Technology Innovation
After your conversation with the superintendent and the principal, and your initial plans to solve this issue, you have determined that it is time to speak to some teachers so that you can most effectively develop a plan for the type of training they will need to begin using the available innovative technology. You have the following three conversations.
Teacher #1: 30-year veteran teacher
“I guess there is a problem, but we’ve had a ton of workshops on using technology over the past ten years… I think most of the teachers only use it for basic purposes though. Our workshops are usually about how to operate devices and use things like MS Word or Office, and our grading and reporting management system. What we need is some more specific training that might help us to understand how to use technology in actual teaching. We need to see some examples and have some follow up. Teachers are being told to use these things, but really, we’re not comfortable.”
Administrator #2: 5-year assistant principal
“We have offered a considerable number of long-term technology training workshops with year-long follow up to our entire faculty. We’ve found that offering teachers opportunities to learn from watching other teachers use technology successfully, gives them more confidence to try it themselves. By performing some interviews and surveys we stratified our teachers into groups of those who needed more baseline help and those who could jump into using more technology. We are hoping that those ready to use the harder technology will make it desirable and contagious on the rest. We would like to have funding to employ some coaches in our schools in addition to our volunteer faculty mentors. Overall, I feel that our faculty is well-versed in how to use technology.”
Teacher #3: First year teacher
“I’m sort of frustrated, or maybe confused, about how to use technology in my classroom. There are a lot of conflicting rules about what devices, software and sites students and teachers can use. There are so many, and I have such little time to plan and practice in a completely new way, and I just don’t know what programs and what instructional strategies work best with what kind of teaching. I feel comfortable with technology, but I don’t think some of my colleagues do. There are a lot of teachers at this school who have never really tried using it in the classroom very seriously, and they seem to do fine in their teaching. I think they would use technology more if the policies were more clear. Also, if we could actually see ways that this (technology) could look or work in the classroom, that would help.”
superintendent and the principal surmised. You determine that in order to get to the bottom of the problem, a more specific needs assessment from the teachers must be developed. You now know that your real task is
After speaking to the teachers and the assistant principal you realize that the problem may be different from that which the to determine actual instructional needs of the teachers, as well as to ascertain the specific innovative technology that teachers may need time and help with implementing, so that you can design effective in- classroom support.
In a 7-10 page assignment:
For this plan complete the following tasks:
A. Re-write your goal statement from week two for this innovative technology plan based on the new information you determined after speaking with teachers. Be sure to include 1) the population that this solution will help, 2) the context in which the change should be seen, 3) what the population should be able to do, and 4) the tools that will be utilized/available
B. What elements/characteristics of the learners do you need to consider when deciding on instructional strategies and best practices for your plan?
a. Look at: goal statement and what is needed to accomplish this goal
b. Subordinate and entry level skills needed to accomplish the task (cognitive, contextual, and attitudinal skills) some examples: