2007 Spring/Summer MACUL Journal
Consider these teachers and their technology professional development needs:
Judy has just come back to teaching after a ten-year stint as a stay-at-home mom. During new teacher orientation, she learns that she is now expected to keep her grades using a computerized grade book, take attendance online, read the staff bulletin as an e-mail attachment, use the district’s “mapping” software when writing curriculum, create all student materials using a word processor, and keep her classroom webpage current. There is also this strange looking device called an interactive white board in front of the room. “How, after only ten years,” she wonders, “can I feel so out of touch? And how do I learn to do all these things?”
Tom’s just about had it with the “personal narrative” unit in his writing class – he can’t get the kids interested. But he’s been reading that when students write for a wider audience than just the teacher, their level of concern and writing quality goes up. He thinks he’d like to try a class webblog so students can post their narratives and get reactions from other students. Ah, but where to start learning how to create and use a blog?
Juanita is a part of the site team that is responsible for the building improvement plan. One of the big tasks this year has been looking at student test scores and disaggregating the data for specific groups of students like English Language Learners. While the district uses a giant online data mining/data analysis program, its complexity baffles not just Juanita, but the rest of the site team as well - including the principal.
Do any or all of these scenarios sound familiar to you? Judy, Tom and Juanita are all modeled after real teachers in the Mankato (MN) schools, but can be found in any district across the country. Each of these teachers has a very real, but very different need for “technology” staff development experiences. To think that any one training program or approach will satisfy the requirements of all teachers in a district would be a mistake.
After helping teachers learn to use technology over the past 15 years, I have seen a pattern of technology growth emerge – from Personal Productivity to Upgrading Current Practices to Restructuring the Educational Environment. And our department has come to recognize that each stage requires its own model for professional development. Let’s look at each stage in a bit more detail.
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Growth in teacher use of technology: |
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Stage |
Skills |
Type of training |
Philosophy |
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Personal productivity
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CODE77 rubrics |
Classes |
Just-in-case |
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Upgrading current practices
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How-to-use specific software and hardware |
Training on demand |
Just-in-time |
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Use as an information-problem solving tool with students and to restructure current educational environment |
Rubrics for restructuring |
Professional growth plans that have a technology component |
Just-in-part |
Personal Productivity
Computer “boot camp” has long been a staple of technology training in schools. Developing a series of often-required hands-on classes has been an efficient means of introducing teachers to fundamental computer operations and basic software. Our program is called CODE 77 - Computers On Desks Everywhere in District 77. The core competencies the program teaches are listed in the Beginning CODE 77 rubrics <www.doug-johnson.com/dougwri/rubrics2002.html#beg> and include fundamental skills such as file management, word processing use, and sending and receiving e-mail.
The aims of the Personal Productivity level of staff development training include:
Over the past 15 years, our computer boot camps have changed, of course. All teachers have gone through an initial 12-hour basic training session when they received their first classroom computer. Now every five years teachers get a new computer and six hours of hands-on instruction on new programs, new operating systems and the advanced features of productivity programs. New teachers to the district currently receive a shorter version of the basic skills that emphasizes technology use that is specific to our district. And when a new product or program is launched in the district, such as a new grade book or the adoption of interactive white boards, special classes are developed.
This is standard fare for most districts and is a necessary part of the staff development program. But it stops short of helping teachers recognize the real power of technology.
Upgrading current practices
We have found that as teachers become more comfortable with using technology for their own personal productivity, they want to start using it with students to help empower them. The first step that that usually takes is what I call “The Technology Upgrade.” This is a traditional unit that is enhanced with the addition of a technology component. Examples can be found here.
For example, a teacher will add a multimedia presentation to a lecture to more clearly illustrate concepts and heighten student interest. Teachers often require that student writing be word-processed since it is easily edited and can be placed on-line to allow peer review. Or a teacher may ask students to solve a math problem using a spreadsheet in which formulas and operations are clearly visible and which can chart and graph numbers.
When teachers start seeing possibilities for enhancing lessons and activities with technology applications, the philosophy of teacher training shifts from just-in-case the teacher needs to know this to just-in-time for the teacher to use the skill. The just-in-time model of technology training relies not on district-mandated classes, but on personal, individual learning opportunities which are most often one-to-one.
Whether from another teacher, a librarian, technology integration specialist, or student, the rudiments of most software programs can be learned in less than an hour – just enough to get one started. Online tutorials such as AtomicLearning can be a convenient and effective supplement to face-to-face instruction. Many teachers learn technology skills right along with their classes when a librarian or technology specialist collaboratively teaches the class. All of our librarians offer 30-minute voluntary classes after school when there is an interest. And then some teachers are genuinely independent learners who would prefer to be given a program with a decent manual and simply be given time to learn through trial and error.
Planning for and measuring the results of this approach to staff development is difficult. A district needs technology-savvy people who have the flexibility to meet with teachers when the need arises as well as a curriculum that encourages the integration of technology skills into the content areas.
Restructuring the Educational Environment
The final and most powerful stage of staff development is paradoxically when technology becomes a means of achieving a larger educational goal. School improvement is not really about improved technology use, but about giving students more powerful learning experiences, making children more effective problem-solvers, creating teaching methods that reach more students, and developing assessments and data use practices that inform instruction.
Learning technology is only a part of a larger professional growth target when the goal is restructuring some aspect of education – doing things in a fundamentally different way. Learning to use a database should be a part of learning to do more effective assessments. Learning to use mind-mapping software such as Inspiration should be a part of learning better writing instruction practices. Learning to more effectively search the Web should be a part of learning to how to improve student research practices. Other examples can be found here. In other words, the focus should be on improving professional practices, not learning to use a computer.
Staff technology training now becomes far more teacher-directed and personalized. At this stage we see professional development happening in two ways: as a part of an individual teacher’s professional growth targets or at the request of our Professional Learning Communities, site teams or curriculum departments.
Professional Growth Targets have been a staple of our district’s staff development plan for some time. We encourage teachers when writing them to include a technology component that asks for the intended goal of the plan, activities the teacher will engage in to meet the goal, and the means by which the accomplishment of the goal will be demonstrated. Teachers themselves identify the skills and training needed to accomplish the goal.
The emerging pattern of staff development comes from teams of teachers who believe technology can help them reach their building or curriculum department goal. For our district, this means helping serve the needs of our Professional Learning Communities, each of which may have a different set of goals. But the common denominator among all goals is that they are tied back to a building or district goal. Since PLCs are relatively new to our district, we’ve not yet established a formal means of identifying and teaching their members technology skills, but are responding on an as-needed basis.
Most educators, including me, are better teachers than students. I’ll confess I have small patience with most classes and workshops whether they are about technology or anything else. Listening to a presenter often does little for me except help develop a strong empathy for our kids. But if we learn to structure technology training to suit individual adult learning styles and place it within the context of improving educational practices, teachers can and will become “technology-literate.”