Week+2+Journal

This week the video asked the question, is social media a fad? I do not believe that social media is a fad. However, I believe that the specific applications used for social media are. That is why it is difficult to get teachers on board with teaching using technology. For example, our school district has changed to our third website provider in four years. For most teachers who are not comfortable with technology, it takes a long time to learn the ins and outs of a program. And just when they get comfortable using that platform, it changes on them. Then teachers who may have been willing to try technology are discouraged and teachers who did not want to learn in the first place feel their negativity has been validated. So this is my main challenge I believe in winning teachers over.

Our grant proposal outlined a new way of doing professional development. Just having a short workshop where a teacher is shown how to use some new technology is usually a waste of time. Typically that teacher does not have the immediate skills to put the tool to use and if they learn how to use the tool and put it to use in a "traditional" teaching setting, then the use of technology is completely surface value. I found a great article called "How Teachers Learn Technology Best" that claims that teachers receive an average of only five hours of technology training and that small amount of time is usually wasted: "We see too little time devoted in the wrong way to the wrong goal." I agree with this concept. I have never sat through technology professional development that was helpful to me and I consider myself to be very tech savvy.

I also really like this article Reaching the Reluctant Teacher that defines two types of teachers: the reluctants and the pioneers. I think it relates well to the needs assessment we took this week. It talks about how schools put the cart (new technology) before the horse (adult learning and professional development). So we have teachers using SmartBoards as glorified overhead projectors and classroom computers left unplugged from the custodians' summer cleaning. One of the things it says is that pioneers cannot be expected to shoulder the responsibility of bringing the reluctants around. In reference to pioneers working with reluctants, the article claims: "They rarely understand reluctants or how they learn. They find it difficult to design professional development for reluctants that works." I think this idea is critical to the success of our grant teams. Which members of our teams are truly cut out for helping others learn about technology and which are pioneers who can use the technology themselves but would have a hard time presenting it in a way that was welcoming to a reluctant?