Tech Challenges
Monday, April 30, 2007
I’ve thought of an idea I’d like to try next year.
It will be called something along the lines of Laptop Lunches. (I know, food and laptops cause some to cringe, but sometimes ya just gotta give some to get some).
It would probably be once a month (once at each campus), hopefully located in the same place each time, using some of the wirless mobile laptops.
My goal is for teachers to have time to click through new applications and work with new technologies in a self paced environment, with me there to help.
Since our lunch periods overlap, there really couldn’t be any direct group teach with a start and stop time, because folks will be coming and going.
Topics I already know I want to give teachers time to work with are:
Kid Pix4
Kidspiration 2.1
Inspiration 8.0
Collections of web based interactive white board (for us projectors) and Airliner activities.
Creating PDF and attaching them to online assignment notebooks and websites
Airliner tricks and tips
Hopefully other topics will arise as teachers suggest them.
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Probably the most pervasive challenge to all tech integration growth on my 2 campuses is TIME! We all need time to learn new programs; time to explore all of the resources that are becoming more and more available; time to think about which of these to use, and how to use them; time to try things out with the kids; time to share exciting ideas with each other.
All of the teachers are excited about technology and are more than willing to try many things, but technology is one fraction of the things they deal with on a daily basis.
A few things that have proved successful are listed below, but I am hoping you all can send ideas on how you are able to manage time to get the information, training, and ideas to teachers.
* Being able to provide just-in-time help. When someone emails me with a question, I try get to them right away or email screen-shot-how-to directions to help with their question.
*Teaching the teacher and the students at the same time. If a movie maker project is starting, and a teacher is not yet knowledgeable of the program, teaching them both in the lab, or with the mobile lab, not only saves time, but everybody is hearing the same thing at the same time and can help each other out. (many teachers count on the students for tech help)
*Tech moments at Faculty meetings. These little 5-10 minute presentations, complete with how-to handouts for teachers, give teachers ideas for things they can implement right away.
* Meeting with teachers during a planning period to click through a project and help plan Tech integration into an activity.
* Summer Tech workshops give teachers time to learn new applications, investigate resources, and to develop lessons complete with resources that are ready to use the next year. These, however, are optional, so critical tech updates and trainings can’t be covered here.
I try to avoid after school trainings, unless it is something that absolutely needs to be done, because we are all pretty much brain fried at that time…and most tech trainings call for some mental gymnastics.
While most of the above mentioned times work well for clicking through a new and exciting resource, or learning a new trick or two about often used applications, we have a need for some time that we can do some in depth training for things like Website management, electronic gradebook implementation, Tech Apps adoption, and Research practices and tools.
Inservice time is typically offered at the beginning of the year, which we sometimes use. But there are many other needs for this time, in addition to tech training. It has also been my experience that it is hard for teachers to get their brains around the topic, because they are thinking of so many other things they need to do to get their classrooms ready and their school year started.
So….the neverending question…is there ever a good time for tech training?
