Reflection: Types and Variety of Professional Learning about Technology

After reading “Critical Issue: Providing Professional Development for Effective Technology Use” sections “Hands-On Technology Use” and “Variety of Learning Experiences”, reflect on what you/we as technology staff developers and as a team are doing well and how we might improve.

Your Accomplishments

Please describe what you would consider to be significant accomplishments you have experienced this year. Please try to include as much data as possible (# of teachers impacted, etc.).

Your Growth

How has your role as tech mentor enhanced the rest of your professional life?

Improving the Tech. Mentor Program

What ideas do you have to improve the technology mentor program? Please try to be specific. Be sure to include both what can be improved and how it can be improved. Mention who can help staff developers, Dir. of Staff Developement, technology mentors, principals, etc.

Technological Acceleration: Impacts on Education

At recent workshops participants were asked to comment in a blog about some key questions related to technological acceleration in our society and the impacts on education. Here are two of those questions and some answers teachers came up with:
What will our students need to operate effectively in 2036?
•    An interest in and understanding of the importance of being a lifelong learner. They should graduate w/strong competencies in current info technologies and an understanding of why it’s so important to continue to stay literate in emerging technologies throughout their lifetimes. -Michelle La Voie
•    They will need problem solving skills and the communication and technology skills to support that problem solving. They will need to be able to collaborate in a variety of ways- written, spoken, digital. -Kathryn Cernera
•    Finding and evaluating information may be (is?) more essential than the knowledge in their heads. – Liddy Allee
•    It will be important that they understand and respect others as the world is getting smaller every day. The world is also changing at a very fast rate and communication in many forms will be the key to how we live and learn. –Denise Lee
•    They will need, by our current standards, advanced critical thinking skills, problem-solving abilities, the highest possible literacy proficiencies and far more creativity and imagination than is currently being fostered in schools. -Mary Ellen Sanford
What are the pedagogical implications of the changes taking place in the information and communication realm?
•    I believe that emerging technologies must be incorporated into classrooms because the passive style of learning does not work. Students need to be engaged and involved in learning. They are used to being entertained by media – they need to incorporate different technologies in order to get excited about learning and exploring.  By incorporating different technologies one is also making learning more relevant to personal lives. – Marcie Wyant
•    We’ll need to be sure these new and ever-changing technologies are used effectively. Poor uses will put a hole in our hull quickly. We need to be sure the technology does not become a distraction. This will require raising awareness, thoughtful discussion, planning, implementation and assessment. I believe it is imperative that we find ways to do this sooner rather than later. To shake our heads yes to the importance of this work, but not cause change in the classroom this school year, would be arrogant at best. –Roger Sevilla
•    I regularly see students almost falling asleep in some classes. I know if I feel that way, I’m not listening. There needs to be more interaction, and technology is a way to go. –Carol Fey
•    The students we teach have multiple identities, so we need to learn multiple histories and experiences. One significant implication is that we now have no excuse for not knowing these stories. [] One piece of information [can change] everything you knew a minute ago about indigenous people. – Barry Derfel
•    Good teaching must involve students in what is being learned, how learned, and how demonstrated. This can happen in a multitude of ways, and the technologies now available are tools in the kit. –Andy Yale

More comments and a fuller sense of what we have been covering at these sessions are available at: http://newlit.wordpress.com/

We would be pleased to present some of the exciting possibilities of these new tools at staff and department meetings. Please contact Andy or Roger if you have an interest.

How can you link your TM work to larger initiatives to increase your impact?

Link to building intiatives…

Link to district intiatives….

Link to tech lit standards….

Link to school development plans…..

Link to school committee work……

Useful Documents

TM Job Posting

Proposed Themes

what-tm-need-to-know.doc

Mentors: Advertising Your Services

It is essential that Tech Mentors advertise their availability and offerings widely in their buildings. No point in just helping the teachers who happen to work across the hall, and hey, some people require a little encouragement.

Here is a Sample Brochure that you can modify to advertise your services.

You can post flyers around your building advertising your workshops. Post them where people are sure to go. This might even include the bathroom doors.

If you have good PR ideas to share, be sure to post a comment.