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Have you ever asked other teachers for help with a new technology offered to you in your school or classroom and received an "I'm sorry, but I don't know how to work it either" reply? Or to make things even worse, you go to your media specialist and ask for help only to hear "I have no idea, I am sorry." Well, I don't know about you, but I have been in those situations and found them VERY frustrating! As a teacher I wanted so desperately to utilize all the tools available to me in order to enrich my lessons and address all my student's learning styles. However, I was not trained on the new technology given to me and neither were my colleagues or the school's media specialist. During faculty meetings we, the teachers and media specialist, would ask the administration for some type of training on the new equipment. Each time we made the request we were told that the budget would not allow for tech trainers to come in and explain the equipment to us. Not only was this irritating, but it just did not make any sense. For one thing, why spend the money on equipment if the teachers and media specialist can not be trained to properly use it? If fiscal issues are the reason for lack of technology training, why would the equipment be purchased in the first place? Doesn't it seem like a waste of money to have equipment just sitting and not being used? We asked ourselves how can we remedy this situation? There must be a way to solve this problem so that we can use the great technology available to benefit our students. After all, we were eager and willing--and as the old saying goes "where there's a will, there's a way"!! We (the teachers and media specialist) decided to take matters into our own hands and be resourceful. We all put our heads together and made a list of people that we knew personally who worked with the newest in educational technology--in particular the new Promethean boards and LCD projectors. We soon found out that between all of us we knew no less than 10 people that worked in the field. We made some phone calls and before we knew it we were having technology training in our school. This training was offered in the evenings and periodically on weekends. Best of all--the training was FREE! The technology trainers donated their time to the school community. You may be thinking what is the meaning of all this?? What is the big deal? WHY IS TECHNOLOGY TRAINING SO IMPORTANT??? Let me explain...
Upon receiving the proper training on the use and set-up of the new technologies offered in our school, teachers began using the equipment on a daily basis. Student achievement went up and enthusiasm for learning became evident. Students seemed to enjoy learning with the new Promethean boards. It was a great change from the old overhead projectors the teachers had been using. Communication between teachers and students increased and students became more interested in the lessons being taught. If technology training had not occurred, the equipment would still be sitting there unused, resulting in a waste of funds and a waste of educational opportunities.
Technology training is a MUST in schools with the latest in educational technologies. From Promethean boards to LCD projectors, teachers and media specialists need to understand how to use them. School administrators need to recognize the importance of such training and do whatever is feasible to insure that teachers and media specialists have the training they need to properly utilize the equipment. At the very least, media specialists in the schools need to be taught how to use the equipment so that they can instruct teachers on how to use the technology. This is a great way to encourage collaboration between media specialists and teachers. Media specialists should actively inquire on in-services that teachers have interest in attending so that their time is utilized to the greatest extent. No one like for his/her valuable time to be wasted. A needs assessment should be completed to see what the needs of the faculty are in regard to technology. For instance, what do they want to learn more about? What technologies do they have in their classrooms that they do not know how to use properly? Once the media specialist knows what the faculty want, he/she can better create an in-service to address these needs. The main goal is technology training. It is my humble opinion that all schools need to offer it!
Upon receiving the proper training on the use and set-up of the new technologies offered in our school, teachers began using the equipment on a daily basis. Student achievement went up and enthusiasm for learning became evident. Students seemed to enjoy learning with the new Promethean boards. It was a great change from the old overhead projectors the teachers had been using. Communication between teachers and students increased and students became more interested in the lessons being taught. If technology training had not occurred, the equipment would still be sitting there unused, resulting in a waste of funds and a waste of educational opportunities.
Technology training is a MUST in schools with the latest in educational technologies. From Promethean boards to LCD projectors, teachers and media specialists need to understand how to use them. School administrators need to recognize the importance of such training and do whatever is feasible to insure that teachers and media specialists have the training they need to properly utilize the equipment. At the very least, media specialists in the schools need to be taught how to use the equipment so that they can instruct teachers on how to use the technology. This is a great way to encourage collaboration between media specialists and teachers. Media specialists should actively inquire on in-services that teachers have interest in attending so that their time is utilized to the greatest extent. No one like for his/her valuable time to be wasted. A needs assessment should be completed to see what the needs of the faculty are in regard to technology. For instance, what do they want to learn more about? What technologies do they have in their classrooms that they do not know how to use properly? Once the media specialist knows what the faculty want, he/she can better create an in-service to address these needs. The main goal is technology training. It is my humble opinion that all schools need to offer it!
Holly,
I love the way you write! I think it would be wonderful if all teachers would embrace digital storytelling. I can still hear Dr. Bennett saying in class, "But it takes too much time.." And I have to say, I have been working many hours on my 2 minute video on Moviemaker. Finding the images that do not violate copyright law is what takes a long time. Of course, I did choose to use a health standard instead of a history or science one.
Another thing I thought about is in many schools, especially ones in rural communities, teachers have limited access to computers. At Madison County High School, there is just one computer lab and there are almost 1,500 students there. Unfortunately, most teachers are not going to be so ambitious as to go to garage sales to set up their on classroom labs. Often, the computer lab gets signed up for the entire semester within the first few weeks of class.
I do agree that digital storytelling is a great way to reach students that learn in different modalities. My husband was watching me work this week and commented, "why would you do all that work for a two minute video when you can do a Powerpoint?"
My husband has been a teacher for over ten years, and he is very adept with the computer. However, I believe his thoughts are very representative of many teachers.