Friday, November 21, 2008
Technology training-Julie Bigham
The technology skills among the faculty at my school range from the very proficient to the very novice. I have noticed that proficiency is often directly tied to ones age. Younger faculty typically have a greater level of comfort with new technology, most likely as a result of their pedagogy having been completed more recently. At this time, technology courses or staff development is not offered at my school. Faculty can elect to take courses through the county, but I haven't heard many teachers taking the opportunity. I think that one strategy that would work with faculty to support productive staff development is obviously to make the training relevant. I can't tell you how many times I've had to sit through trainings that I felt were unnecessary, and it makes me just totally tune out. Another thing that might work would be to offer training and give PLU's. One problem that I suspect would be encountered is just some people's unwillingness to add something else to their plates. Also, people just don't like to venture outside of their comfort level at times. If I were responsible for technology training, I would just make it available to all teachers. I would likely present it during common planning and only for a few minutes. Or, I would create training aids similar to our recent assignment and post them to the school website for easy access.
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5 comments:
I have to agree with you about age sometimes being a factor when it comes to technology proficiency. I think that school systems should consider adapting certain technological staff development offerings based on a person's proficiency level instead of using the "one size, fits all" approach.
I agree that we must try to remember to consider age/technology levels when developing the training for staff. At times we may have to offer one-on-one training for teachers who are "scared" of computers. Yes, I have encountered this fear with educators before. Instead of facing the fear and learning the technology to educate the students they will attempt to contact every other person in the building for a simple task. We should challenge all educators to learn at different levels and offer opportunities (training aids) for those who seem to shy away from anything considered new.
You made an excellent point. Computer proficiency is tied to age. Depending on the age of the faculty technology training would be received with different levels of enthusiasm. I also like your idea of presenting something relevant for only a small amount of time. There is nothing worse than sitting through a long training session especially if it pertains to technology I don't use. Teachers try to maximize their planning time and get as much done as possible and get irritated when something wastes their time.
I hate that age is a factor too!
When I first went to college- I was using an electric typewriter! It wasn't that long ago, that's how things were done. Now, with the advancements with the personal computer we have adapted to the changes.
As in my school, the younger teachers have far advanced knowledge of the computer than the older, more experienced, teachers. That is something that we need to consider when planning training. Some teachers will need to sit through the staff development, while others my need a quick email or something. We should be flexible to meet the needs of everyone- just like classroom teachers.
Dorina
I agree with you Julie, the use of technology or the proficient use of technology does seem to be age relevant. I have noticed that the younger teachers who have "grown-up" using the technology in classes and at home, use it much more in the classrooms than do the older teachers. I have one teacher who emailed me the other day because the computers in her classroom were not set up. She has been teacher for 35 years...and has no clue as to how to plug up her classroom computers. I wanted to tell her to just ask one of the kids to do it for her, but I was nice. We have a wide range of technology used in the classrooms, but most of the teachers realize that the students are so used to technology in their everyday life, that they don't know how to operate with out it.
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