One of our assistant principals at Sandy Creek High School
is in charge of technology. She
delegated two teachers to handle technology training. Every other Friday during our professional
learning community (PLC) period, one of these teachers provides training on
some type of technology. They have held training
meetings on a variety of topics: Edcanvas, Edmodo, Evernote, Google Docs, Jing,
etc. The PLC period is only long enough
for an introductory presentation and a bit of practice time. The technology training works pretty well for
teachers who are comfortable with technology, but teachers who are struggling
with Infinite Campus (our online gradebook) have trouble keeping up and staying
motivated to give other applications a try.
Another problem I see with this schedule is that there is little time to
put a new type of technology to the test before we meet again to learn about a
new one. Finally, we have met so often
this school year that we have just about run out of topics. There is not enough diversity of technology
or of websites or apps to keep us busy.
We are running into apps that overlap.
I think a more constructive use of our time would be to stick to one
topic until we have explored all of its features before we move on. For instance, in our first meeting, we could
discuss setting up an Edmodo account, creating classes, instructing students on
creating their accounts, and simple communication on the wall. In the next meeting, we could learn how to
update the calendar and how to upload links and files to the library, organize
our libraries into folders, and instruct parents on creating accounts. Our next meetings would focus on other
features that Edmodo offers before moving to another topic. If we had met in this fashion at the
beginning of the year, most teachers would have felt comfortable trying Edmodo,
and we would not have used so much of our personal time trying to figure it
out.
I liked Jurkowski’s (2010) suggestion that media specialists
“coordinate the sharing of skills and information among everyone already in the
school...[and] easily and inexpensively teach each other other” (pg. 162). That would really take the pressure off of
the two teachers at my school who carry the bulk of the BYOT teaching responsibilities.
DO's and DON'Ts list for tech staff development:
DO assess your audiences needs and interests.
DO provide some kind of take-away (in the form of ideas,
resources, or skills).
DO make the technology relevant to your audience.
DO provide a copy of the presentation for teachers to review
later.
DO assess your audience’s prior knowledge.
DO allow practice time during the training session.
DON’T cover too many topics in one session.
DON’T be too lengthy.
