Technology Recycling for Excellence in Education
The Human Factor - Training/Professional Development
Every time I do a PD workshop I am reminded of the most important, and most labor-intensive, part of educational technology: teaching the human being at the keyboard. If the user doesn't understand what to do with the computer, no amount of amazing features will be of any benefit. And if the trainer training the users doesn't understand what to do with the technology...well, probably the best you can hope for is some footage for some kind of reality TV show. ("Computer Lab Survivor"??) It would be funny, but it's hard to laugh when you think of the untapped potential sitting in the lab, waiting for the light bulb to come on.
Unlike our children, most of us aren't "digital natives." We struggle to come to grips with this second language, this language of technology. Those of us whose task it is to teach others this 21st century lingua franca have a double portion: we are learners as well as teachers. I remember teaching my first electronic media class to a group of high school seniors-- trying to learn enough about HTML to get through the day's lesson, then going back home to learn the answers to the things that cropped up in class that I didn't know. What I wouldn't have given for just one day's worth of step-by-step, easy-to-understand training--"Here's what to do and how to do it."
If it was difficult for me, someone who has a natural interest and aptitude for technology, how much more difficult is it for say, the kindergarten teacher who got into the profession because she has a passion for young learners, but absolutely no interest in computers or technology? 21st century technology is coming to her classroom, whether she likes it or not, and she'd better be ready to use it. My experience has been that while there are pockets of resistance, most teachers want to embrace technology and learn to use it for the benefit of their students. They are just (a) terrified of "getting it wrong;" and/or (b) apprehensive about wasting precious time on something that might not produce results.
The answer to "a" and "b"? Solid professional development. Not a single piece of hardware or software should enter a school campus that doesn't come with adequate training for its use. Not one. None. Zero. Furthermore, when it comes to technology, the old "sage on the stage" methods are even less effective than with other subjects. Hands-on, minds-on, teaching-by-modeling, learning-by-doing is the only way to overcome teachers' fears and apprehensions about using technology. They don't know they won't break it until they try it for themselves and it doesn't break. They won't remember that the "undo" function covers a multitude of sins until they have to click it for themselves a few times and feel that rush of relief when the mistake goes away. Then, and only then, will they be willing to become vulnerable in front of their students and try this new thing, this "technology." "After all," they can say, "it's so easy an adult can do it!"
Unlike our children, most of us aren't "digital natives." We struggle to come to grips with this second language, this language of technology. Those of us whose task it is to teach others this 21st century lingua franca have a double portion: we are learners as well as teachers. I remember teaching my first electronic media class to a group of high school seniors-- trying to learn enough about HTML to get through the day's lesson, then going back home to learn the answers to the things that cropped up in class that I didn't know. What I wouldn't have given for just one day's worth of step-by-step, easy-to-understand training--"Here's what to do and how to do it."
If it was difficult for me, someone who has a natural interest and aptitude for technology, how much more difficult is it for say, the kindergarten teacher who got into the profession because she has a passion for young learners, but absolutely no interest in computers or technology? 21st century technology is coming to her classroom, whether she likes it or not, and she'd better be ready to use it. My experience has been that while there are pockets of resistance, most teachers want to embrace technology and learn to use it for the benefit of their students. They are just (a) terrified of "getting it wrong;" and/or (b) apprehensive about wasting precious time on something that might not produce results.
The answer to "a" and "b"? Solid professional development. Not a single piece of hardware or software should enter a school campus that doesn't come with adequate training for its use. Not one. None. Zero. Furthermore, when it comes to technology, the old "sage on the stage" methods are even less effective than with other subjects. Hands-on, minds-on, teaching-by-modeling, learning-by-doing is the only way to overcome teachers' fears and apprehensions about using technology. They don't know they won't break it until they try it for themselves and it doesn't break. They won't remember that the "undo" function covers a multitude of sins until they have to click it for themselves a few times and feel that rush of relief when the mistake goes away. Then, and only then, will they be willing to become vulnerable in front of their students and try this new thing, this "technology." "After all," they can say, "it's so easy an adult can do it!"
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