Educators told they need to keep up

CEDAR CITY — While some educators are on board the technology train, other teachers are going to need a little push — and all could benefit from some tech training, a state education official said.

"Technology has changed the face of education forever," said Brenda Hales, Utah State Office of Education associate superintendent for student achievement and school success. She addressed the public education appropriations subcommittee and the State Board of Education during a joint meeting at Iron Springs Elementary School in Cedar City on Friday.

Educators need to use 21st century tools in effectively teaching children, agreed Sen. Howard Stephenson, R-Draper. "We have found there is a reluctance to adopt new technology," he said, adding an incentive would help.

Hales says she wants teachers to be familiar with technology and feel as comfortable as she did with her tools of the trade — chalk and pencil — when she was a teacher more than 30 years ago.

To get to that level, the educators are going to need training. "Practices are changing rapidly," she said.

Stephenson said the world has gone high-tech and educators had better keep up.

If you go to an architectural firm, you won't find a drafting table. If you go to an accounting firm, you won't find a green-visored clerk with a 10-key, writing numbers in a column on a pad, he said.

"And yet we find that exact 19th century stuff happening in our schools," Stephenson said. "Why is that? Why are you happy in the 19th century?"

Stephenson added if companies don't keep up with technology, they end up going out of business. But education can't go out of business.

Some teachers say they don't want to learn technology. They're mid-career or at the end of their career, he said. "It seems to me, they need to go out of business — or something needs to happen to give them a different opportunity than they currently have, if they're not willing to step up and use technology effectively," Stephenson said.

Hales said, "The time to start making the change was yesterday."

Board member Debra Roberts, of Beaver, said she believes some teachers just can't see "how technology can make them a better teacher." Roberts added it's not age — it's personality — that is the roadblock for educators. Some teachers are "just gobbling it up."

Smart Boards, or interactive whiteboards, are one example of technology that teachers are beginning to use in the classroom. Connected to a computer and projector, the board is like a huge computer screen in front of the class.