The state of my faculty’s technology skills is probably on a
need to know basis in my opinion.
Everyone had to take the Promethean Board training for PLU’s which, I am
sure if the training was not mandatory no one would have taken out the time to
take all of those modules. We have had some opportunities in school but they
are mostly offered county wide or they select who goes where in some instances.
Trainings are offered but in-house training is not that popular in my current
school. Most things are self-motivated tasks or self-taught technology skills
in my school. We have some very talented people in our building but they
normally say they learned how to use the devices on their own time or dime.
Meanwhile,
there are several different problems to factor into why technology training is
not as popular as it should be, funding, timing, and interest. Even though,
most teachers want admit they have fears about technology training taking away
from their planning and copying time. They do have to schedule in the time to
sit and learn something new, useful, and valuable. However, we also need to
plan and prep as much as possible. Staff development is a complicated task when
everyone has a fear or no time to just sit still and complete the task.
Everyone wants an email, memo, walk-thru training. I also agree with Jurkowski, time involvement
is a big issue for teachers. We are expected to learn new innovative things but
how and when? Maybe, like Jurkowski reminds us enthusiasm is contagious, well
so is money and if we were paid to train more we might just have a plan. While
it sounds exciting to read about how to make the training look great and sound
great, there is an underlying fear no one will admit to.
The issue of funding will always be
an issue and therefore teachers look the other way unless it’s mandatory. This
past year my school purchased document cameras for each and every classroom and
the training was optional. Most people asked people who attended the training
and there was no need to sit in training when word of mouth worked? I almost
forgot about PD360 which is considered technology based lessons and trainings.
Well they are beneficial and informative when we have time to sit and watch the
videos and modules. Then answer the response questions at the end of each
lesson. If I had a DO’s and DON’Ts list it would say, “don’t be afraid of
technology!’
June, thanks so much for sharing your thoughts! From reading a few of the blogs this week, I feel like everyone else is experience the same thoughts on this topic---teachers are afraid to learn new technology or they don't have time to learn it.
ReplyDeleteWhile I see both sides--the teacher that doesn't have time or isn't interested and the media specialist that wants to showcase new tools--I do think that embracing new technology is a good thing and I think tech training will only become more prevalent in the future of education.
My school is very into technology. A few years ago, the county funded a program called TeAch 21. This program allowed teachers to earn technology for their classrooms by taking classes while also earning PLU's. Myself and may other teachers took part in this program and were able to gain student laptops, digital cameras, document cameras, video cameras, and more from taking classes in Smart Board use, student response devices, digital storytelling, etc. It was a great opportunity and really allowed teachers to grow in this area.
ReplyDeleteJennifer, we have all the technology you listed in your reply, however, the necessary training needed it limited. We are given the basics and we have to keep going from there. It is like self-training to a certain point. pD360 is a big helper for me but I can not speak for others. I use my document camera but I learned more about the camera from taking this class then I learned from my school. We have the Smart Boards as well but the training was done completely online self paced with a time frame to compete them. Hum? We have opportunities to grown on our own time and it is not fair. Again, I think funding is part of the problem and teachers are at a loss for time. Thanks for you post.
DeleteThis is my first year working in a school system so I don't have much experience with professional training in education. I have heard teachers and other paraprofessionals discussing it though. Most of the comments have been very negative. It seems most teachers don't have the time for training and paraprofessionals don't want to do it either because they don't get paid for the extra time it takes. I agree that funding is a huge issue in professional training. If staff were given an incentive to do professional training, then more of them would be willing to do it. There are just so many other things that staff is required to do that when something is labeled as "optional" it is often seen as unnecessary or not worth the time.
ReplyDeleteMost of our teachers know enough about the SmartBoard or document cameras that they don't need to ask for help. However, we do have many teachers and paraprofessionals now asking for iPad training. That is something that our administration is trying to work out but funding is sparse so only our grade level iPad coordinators are getting the training. Hopefully we'll be able to provide more training for the rest of the staff soon.
I enjoyed your post! I think that our school falls into the newbie catagory for the use of technology. We just became a wi-fi school this year and each grade level received a laptop cart with enough laptops to share 6 to a classroom. It has been interesting to see how they are becoming more comfortable with using these. And we too, have very talented teachers in the building who have more knowledge about devices than others and it is my goal to work with them to create a group who can lead more in house technology sessions.
ReplyDeleteTop 3 issues time, funding, and fear. You nailed it. I can relate t all 3. During the course of this class and this program, we have been challenged to learn a lot of technology pieces and how it can be utilzied in the media center. It has been a daunting task, which requires a lot of time that sometimes I feel I don't have. However, I feel that my time is well worth spent on beign able to apply something new in the media center. You also talked about funding being an issue aslo, Schools may need to send at least 1-2 people whom can be proficient and teach it back to others so it can be an in house mandatory training. Great post!
ReplyDelete