Posted by:
Julie Young
Building admin/coordinator
Orlando, FL

Topic:
Critical Issues

Message:
I believe the most critical issues facing Technology Leadership today in our schools is a lack of teacher training and teacher compensation. The lack of teacher training is obvious. We expect teachers to infuse technology into their classrooms and their lessons; we even give them computers, but there is rarely enough dollars to properly train teachers to a level of comfort and competence. It is certainly no surprise that our students in most cases are much more savvy than our teachers which creates insecurity with some educators.

I also believe compensation is a two fold issue. First, if we expect teachers to seek training opportunities we must give them either release time or compensation for additional hours of work related training. Secondly, many of our very skilled technical educators are leaving our profession to seak employment elsewhere for a substantial increase in salary. In my opinion, until we solve the compensation issue, everything else will remain secondary.There is a great article in the October 2, 2000 Newsweek regarding the teacher shortage. It is excellent food for thought.

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