Students are, by far, more tech savvy that most teachers could ever dream of being. I believe that technology assessments for teachers are extremely important for evaluating the needs of individuals and targeting professional development activities that will meet those individual needs. In extension, it becomes important for technology coordinators to schedule professional development activities for those targeted needs and then require attendance based on the results of the assessment by individual not mandating an entire school or content area to participate. This would ensure meaningful and quality professional development activities for everyone.
The problem is that assessment tools such as LoTI only assess levels of implementation not actual skill levels of teachers. Therefore, the information is skewed and inaccurate in that regard. I have been taking the LoTI assessment for at least 6 years, most likely longer, to my never ending frustration.
As a fine arts teacher I can teach 21st century skills without ever stepping foot into a computer lab. My students always are required to think critically, analytically, and creatively as they engage in finding personal and creative solutions/ways of expressing important ideas. They constantly must evaluate and assess those ideas. Having said that I do bring my students to the computer lab for research activities at least once per marking period and I use it for teaching art history lessons. According to LoTI this is not enough, and I even look as though I am not the least bit technology literate, which is an absolutely false assessment.
I am capable of integrating more technology into my lessons but I am not willing to do that at the expense of working with the vast array of art media. After all, I am teaching fine arts, not graphic arts and design. I only see my students for 45 minutes per day for nine weeks.
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