In the school where I teach we have a wide range of technology expertise. A few are very technology savvy and a few do not use technology hardly at all. Most of the staff have an average level of technology skills. Professional development in our school is provided mainly during faculty meeting or in team/grade level meeting. The teachers are provided with PLU's as an incentive to participate in the trainings. The opportunity to provide technology training is limited because of lack of time and funding. We are a Reading First School so much of the professional development is surrounding the areas that the state requires of the Literacy Coaches. After all of this staff development when the word technology professional development is mentioned many teacher will respond "not another training."
I talked to my mentor and she told me that the different staff development that she has provided or would like to provide would include: web page development, how to use the resources provided in the media center like the laminator, poster maker, projectors, online card catalog, and how to fill out tech request forms. These are just some of the basic trainings that the media specialist is faced with on a regular bases.
The media specialist's DO's and DON'T's list. In the DO's list she would want to always provide the participants a computer to sit at while doing trainings that required using the computer. In training that the participants have to sit and just listen are not at all productive. If the training is learning a new technology the participants need to be able to actually do hands on practice. Also provide the participants with a simple handout with the direction so that when they are away from the training they can practice. In the DON'T list the main thing is not to require the participants to just sit and listen.
Our media specialist says that her experience with staff development is sometimes good in the fact that some teachers really are interested in learning new technology skills. The bad experiences would be with teachers that are resistant to change because of lack of technology skills and they feel very uncomfortable with learning new things.
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My school is just like yours in the fact that we do not have the extra money available to provide technology workshops for our teachers. If there are any workshops they are in the reading and math content areas. The majority of the teachers at my school are "scared" to use any kind of technology so they never branch out and try new things. If any teacher is having a problem with some type of technology they usually just get with one of the tech savy teachers in our school and we usually help them with their problem.
ReplyDeleteI like the idea of providing staff development opportunities to teachers and having computers available to practice the new skills that you are learning. I completely agree with your last paragraph!
My mentor does a lot of tech training during staff meetings and grade level meetings too. Much of it is done informally and when teachers are already meeting in the media center. She would also agree with you that many teachers do not like change and no matter how many cool and beneficial technologies you teach them, they are not going to move away from the same old worksheets and overhead projectors.
ReplyDeleteWhat my mentor is trying lately however, is to incorporate every technology she shows teachers into something they are already doing. For example, a few years ago, none of the teachers were using GALILEO. But my mentor taught herself all she could about it and demonstrated some of the useful ways students could work it into their project research, especially the fifth graders who do a big PowerPoint project on a World War II figure.
At first, the teachers were resistant. They wanted the students to learn how to use biographies and encyclopedias. But my mentor persisted and even taught the students how to use GALILEO so the teachers didn’t have to do anything but watch and learn.
The students, she said, were hooked instantly. They loved that they could find all of this information online and at home. So the teachers were swayed and now the WWII project automatically includes a GALILEO lesson for all fifth grade students. Informational technology and social studies are intertwined.
This year, my mentor took a Destiny in-service that I created for another class and turned it into a lesson for students on how to use Destiny. She said she has a Destiny orientation for teachers every year, but it is poorly attended. The teachers don’t seem very interested in learning the “library software.” But now the media specialist is teaching the students the ins and outs of Destiny, and suddenly the teachers can’t stop asking questions. “I didn’t know it did that,” they say. “Can it do this?”
So, by teaching students technology, my mentor is suddenly more successful at teaching the teachers!
We have the same issue at my school with the bulk of the staff development time being devoted to something other than technology. This year our school focus is math and writing so at faculty meetings the trainings focus on these. Our media specialist doesn’t do any technology training because we have an instructional technology specialist that works at our school two weeks out of the month. The I.T.S usually does her trainings after school or at grade level meetings. This has worked out well but she sometimes feels rushed to get her training done. I think our teachers would like to know more about integrating the technology in with teaching math and writing. Since I’m the literacy coach at my school, the math coach and I are working the I.T.S to help teachers do this, that way teachers are not involved in so much training but have time to actually practice using the technology.
ReplyDeleteOur school also suffers from not having money in the budget for trainings and we also struggle with finding the time for the teachers to attend the trainings. Therefore, it is difficult for our media specialist to help the teachers learn more about the technology resources located our school. We do however, have one hour technology sessions each month at our technology department but it is difficult for teachers to attend because of their schedules. As teachers, we try to help each other out as we learn to use new technology resources. One of us on our team will try to attend the one hour technology session at the technology center and then report back to the other teachers. This process has worked for us in the past.
ReplyDeleteSince funding is an issue for most school systems, more and more media specialists are becoming the technology 'go to' person in schools. I have spoken with several media specialists that have recently retired because they did not feel that they could 'keep up' with the changing technologies. So, in essence, the roles and responsibilities of the media speciailist is or should be dchanging, as well.
ReplyDeleteIn our county, the district offers tech training classes after school hours at the County Annex, which is not centrally located to many schools in the county. Some of the courses offered are those mentioned in Jurkowski, like Excel and Word training. When teachers need PLU's are the only occasions in which I have heard of teachers utilizing the training. Although, I do think that it is the responsibility of teachers to participate in continuing education; I also think that the districts should provide training during inservices, or staff development days, as well. This would be one of my Do's.
I agree with Holly in regards to training teachers and utilizing resources that they are familiar with, first. Most students (adults and children) are more open and engaged when they have some prior knowledge to build from. Since most teachers attitudes are, "Not another wasted day in training" the media specialist should begin promoting the training session prior to training day. Get teachers excited, complete a needs assessment, ask them to assist in teaching, and always have food!
One of the reasons teachers enter the education field is because they enjoy learning. Technology training can be utilized effectively if you, the media specialist, know your audience, their levels of knowledge, and their interests and needs.
It is important for teachers to learn new technology skills in order to keep up with a new generation of learners. As a media specialist, it is my job to make sure teachers are aware of what resources are available. It is also my job to make sure they know how to use them. As a former teacher, I completely understand why teachers are resistant to these trainings. I believe most educators have the basic computer skills needed, but are overwhelmed with too much work to do in too little of a time period.
ReplyDeleteIf we can get teachers to understand that these trainings are there to make their jobs easier, I think we will have a more positive reaction. Sometimes these trainings don't have to be very long. For example, when we purchased a new ELMO document projector, we took about 15 minutes during a professional development and told the teachers that we have new equipment available. We quickly showed them how the ELMO works and told them they are welcome to check out the projector any time.
I totally agree with your media specialist. I, as well, like to have a computer to work at while being trained. I learn way more than just sitting and listening. I also like the short brief handout to describe the "how to". I particularly like to have the print screens of what I am doing so that I won't have to guess where to point and click.
ReplyDeleteI also liked you section of the daily ins and outs of training in media center. Our school also has a poster maker that is hardly utilized. That being simply because teachers say they don't know how to work it and that they don't want to mess it up. A poster machine is as simple as laying something face down and punching click. It is ashamed that teachers do not utilize this tool, but this just proves how important technology training is within the school building, even if it is minimal.
I agree that technology training is better when participates have a computer to work on during the training. Many times in trainings you can't clearly see the screen from all parts of the room so it is better to be able to follow along on your own computer screen. I have also noticed that teachers tend to be more engaged in the training when they are able to manipulate and explore during the training instead of on their own afterwards.
ReplyDeleteOur district technology department conducts workshops for teachers but our school has started a technology committee that attends those trainings and workshops. Then we come back to the school and offer mini workshops for the staff. This is very convenient and the staff seems to like it.