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
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
I really enjoyed your personal narrative at the beginning of the blog. It captured my attention and my interest. I agree that positive attitudes and open minds are essential to bring technology into the classroom. Time is the absolute enemy though. It is certainly a challenge. There are a lot of tech tools to help bring into the classroom, but there is not a lot of time to learn the tools and set them up. Our LSTC sends out weekly tech tools, and we also have demos at our monthly faculty meetings. I will be honest about the planning period meetings in that the attendance is slim. When it comes down to it, the time is needed to grade, plan, and make copies. I think as media specialists we can certainly sift through the tools and make our recommendations. If we make the user-friendly guides and video tutorials that can be watched in 5 minutes or less, we may just grab their attention. I also think it is good to offer one on one. Perhaps go down and meet the teacher in their room to show some tools to help spice up their unit plan. Time is important, so if we can do the sifting and assessing, we can respect the teacher's time.
ReplyDeleteOne of the biggest challenges that I see in tech trainings is the fact that many of us fall at different levels of mastery technologically. There's nothing worse for an advanced user to be in a session with someone having trouble turning the computer on, or for a new user to feel overwhelmed by the information they are getting. I've been in sessions that I could have facilitated, I knew the program that well. I think teachers should have to sign up for maybe 3 of these sessions for the year, picking out what they think is most relevant to their needs. I like the quickness of giving tech tools to everyone on occasion. My job as the computer literacy teachers for students has morphed into being a technology specialist for teachers, and I try my best to share tech tools on occasion. I teach using ISTE standards for students and I've read through the teachers' standards, but I've never paid attention to the coaching standards. I'll be sure to look more carefully at those.
ReplyDeleteYou make some excellent points, Amanda. Yes, as much as I love to learn about new technology tools...sometimes, I too have been guilty of saying, "can we just work in our rooms?" The problem is that time doesn't stand still just because I have a set of papers to grade or lesson plans that need to be finished. Most of us probably never have everything done, so if we wait until we do to try out a new technology tool, or to attend training on new technology, it will never happen.
ReplyDeleteI do think it is so important for technology training to be simple and relevant to the classroom. I have attended training for some really cool apps and tools before that I have never used. Not that they were not valuable, but they were just not something that could be easily incorporated into my normal classroom instruction. So many times reluctant teachers come into training having already decided they aren't using the tool. That's why it is so important for whoever is conducting the training to make it easy to understand, and present it in a way that the teachers (all of them...) can hardly wait to use it.
Technology training is a must. Though some teachers seek out new things and play around with technology on their own, they are probably not the majority. So, professional development is a necessity. I love the idea of having a working lunch. I think that would be a very effective way to show something new, without taking extra time to do it. Hopefully, even if every teacher doesn't get it, at least a couple of them in the group will. That will allow for each grade-level or teacher pod to have a "go-to" person to help alleviate some of the demand of the SLMS, who is ultimately the coach, but still just one person. If everyone will share what they've learned, and be willing to assist each other, technology instruction will become norm and not just something left up to a few.
I agree that technology is important but it does need to be what can help in the classroom if it is going to be during the school day. Our district has a technology department that sends staff out the training upon request. Our LMS's do not teach as professional development at all. Some of our staff are tech savvy while others try not to even use the overhead projectors installed in their classrooms. I do feel that if there was more of a push to learn technology it would really help the students.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea of the lunch-n-learns. The middle school where my children attended got the PTSA involved to provide "duty-free" lunches for staff once a month so they could do what needed to be done. It would be great for the staff to be able to eat lunch in peace and take time to concentrate on the lesson.
Oh my word. I am so much like you! If I had an extra 4-days off of school, I would be so stressed when I got back -- the LAST thing I would want to do would be sit in a PD about something that may or may not be helpful. (But I did get curious, did you go to the training? Was it worthwhile?)
ReplyDeleteI think that meeting teachers when their schedules allow for is very important. The idea of a lunch-and-learn technology component. Our district has Early Release Days once a month at the elementary level. It would be great to have a specific technology lunch-and-learn for teachers on that day. It would give the Media Specialist specific time with people who want to learn and would give that one-on-one assistance that is very important when implementing new technology.
I think that one of the biggest things that Media Specialists have to take into account is the widespread difference of technology usage with different teachers. There are always the group of old teachers who refuse to give up the ghost of overhead projectors. There are always the group of new teachers who cannot imagine why constantly using technology would be too much for some people. I think if the Media Specialist could offer different levels of technology training depending on your comfort level with technology -- you may have greater responses.
Stacy, I did go to the training, and it is a really cool app. I look forward to the day when I can play with it some more and work it into a lesson. I wish we had early release days!! Those would be so helpful for a multitude of reasons.
DeleteWow your account of the typical day after being out for a snow day sounds very familiar. It seems as though we are always in a meeting. The cynical teacher who does not want to try anything new or who is always upset that there is another training can really dampen the spirits and the presentation of a new tech tool which could be very helpful to them. The use of Tech tips during faculty meetings is a great idea. It will allow you to share some very valuable information in a short amount of time. I thank you for your blog submission.
ReplyDeleteI have to realize that I am looking at things from a perspective of a media specialist and not a teacher. As soon as you spoke about having a working lunch, my faced balled up and I thought about all the papers I needed to grade. But that is the mentality that needs to be changed when it comes too professional learning. I know professional development is sometimes frowned upon because our plates are so full with RIT, grading papers, tutoring and so forth. Therefore, I think it is important for professional development to be meaningful. We have two planning periods; one is used for departmental collaborative planning. I think it would be a great idea if once or twice a month, we would use our collaborative planning for technology professional development in the media center. This would be an excellent time for the media specialist to introduce tech tools to teachers, develop collaborative lesson plans, and address any requests made by teachers.
ReplyDeleteHaha Danielle, your face cringed up about grading papers; however, mine cringed up at the thought of having teachers eating in the media center! I hate when I have to lend out my space for luncheons because most of my co-workers aren't too neat! Amanda, you have presented a great way to get teachers together for tech training. If this were to become a reality, when would you have this training? Does your LMS work on a fixed or flexible schedule?
ReplyDeleteChasady, Our LMS is on campus all day every day. She has volunteers to run the desk and shelve books every day ever since we lost the Media Clerk position. They are especially helpful when she is teaching classes. I imagine it would work the same way. She has a 'classroom' section with computers and smartboard, so the media center never has to close when she is with a class. Our staff cleans up after themselves pretty well :).
DeleteI love it! This sounds very similar to my situation at the school I work at. Our teachers have staff development during their planning time and we have meetings after school. I have been trying to figure out how to handle this situation and how to best help the teachers at my school with technology without taking more of the time they need for planning and grading papers. I really like your idea of having a working lunch. I definitely think this is worth a try. I bet if I provided dessert they would come:) I think it would also be helpful to create a survey asking teachers what types of programs they want to learn more about and what the best time for them would be. This might help the tech training sessions to be viewed more like a helpful session instead of just another meeting they have to attend.
ReplyDeleteYou nailed it! Time is limited and the technology to be incorporated is bountiful and given all at once can seem overwhelming. For the most part technology can make like easier and more engaging for both the teacher and the student. However, if you try to take on too many new technology strategies some will fall to the wayside. In a recent professional development that a colleague and I led on technology tools we encourage staff to pick one tool a month to try out and implement. If you do one tool a month over time you have a bag of tools to go to. I love the idea of a working lunch during training. Killing two birds with one stone. Often times we sit in PD just thinking of all the other things we need to be doing.
ReplyDeleteYour post is beyond accurate and I am glad to hear that its not only my school that teachers are not the happiest campers to sit in professional development meetings or tech training sessions. The past couple of years we have gone to having our meetings during teacher's planning periods. I think it has helped in the fact that more teachers are able to make the meeting (coaching and after-school activities always prevented a large portion of the staff to be able to come after school) but I am constantly hearing the gripes and complains from "those" teachers. We have 2 meetings a month - one is a faculty meeting to be sure everyone is in the loop on activities around the school and the second is some type of technology training. Sometimes we learn about new features of Schoology and sometimes we learn a brand new tool. I thoroughly enjoy the meetings and learning new things but you are not alone in the fact that all schools will have that group of cynical teachers that will always be frustrated. Your idea of a working lunch sounds like an interesting plan. I think offering tech classes and ideas during the school day will get more teachers on board than having meetings after school. So much goes on after the last bell that its hard to get teachers involved. Great post!!!
ReplyDelete