9. Fail to provide training and additional resources needed for tech implementation. Training with an expert user is always a plus, even when using someone on staff as that expert. Even more important is providing time for the teacher to explore, experiment, and "play" with the technology. As far as resources, school leaders need to make sure teachers have all they need to implement new technologies: everything from powerbars to tables. Nothing can be more frustrating than having your greatest tech plans foiled by a lack of power outlets.
Very true! Research has shown that the most successful technology interests are those that have proper support and professional development.
5. Fail to provide adequate hardware and/or software. I've seen so many examples of this over the years. Teachers are encouraged to get students writing and engaging in online blogging, but they don't have access to computers. Another example is even more ludicrous; students being asked to create 21st century projects yet they aren't given anything but 20th century tools such a colored pencils and construction paper. It is the school leader's responsibility to ensure teachers have adequate hardware and software for implementing technology.
So difficult to be innovative and relevant when using outdated tools and materials that can't even support the tools we want to use.
While school districts are obligated under CIPA and common sense to provide some level of protection for young students, a filtering system is inadequate or faulty when it dictates what teachers can and can't do with the technology.
This is especially difficult when only one person holds the key to the access. School leaders (i.e. principals) should be just as able to unblock access as the IT department.
Sacha Chua has once again created an awesome slide presentation. In this presentation, A Teacher's Guide to Web 2.0 at School, Sacha does a great job of addressing the "yeah buts" and "what if" opposition statements that some administrators and teachers make in regards to using Web 2.o in schools.
2nd Edition of free school year wall calendar (pdf/smartboard friendly version as well) that provides suggested conflict resolution related activities in the top half of the page, important dates in the bottom. 5-copy school-packs can be sent to schools at no cost while supplies last. Great stuff.
Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Hull Sypnieski teach at Luther Burbank High School in Sacramento, California. Their book, The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide, will be published this summer by Jossey-Bass; this article is an excerpt. Larry also writes a popular blog for teachers and has written several other books.
iPad as a creation tool rather than a consumption tool.
Ten years ago, Stanford’s Larry Cuban noted that computers in the classroom were being oversold and underused. In short order, the iPad craze could take the same turn. My lesson from ZIS is that we should make sure we have teachers who understand how to help children learn from the technology before throwing a lot of money into iPad purchasing. It wasn’t the 600 iPads that were so impressive— it was the mindset of a teaching staff devoted to giving students time for creation and reflection. Are American public schools ready to recognize that it’s the adults and students around the iPads, not just the iPads themselves, that require some real attention?
"It wasn't the 600 iPads that were so impressive- it was the mindset of a teaching staff devoted to giving students time for creation and reflection." So correct! So, how do we develop such a mindset? Does PD ever emphasize this?
When you introduce anything new in most schools, you have to sell it to teachers as making their lives easier. An app that reteaches a math skill makes teacher's lives easier, whereas asking them to develop an authentic assessment with multimedia does not. The challenge is, how can we use these technologies to something different and more effective, not to do the same things easier.
There are lots of resources on this site. Plenty of projects, lesson plans and activities. They have online collaboration projects that connect classrooms around the world. The 2012-2013 school year is now open.
"Please turn on your textbooks and upload your homework..."
In five years (three? two?!) I will not ask my high school students to open the 6.5 pound textbooks that currently sit on the floor under the desks. Nor will I bemoan their reluctance to look up words or mark up the text as they read. I will not wonder how to meet the needs of the 35% of my class who have learning disorders, most of which are language processing disorders of one form or another. Instead, I will ask them to get out their digital textbooks (what will we call them: DBooks? DBs? ETexts? Readers?) and "read the assigned story." Here is what will be different:
researchers found they could pick out the best teachers in a school and even predict roughly how much their students would learn if they rated the educators through a formula that put equal weight on student input, test scores and detailed classroom observations by principals and peers
Judging teachers primarily by student performance on state tests, for instance, turned out to be highly unreliable, with little consistency from year to year. Judging them chiefly by a principal's observations failed to identify those teachers who could be counted on to boost student proficiency on state math and reading tests.
This should be a very big red flag to all those policy makers who think they can have test-based accountability be half or more of a teacher's evaluation
"(Reuters) - Effective teachers can be identified by observing them at work, measuring their students' progress on standardized tests - and asking those students directly what goes on in the classroom, according to a comprehensive study released Tuesday."
Practice logs can promote these helpful activities.
Such logs can show how often teachers use a new practice, how it worked, what
problems occurred, and what help they needed (Sparks, 1998).
Perfect use for reflective blogging on the teacher's part.
Professional development for technology use should demonstrate
projects in specific curriculum areas and help teachers integrate technology
into the content.
Specific content can help
teachers analyze, synthesize, and structure ideas into projects that they can
use in their classrooms (Center for Applied Special Technology, 1996).
The best integration
training for teachers does not simply show them how to add technology to their
what they are doing. "It helps them learn how to select digital content based
on the needs and learning styles of their students, and infuse it into the curriculum
A professional development curriculum that
helps teachers use technology for discovery learning, developing students' higher-order
thinking skills, and communicating ideas is new and demanding and thus cannot
be implemented in isolation (Guhlin, 1996)
teachers need access to follow-up discussion and collegial activities
The only way
to ensure that all students have the same opportunities is to require all teachers
to become proficient in the use of technology in content areas to support student
learning.
An effective professional development program
provides "sufficient time and follow-up support for teachers to master new content
and strategies and to integrate them into their practice,
teachers need time to plan, practice
skills, try out new ideas, collaborate, and reflect on ideas
The technology used for professional development
should be the same as the technology used in the classroom. Funds should be
available to provide teachers with technology that they can use at home or in
private to become comfortable with the capabilities it offers.
he Commission
suggests partnering with universities and forming teacher networks to help provide
professional development activities at lower cost.
This was well before development of Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)! Twitter, Facebook, Ning, and such all provide opportunities to make this idea happen.
consists of three types: preformative evaluation, formative
evaluation, and summative evaluation.
Preformative evaluation
formative evaluation,
summative evaluation,
Such a program gives teachers the skills
they need to incorporate the strengths of technology into their lesson planning
rather than merely to add technology to the way they have always done things.
School administrators may not provide adequate time and resources for high-quality
technology implementation and the associated professional development. They
may see professional development as a one-shot training session to impart skills
in using specific equipment. Instead, professional development should be considered
an ongoing process that helps teachers develop new methods of promoting engaged
learning in the classroom using technology.
Feed readers
are probably the most important digital tool for today's learner because they
make sifting through the amazing amount of content added to the Internet
easy. Also known as aggregators, feed readers are free tools that can
automatically check nearly any website for new content dozens of times a
day---saving ridiculous amounts of time and customizing learning experiences for
anyone.
Imagine
never having to go hunting for new information from your favorite sources
again. Learning goes from a frustrating search through thousands of
marginal links written by questionable characters to quickly browsing the
thoughts of writers that you trust, respect and enjoy.
Feed readers can
quickly and easily support blogging in the classroom, allowing teachers to
provide students with ready access to age-appropriate sites of interest that are
connected to the curriculum. By collecting sites in advance and organizing
them with a feed reader, teachers can make accessing information manageable for
their students.
Here are several
examples of feed readers in action:
Used specifically as
a part of one classroom project, this feed list contains information related to
global warming that students can use as a starting point for individual
research.
While there are literally dozens of different feed reader
programs to choose from (Bloglines andGoogle Reader are two
biggies), Pageflakes is a favorite of
many educators because it has a visual layout that is easy to read and
interesting to look at. It is also free and web-based. That
means that users can check accounts from any computer with an Internet
connection. Finally, Pageflakes makes it quick and easy to add new
websites to a growing feed list—and to get rid of any websites that users are no
longer interested in.
What's even
better: Pageflakes has been developinga teacher version of their tooljust for us that includes an online grade tracker,
a task list and a built in writing tutor. As Pageflakes works to perfect
its teacher product, this might become one of the first kid-friendly feed
readers on the market. Teacher Pageflakes users can actually blog and create a
discussion forum directly in their feed reader---making an all-in-one digital
home for students.
For more
information about the teacher version of Pageflakes, check out this
review: