In their Education Digest article, Using Blogs to Improve Differentiated Instrucrtion, authors Michaela W. Colombo and Paul D. Colombo zero in on something I have been pondering for a while- and that is the need for technology education at the instructor level.
"Successful blogging requires content-area master teachers to rethink current teaching models and to make decisions regarding the effective integration of technology. Teachers need to consider how to best adapt content to online format. They also need to experiment and share their work with others in the same content areas to evaluate its effectiveness. Teachers also need access to technology and to professional development. Those who are technologically savvy will benefit from experimenting with new technologies and sharing ideas with colleagues; those without technological expertise will need more focused training and sufficient practice time."
These are big and time consuming tasks to ask of teachers. Is there time in the day for this? If not, what is the solution?
Several times while I was teaching, when the department was provided with some type of technology, we received training during our teacher inservice days. For example, one year the math department bought Mobi Views (interactive mobile whiteboards). On our inservice day, a representative from the company we bought them from came and trained the entire department. Most of the department had their own to use and practice with in the classroom. Some of the teachers who were more tech savvy ended up helping others in the department when there was a problem. (The entire department was located in the same hall). We did not receive extensive training, but it was sufficient. Also, the principal used a lot of technology and spent some of the staff meeting time teaching about some of the technologies she used.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think there is an easy solution because there simply is not enough time in the day. However, taking advantage of teaching about some of the technologies during meeting times may be an effective start.
Jodi, our grade-level teams meet weekly, so we've tried incorporating technology meetings at least once a month in lieu of our usual get-togethers. It's helpful for teachers who are interested in using new resources and are willing to put in the time outside the meeting to practice and implement. However, there's never enough time to work together to really master a new app. It's left up to the individual to determine if he/she will invest the extra hours.
ReplyDeleteAs someone who provides faculty professional development training on a variety of topics including educational technology and online teaching, the part of the excerpt you quoted that stuck out to me as something I should incorporate more of is "They also need to experiment and share their work with others in the same content areas to evaluate its effectiveness." I always have instructors walk through the steps for using tools and recommend that they experiment with those tools on their own before using them in a course, but maybe I should take it further and push them to use the tools in more depth during the actual workshop or as a continuation afterward. Food for thought...
ReplyDelete-Katie
Thank you all for your feedback. It is helpful to see how training is handled in different school systems. I like the idea of having a "learning lounge" where teachers can meet, collaborate, have mini seminars, or sharing sessions, that is in an informal setting (but formal when necessary). Where on occasion there is a guest speaker, but most often a sharing of skills between the resident teachers. They could post what they have knowledge in and post what they need knowledge in. I suppose it could be completely online. It could even be an app! ... but a real world meeting space would be nice too.
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