I was very glad to see this article by high school principal David Mahaley posted on Emerging Ed Tech. The article brought a smile to my face, since it supports statements I've posted on this blog, and what I've been trying to get through to my own administrators: effective integration of technology into a school doesn't happen overnight, programs need to be implemented incrementally, and - above all - it requires teacher training and professional development.
My school administrators don't get any of this in such a bad way, they thought it was a good idea to operate all last year without a technology director. To make matters worse, they still haven't hired anyone for that role. OK, so we will have a "technology coach" for the upcoming school year, who's function is still mostly unclear to the rest of the faculty. Since I've been enrolled in this master's program for the past year, I am probably the most knowledgeable member of our faculty when it comes to effective integration of technology; many of my colleagues now seek me out for tips and advice.
School administrators seem all gung-ho about teachers employing technology in their classrooms, but it seems that very few of them have a clue as to how to help support and facilitate the implementation of a meaningful technology program. I will definitely be passing the information that Mr. Mahaley presents in this article to my administrators for the upcoming school year. There is a specific expectation in our teacher evaluation that we will use technology in our practice, and that we will furthermore engage our students in technology use. However, in the three years I've been at my current school there have been zero hours of specific training or PD regarding technology.
How are things at your schools?
I have a similar problem in my school district. We are provided with some pretty great resources (and for that I am thankful), but NO TRAINING. I enjoy playing around with different types of technology and getting to know how to use it, but at a certain point, I just want to know what to do so I can stop waisting so much time. There are so many great technological resources at my school not being used because many of the teachers don't know how, or don't want to take the time to learn how to use each resource on their own. Frustrating.
ReplyDelete