Technology Training in our schools

Technology training changes so much from school to school and system to system. As a media specialist in Portsmouth, Virginia, I was blessed with a strong technology support system. My school had a technology resource teacher (TRT) and a technology specialist. The TRT provided training for teachers, did classes with the teachers, and was always available  for technology support. Our technology specialist made sure all the software is updated running and properly installed. I was very blessed to have the tech team I had and luckily they taught me quite a bit. From speaking with media specialist in Alabama where I currently live, technology is taught very differently. It does seem to fall more on the media specialist to be the technology resource teacher too. That will certainly be a new challenge to tackle but it is doable. I agree with Jurkowski on the importance of knowing what areas your staff needs help with so a comprehensive technology professional development plan can be put into place to help meet those needs.  I think one of the best DO's in technology staff development I learned from my TRT is that after teaching the staff a skill, she would be present the first time the teacher used the technology in class. My TRT helped me to develop and implement a fantastic blogging site for the media center and her being there the first lesson helped me to be comfortable teaching blogging. I would hope to be as good of a support for my teachers as she was to me one day though I know as a media specialist we wear many hats and there often aren't enough hours in the day!