be familiar with a computer is it would be for me to not be familiar with an airplane. Schools are requiring more and more computerized testing and learning; banks are moving more and more transactions to online services, as well as many other areas of education and commerce are requiring some sort of computer literacy just to operate your accounts by having to know how to operate a web browser, send an email, open and read an attachment with the proper applications and so on. As our class blogged about the ALEX and ACCESS sites and their usefulness to students, educators, and administrators; it is evident that now, more then three or four years ago, that computer illiteracy in today’s educators has no place, especially when it only takes a few weeks to a few months to learn how to operate a computer sufficiently enough to use it as a tool to enhance your teaching and administration. There are a great many basic computer education classes offered either in Adult Life Long Learning programs at Universities nation wide or at private institutions that offer computer training for beginners for the office environment. While the teacher can get away with teaching without computer literacy and therefore potentially propagating this down to her students, it is kind of like teaching the basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, but, never going beyond into the advanced mathematics such as algebra, geometry, trigonometry, and calculus. You will have students who learn basic commerce , but you will not produce any engineers.