Professional development is key to staying competitive in today's job market. Doctors, engineers, managers, and many other professionals undergo constant training to keep their skills up to date and brush up some skills they already have. I work at a bank part time and this is something all employees do periodically.
During the readings for this course it has been pointed out that it is important for teachers to keep up with the fast moving world of technology and all of the resources available for instruction. Why is it then that teachers are not given the time, tools and support needed to reflect on how can they use technology in innovative and creative ways to support their curriculum? Not one of the teachers that I have observed on known has received any training on how to make technology meaningful and integrate it with the curriculum. I think this is a conundrum because teachers are expected to use skills that they never formally acquired in many cases.
Unfortunately, many teachers who are interested in professional development end up paying big bucks out of pocket to attend workshops like this one. For a convenient fee of $595, teachers can walk out of there with many ways to enhance their every day instruction. Many students can potentially benefit of having more knowledgeable teachers and a one day seminar or workshop can often do that. I think that schools districts need to make time for teacher's professional development, specially in the area of technology. In addition, I also think it is important to make this training relevant to your particular subject area! That is one of the things that caught my eye about that seminar: it was focused on use of technology on foreign language. I think very often broad generalizations about the use of technology can be vague.
This might of course be entirely too much to ask for, but everyone expects a lot out of teachers.
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