To teachers, professional development means more time taken away from an already busy schedule. At my school, a middle school, professional development is mandatory on Fridays. Teachers are reluctant to attend, because it’s usually something else that they might have to do and the amount of time involved is another issue. Technology is usually not included on the agenda. Occasionally, the media specialist sends an email to teachers about learning new technology like Animoto to use in their classrooms. Teachers are invited to the media center during planning times or after school on certain days for training. In speaking with the media specialist, many teachers do not respond due to time constraints. However, he does post technology tools and cool websites for the classroom on the school's media center web page. The media specialist does not offer technology training workshops since we have a Tech Specialist, and she usually keeps the staff abreast of technology training in the District. The Tech Specialist also sends out Tech Tips through the school’s email.
Moreover, since teachers are busy during and after school, as a media specialist I would request to briefly meet with teachers during their regular scheduled meetings. Beforehand, I would find out what technology topics teachers would be interested in learning by conducting a survey. Based on the results, I would do a quick overview of the topic at the meeting and follow-up with “How to Tutorials” on the media center’s web page for teachers to learn at school or at home in their spare time. Teaching strategies, requests, feedback will also be a part of the webpage along with links to the technology tools.
Dos and Don’ts to consider:
Do offer continuous support.
Do offer quick and simple training.
Do a needs assessment to determine the needs of teachers.
Don’t offer technology training that’s not relevant.
Don’t make training lengthy and overwhelming.
Don’t just teach how to use the technology, but also how to use it in the classroom.
Way to go to your media specialist for taking it upon himself to introduce technology to teachers! This benefits teachers and gets the media specialist name out there. I love the last line of your post, “Don’t just teach how to use the technology, but also how to use it in the classroom.” Telling teachers how to incorporate the technology in their classroom will spark their interest and help them see the possibilities that they might not have otherwise known. Taking time to go to a team’s usual meeting is a great idea instead of having the teachers find time to come to you. I know the teachers at my school are not happy when their planning is filled with tasks not directly involving their classroom, I don’t know a single teacher who’s bore during planning time, most are running around with their “to do” lists getting things checked off & sometimes adding on!
ReplyDeleteCynthia,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I think that everyone would agree that teachers have a very busy schedule and a lot to accomplish during a school day. So, certainly requiring them to attend a technology training session, especially one that they have no interest in would be torture for the teacher and the media specialist. I love your idea of conducting a survey to see specifically what teachers would like to learn about. This is a great way to see if there is an interest for the topic that you are going to present. What a great idea to create a “How to Tutorial” that would allow teachers to access this when it was convenient for them. I believe that you would get more teachers to use this resource because of the convenience. Technology training is definitely a must but it will be a challenge to work it into an already busy schedule, in order to accomplish this, creative ideas will have to be utilized.
You made wonderful points in your post. I agree that teachers are on guard against getting involved with training that spends their precious time on what they already know. Giving teachers training that they can access at home gives them control over their time. Your idea to go to the teachers during their grade level meetings to get first hand what they need or think about training is a great idea. This gives you lots of information and allows teachers to communicate with you as a group. Finally, training teachers on how to use technology in the classroom instead of just learning how to use technology is the appropriate focus! Thanks for sharing your ideas.
ReplyDeleteMy school have technology training all the time. I do agree the training does take away great teaching time. Teachers usely spend all day in training when the training could happen afterschool or on Saturday. I know technology training is needed but it should be done when students are not at school.If training happen during the school day, it should take half of the day. Some of the training at my school only includes the team leaders and they are responible for training the teachers on their team.
ReplyDeleteI do think that one thing we neglect to mention concerning ebooks is the cost that the school would have to deal with if an ebook is lost, stolen, or damaged. That is something that, as media specialists, we will have to deal with concerning any resources, but an ebook (be it a Kindle or just a one book electronic version)is more expensive than many of the other resources we allow for student check out. While I do believe that this is where we are headed, I think that one thing that is holding some media specialists back when considering ebooks is the fact that our students may not be responsible with these resources!
ReplyDelete