Teacher Educator Technology Competencies (TETCs)
The TETCs have been written by insiders, and seemingly for insiders.
There’s a lot hidden between the lines. The problem with that is that
while it makes it easier to write a set of competencies with a team of people
with different experiences and expertise, it is sometimes harder to know what
the ideal would look like.
The TETCs were supported by a number
of organizations:
·
The United States
Department of Education Office of Educational Technology (US DoE)
·
International Society
of Technology in Education (ISTE)
·
Society for
Information Technology and Teacher Education (SITE)
·
Council for the
Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP)
·
National
Technology Leadership Coalition (NTLC)
·
American Association of
Colleges of Teacher Education (AACTE)
But what’s missing may have, in part,
been determined by who’s missing.
When I look at the competencies, I see
issues not addressed which are important components of K-12 education Here are terms I’d hope to see used in the next
iteration of these competencies:
· Accessibility,
· Adaptive technology,
· Disability,
· Equity Online learning,
· WCAG,
I know that the curriculum in teacher
educator programs is largely determined by the state education agency (SEA) and
their certification and program standards. That, unfortunately doesn’t
guarantee it to be relevant to today. When I was teaching the required
instructional technology course in an undergrad educator prep program, I
recommended that we incorporate instructional technology into the other courses
as a way of having an option for a new course.
I proposed that I’d create the instructional technology modules for the
other courses. My offer was declined
because the other professors weren’t interested in seeing that happen. So instructional technology was siloed rather
than integrated. While I can see that
the TETCs might be seen as encouraging integration within teacher education
programs, it’s not explicit.
I don’t see how the TETCs help
teachers select the best tech tools for remote instruction. One survey asked teachers how they selected
the tools they used for during Spring 2020.
The overwhelming response was ease of teacher use, not student
learning. Administrators threw remote
instruction onto teachers without support, and many districts still didn’t
provide professional development for teacher use of remote instruction tools
over the summer. Did they not know that
technology does require training and support, and remote teaching isn’t just
something to be picked up and happen magically?
It’s no wonder many students and parents have been frustrated by the
remote learning experience.
