Current statistics in the education marketplace show that a number of
shifts are occurring. The president's "No Child will be Left Behind" act
has demanded that schools raise their academic success rates, and lower the
measured illiteracy and drop out rates in schools by the year 2005.
Concurrently the thrust in the classroom is to integrate technology,
including networked computers, scanners, digital cameras in order to teach
student additional skills, over and above the traditional three "R's."
This is creating a demand on the educational system to recover from poor
performance, and increase the subject matter which is being taught at the
As a result, the teachers are being called upon to:
• Change their teaching style, to integrate technology
• Change their teaching materials, to include new subject matter
• Radically alter their perception of the educational culture from that
of a dissemination of information to a learning community.
Teachers are already under-paid for their efforts, and often spend personal
evening time doing school related work. In order to facilitate these
changes, the teachers are facing an additional demand on their time for
Professional Teacher Development (PTD) which is typically held after
school, in on off-site location. Many teachers do not desire to attend PTD
sessions, because the needs of the seminar group are so varied. Some
teachers need remediation on computer and digital technology. Some
understand these subjects, and need help addressing the learning culture in
their classroom, and school. Administrators, who have included new
materials in the PTD sessions, have not changed their delivery methods and
thus the sessions can often be dull, slow moving expenditures of the
teachers' time for which they receive little positive take away value.
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