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.
Laurie-
ReplyDeleteThat is so unfortunate that the technology is not being used. What role do you play at the school you work in? Are you currently pursuing your degree or do you have one. I was thinking if you were already a teacher maybe you could volunteer you time to teach the teachers a thing or two about the iPads.
Laurie you crack me up! But some of the things you bring up in your post are quite discouraging. It seems like kids should be learning things in a computer class, like code or something useful, not just playing "educational" games for 50 minutes of their day. It is also amazing to me (and not in the good way) that the school system would simply throw iPads at teachers without giving them the proper tools to use this equipment in their classroom. Do they think everyone is automatically wired to successfully operate an iPad without any instruction whatsoever? Clearly that is not the case... I can only imagine what I would do if I worked in a school where students basically had a free period to play games on the computer... a gasket would be the least of my concerns :) -MC
ReplyDeleteDo you work at my school??????? Your blog cracks me up because it sounds so familiar. Our computer lab technician does the exact same thing. She monitors the students as they play an educational game every day for 45 minutes. This too is once a week during the students specials time. What a waste!!! So many more avenues can be explored with technology if just given the opportunity for the students. Unfortunately this position is paid as a paraprofessional and little to no training is required.
ReplyDeleteWe too have spent a ton of Title 1 money on IPads, I pods, tablets, and xooms with NO training. These devices are wonderful and can be used in so many ways if the teachers just knew how. This being my first year as a media specialist I have spent countless hours trying to train myself on these devices just to become familiar with them. However that has not helped the teachers or the students with utilizing these tools.
I would eventually like to have workshops on these devices and demonstrate different software availabilities for them. However, if I haven’t been trained on them how can I train others? I feel this is a major problem with how these funds (such as Title 1) can be allocated. If you are able to purchase these items with this funding you should be able to purchase training as well.
Great job on your post!
If your school has Title I money, they are wasting it on a paraprofessional in the technology lab. Not that a parapro couldn't handle teaching lessons in the lab, but they really don't get paid enough to be responsible for preparing and teaching lessons. My school was formerly Title I, and we had two tech labs run by teachers. I was one of them for four years. It was absolutely fabulous for the students to learn tech skills from kindergarten up. Our feeder middle school always said our students were head and shoulders above the other students coming from other schools without tech teachers. Unfortunately, our school zone was redistricted so we lost our Title I status and the money for the technology teaching positions. That's where my pursuit of a SLMS degree came in. I love teaching technology and have a strong background in Reading. The combination of the two became a selling point to my principal when I started my degree and asked to move into our media center under a provisional certificate. The new role of the media specialist in a school is really that of a technology specialist with a strong knowledge of library management. Many schools are pushing older, less tech savvy media specialists to retire in order to bring in personnel that can handle the added responsibilities of teaching technology skills to students and staff. Most of my lessons integrate technology and library skills. It's rare to just have a class come to the media center to hear a simple story these days. My how things change!
ReplyDeleteI have seen this instinctive of having iPads in the schools in both high school and middle school. At the high school I volunteered at the teachers had to sign up in advance to get their turn at the iPads. In Cobb County, I haven’t heard of teachers and media specialists getting any training on how to use this tool and others that are available to them. I would have to agree with you that I don’t want the staff of my future media center to go without any technology training. I think we need to get in action the type of professional development needed in the schools to the state level employees. We need to let them know that we want our students to have a better future with the help of technology.
ReplyDeleteHi Laurie,
ReplyDeleteI think iPads have changed technology usage for many districts. Those that have gone all out and purchased them for every student or even carts of them for classrooms are getting teachers more interested. iPads have so many apps that can do so many different things. There is something for everyone. I think teachers and students enjoy their versatility. I am sure it can become a problem for a media specialist if they are the only one really dealing with isses, which makes you wonder should it be their problem. I think with all the new technology comes new problems that have to be addressed. Since this is new to all of us, I think there are issues that will have to be be acknowledged by districts so effective plans can be made to reduce problems...such as training and technical support.
I can definitely relate to what you are saying about technology troubles in the classroom. I am currently a part time Title 1 Teacher in Paulding County. This is my first year in this position, school and county. Part of my job is to take students to the computer lab daily to enhance their technology skills. I mostly work with students in grades k-2 and have groups of 2-5 students for about 30 minutes at a time. Most of the students I work with need help with reading and/or math, so I usually put them on websites that will focus on improving their reading and math scores, such as www.ixl.com. The teachers have weekly computer lab times where the teachers bring the students for approx. 5o minutes to work on websites such as www.myon.com or www.ixl.com. I have seen some students in the lab typing papers but for the most part, students are using educational websites when they are in the computer lab. The younger grades use websites such as www.abcya.com or www.coolmath.com. These are educational related game playing websites. The computer lab is also used for students to complete teacher surveys and benchmark assessments. In the next few weeks, 3rd -5th graders are going to be pulled into the computer lab to familiarize them with the GA Milestones Testing format on the computer. 4th and 5th grades have mini dell laptops that students can also use, however more often than not the laptops are not charged or won’t connect to the internet so they aren’t very reliable. Since getting hired in October, I have found that the internet connection is down quite often. It seems to happen at least once a day, which is very frustrating.
ReplyDeleteIt is important not to remain an island and try to reinvent the wheel when it comes to finding and learning new apps, games and tools that are relevant to our students and teachers. We don't have to know it all from the very beginning before presenting and sharing our knowledge. First, I think it is important to share as we learn so that everyone is learning along with us. Also, we need to reach out to teachers in the school to work with us collaboratively. Next, media specialists in the district can be a resource for what is working for them in the media center and how they are accomplishing this. Don't forget that Lmnet is always available with archived questions and answers regarding anything library media.
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