Blog 6: Technology Training and Professional Development

            I work in a county that has a week-long February break.  Following our recent break, we went back to school on Monday refreshed and ready to reach and teach.  But wait!  There is a promise of snow in the weather forecast. . . could it be that we will get another day off?  Yes, in fact we got not one but four extra days off! 

            Wow, after nine out of ten school days off, I really need my planning period to make copies, access files that I can only do at school, meet with my colleagues about unit plans. . . and then I open my email.  Today is Technology Training Monday!  This is the one Monday a month that one of our county’s tech specialists is in our building and will provide professional development during my planning period.  Really?  Today of all days?  All I care about today is taking care of the grading I did not bring home with me, make my copies for the week for my three preps, and trying to figure out how I am going to make up for the full week of school I lost.  Learning about Nearpod is not on my To-do List for today.

            Does this scenario sound familiar to you?  I will say that I am very thankful and fortunate to work in a technology minded school system.  Implementation of technology is a system priority.  However, one of the issues to be discussed for this blog is the problems and barriers to productive staff development.  I have to say that time and a positive attitude from the staff are some of the biggest issues.  It isn’t that we don’t want to learn the latest and greatest technology that will enhance our lessons, make our lives more efficient, and help our students soar to new heights of authentic learning.  We do want that.  We just have so many other things to do!

            My school has begun embracing the coaching standards and models outlined in this week’s readings.  The responsibility does not fall solely on the shoulders of the LMS.  Once a month, our work site enlists the expert advice of one of the county Instructional Technology Specialists to highlight a new tech tool, provide training on a software or platform used by our system (like Aspen), or enlighten us with a website that will change how we teach and think.  In truth, I do appreciate these trainings.  At the end of them, I always walk away with a little bit more knowledge and the desire for more time to explore.  I mentally put it on my Summer To-do List.  Can you tell I have a lot of lists?  We also have a Tech Tip in each of our faculty meetings.  These tips are presented by a different faculty member each month.  Both of these approaches promotes a spirit of community mindedness that is a focus in the ISTE White Paper.

            When you read the ISTE Standards for Coaches, there is an emphasis on coaching and modeling. The LMS can meet these standards in a variety of ways. 

1.     Visionary Leadership: The LMS should be a part of a technology committee that strives to assess and meet the technology needs of the faculty.

2.    Teaching, Learning, and Assessment: The LMS should collaborate with teachers to bring students into the LMC and co-teach to coach and model the implementation of technology.

3.    Digital Age Learning Environments: The LMS should maintain a current and relevant database of digital tools for professional and instructional use.  He or she needs to provide training to use the tools.  It is also important to become familiar with how to troubleshoot hardware and software.

4.    Professional Development and Program Evaluation: The LMS should work with the technology committee to determine needs in technology training for staff through needs assessment surveys.  The LMS can arrange for faculty members or IT Specialists to train teachers.

5.    Digital Citizenship: The LMS should hold seminars/lessons for students on how to be a digital citizen.  Just because the current generation of students are digital natives, this does not guarantee they know how to be ethical and responsible when using the internet or social media.

6.    Content Knowledge and Professional Growth: The LMS should continually be aware of standards, changes, and content within each academic subject.  This allows the LMS to continue to build a current collection of texts and digital tools as a resource for teachers and students.

Our LMS has found that professional development is often met with a mixture of mild frustration and even milder enthusiasm by some of the more cynical teachers.  The younger, more tech savvy group is able to jump in with suggestions and assistance.  I think the key is to provide programs that are relevant to curriculum and instruction, as well as throw in anything that is going to save teachers time and make life easier. 

I like the idea of hosting a working lunch for teachers once or twice a month.  In middle school, we don’t have duty free lunch.  So why not invite the teachers to eat in the Media Center for a quiet lunch and a little tech training too?  The LMS would have a captive audience!  If more training is requested by individual teachers, then a separate time for support could be arranged.  Short lessons to introduce, model, and share are more likely to fit into our busy schedules.  The teachers who are interested or knowledgeable about a technology could provide additional support.  As much as the LMS is seen as an expert, he or she cannot possibly be proficient at everything.  Tapping into other resources to build a learning community is essential.  

References:

ITSE Standards for Coaches. 2015. Retrieved from    

http://www.iste.org/standards/standards-for-coaches

ITSE Standards for Coaches. 2011. Technology, coaching and community:      Power partners for improved professional development in primary and      secondary education.  Retrieved from https://www.iste.org/resources/product?ID=2157

Technology Troubles

Professional development (PD) is important for teachers to stay up to date with current technologies and most schools/districts offer PD but how often is the PD focused on technology?  Well in Walton County where I live, technology has become huge since all our high school students were given iPads last year.  HS teachers have had to jump on the iPad train quickly.  From what I can tell most teachers are using tools like Schoology, Edmodo, Notability, etc. like pros now.  A little over two years ago most of them wouldn’t have been able to tell you what those Apps were.  The Media Specialist turned iPad guru spends most of her days assisting others with iPad issues.  I envy her in a way but I doubt she gets paid enough for all those headaches she probably has.  Since I don’t work at the high school I don’t really know what type of training or PD they offer the teachers but the iPads have been successful and I attribute that to teacher training.

But now I digress …

I’m in the elementary school where we live in a forgotten zone.  Since this whole iPad initiative for the high schoolers began several years ago technology at the elementary level has not been a priority.  We do have a computer lab that is run by a para-pro who knows how to turn the computers on, reboot them when they mess up, and she knows how to shut them all down at the end of the day.  Don’t get me wrong she is the nicest lady but anything more than on/off/reboot is above her pay scale.  Her words not mine.  The students come to the lab as part of their specials rotation.  They play the same educational games for 50 minutes!!!  This drives me crazy!  This to me is such a waste.  Every student in our school goes to the computer lab every week so why doesn’t administration take advantage of this time?  

Enough of that soapbox.

The school also spent Title I money this year on a mobile iPad lab that teachers can check out of the library.  Yippee!!  The only problem …. There has been no training on using the iPads.   They also spent Title I money on purchasing iPads for all the teachers.  But once again no training.  We do have some teachers that just stuck the iPad in their desk drawer and don’t even use it.  Ugh!  But most of the teachers have figured out tools and Apps on their own or by collaborating with each other.  Luckily the teachers are open to learning new tools so there is hope.

 I definitely don’t want this to happen when I become a media specialist.  I envision working with teachers where I share technology ideas and have them go back and actually practice what they learn just like the Coaching Whitepaper suggests.  I want to take an active role in PD much like the high school media specialists in our county.  There is no reason I couldn't be a liaison between technology and our teachers.  But if I end up at a school where computer time is wasted I might just blow a gasket! Lol.

Video Distribution and GPB

Video Distribution System & Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB)

Video Distribution System

The school in Paulding County where I currently teach has a video distribution system, however it currently does not get used.  The current media specialist was hired in October and stated that she plans on using it next school year.  The school I taught at for 12 years in Douglas County had a video distribution system that was referred to as a closed circuit cable system for watching movies in classrooms school wide.  Each classroom has a TV with a DVD/VCR combo that is mounted to the wall for showing the morning and afternoon announcements, closed circuit videos, and DVD’s.  Non-educational movies are shown via the closed circuit twice a year on the last day of school before the holiday break and on the last day of school before the summer break.   Educational movies are played during certain times throughout the year for instance during Black History Month in February, the media specialist will play certain movies pertaining to Black History Month via the closed circuit and teachers have the options of whether or not they want to show the movie to their students.  All of the movies are played at certain times on specific days throughout the school year and the media specialist will usually send an email stating the times that the movie will be played on that day. 

Teachers are to turn their televisions on every morning and afternoon so students can watch the morning and afternoon announcements.  The morning announcements consist of a news team of 4^th and 5^th graders who deliver the news in the newsroom that is located in a small room in the media center.  Every morning, the students on the news team will ask for everyone to stand and say the Pledge of Allegiance and then ask for everyone to have a moment of silence.  After the moment of silence, the lunch choices for the day are announced as well as the playground weather.  Birthdays of students and faculty and staff are also announced daily and sometime the principal or assistant principal will make an appearance if they have something to announce.   The afternoon announcements via the television consist of reminders for students as well as any transportation changes.  Breakfast choices for the following day are displayed and once the bell rings the dismissal order for students is displayed so students know when to leave the classroom. 

Georgia Public Broadcasting (GPB)

Georgia Public Broadcasting is a partner with Discovery Education (DE), which offers digital education resources to subscribers through the Education tab at the top of the GBP home page.   My previous school had a subscription to DE and several teachers took advantage of the many resources that are offered including the video streaming portion of discovery education.  There are several videos available that relate to the standards and are great resources for teachers to use as an introduction or a review for students.  I have not seen teachers at my current school using the resources from the GPB website and the current Media Specialist knew very little about the site and all it has to offer.