The 2009 Totally Wired Teacher Is…Mike Roberts!
Posted by anastasia on 05-29-2009
I'm extremely excited to announce the 2009 Totally Wired Teacher — Mike Roberts, who teaches technology to students in grades 7-12 in the rural town of Bigfork, Montana.
With the help of Brianne Brewer, Head of Community Development for Dell's Edu4U Community and Derek Baird, an ed tech strategist & much more, we read over 200 nominations of "wired" teachers from around the country. We chose Mike because he not only overcame the challenges of integrating technology into his classroom, but because he has been an active evangelist with his school board and other teachers, especially those teachers who were struggling with using technology. He has helped to transform a very rural school that would have been disadvantaged when it came to using technology into a leader in the space. Mike was not only nominated by colleagues but by several of his students as well. We tried to fly him to San Francisco for the event to accept his award in person, but alas, he is chaperoning the graduation party Sunday night. For those of you attending Mashup, you'll get to see his video acceptance speech.
In addition to Mike, we also selected two finalists — all three teachers will receive a new Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook to use in their classrooms. We chose Kristine Bybee-Finley, a high school special ed teacher in Hurricane, WV. We were excited to see a teacher engaging special ed students with technology and in awe at some of the self described challenges Kristine faced:
Latching on to a projector from someone not using it, then absconding with the Intelliboard that was gathering dust in the library conference room (I swear, I have no idea where it is). Working with a monitor glommed from a trash heap after the first monitor gave out. Use of an ancient computer (1 USB port–shameful) that understands only Morse code.
We also chose George Mayo, a middle school language arts teacher in Silver Springs, MD, as our second finalist. Derek explains, "George is one of the most amazing teachers I've ever met. He goes out of his way to get his students involved in social justice issues (most recently on Darfur) and social advocacy. I love that he uses film making as a teaching tool. I'm a big supporter of student film making and the power it has to teach. He knows how to use tech to SUPPORT LEARNING and is always sharing his knowledge with other teachers via Twitter or other social networks. An all around amazing teacher."
I want to personally thank Dell for sponsoring the award and enabling us to recognize these three Totally Wired teachers' amazing work with students and colleagues.
Sorta Related
A Generation of Change in American Public Education (Harris Interactive Trends & Tudes)
For more campus coverage, visit the Ypulse Campus Channel, sponsored by Campus Media Group.
Categorized under: 2009 Mashup, Campus, Education
June 5th, 2009 at 9:34 am
Another source of that may be of interest regarding teachers and use of technology is the recent MetLife Survey of the American Teacher: Past Present and Future at http://www.metlife.com/teachersurvey. It is also summarized in the Harris "A Generation of Change" 'Tudes & Trends newsletter linked above.
Among the Survey's major findings are some data on varied use of technology by educators:
… value technology and use the Internet and digital communication in varying degrees.
• Nine in ten teachers (90%) say that technology enhances their ability to teach.
• The value teachers place on technology varies by their generational cohort: 66% of those in Generation Y (30 years old or younger) strongly agree that technology enhances their ability to teach; 58% of those in Generation X (31 – 43 year olds) and 49% of Baby Boomers (44 – 62 year olds) strongly agree.
• Six in ten (62%) teachers use the Internet as a teaching resource on a weekly basis.
• New teachers also use the Internet as a resource on at least a weekly basis more often than more experienced teachers: 69% of those with five years or less experience use the Internet as a resource for teaching on a weekly basis versus 58% of those with 21 or more years of experience.
• Nearly four in ten (39%) teachers have taken an online course for degree credit or professional credit.
• Six in ten (57%) teachers have communicated online (e.g. email, instant message, blog) at some point with teachers outside their district during the past year.
• Principals generally utilize technology and digital communication more frequently than teachers.
And evidence that educators have not explored the range of digital communication available for professional development and interaction.
• 43% of teachers never communicate online (e.g., email, instant messaging, blog) with other teachers outside of their district.
• 60% of teachers have never taken an online course.
• 72% of teachers have never read or written a blog about teaching.
• 85% of teachers have never participated in a professionally-oriented online community or social networking site.
… and do not receive high marks from students on ability to teach about computers or the Internet.
• Students rate their teachers lower on their ability to teach about computers and the Internet than in all but one other subject and skill category, including 26% of students who rate their teachers fair or poor.