Audience | Program Design | Models | Incentives | Ideas | Assignments

ASSESSMENT Good staff development always starts with assessment. At a district level the planner starts by looking at the districts learning objectives, especially in the area of technology. A computer application may direct the decisions about training. If the district has just adopted the use of a new e-mail program or certain software then all staff needs to learn it. Using resources available in your schools is essential. There are teachers in every school that have a successful lesson, unit, or even regular use of technology. Being in touch enough to know who these people are is helpful. Assessment also means taking a look at what the teachers feel they need. In a school setting this is not too hard. A survey can be handed out and tallied to get an idea of what training is needed. This is more difficult at a district level, especially a large district. Many districts have a district wide technology committee with representatives from all of the schools. This would be a group that could give feedback on behalf of their staff and help plan a beneficial staff development schedule. Involving principals, superintendents and other leaders in the training is extremely important. Their presence can legitimize what is happening while enlightening them to what can be done with technology. Assessing not only what needs to be learned, but the preferred method and time of learning is also important. Often teachers resent having workshops planned for them at the end of stressful days. Some would prefer early morning workshops. Others want release time from class so that they can do it during the school day when they are at their best. Some don't want to miss the teaching time. There will never be agreement, but by asking and trying to plan for the majority, or to rotate times there will be more active participation.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

Teachers are a diverse group of people. When you talk with a group about technology you cannot assume that they are all hearing the same thing. It is helpful to know the results of studies that have been done on the acceptance of innovations. There is a pattern to how groups of people adjust to something new and it goes like this:

15% Are Early Adopters. They are ready for innovation. It is easy for them to play and explore and discover new things. These are the people who will be way ahead of you in a group workshop and playing games on the computer distracting others. These people need to be recognised for their talent. They should be given training in grant writing. Send them to conferences. Give them the technical support they need to do innovative projects with their class. Provide opportunities for them to train and share with others.

35% are Occasional Users. These people are comfortable and can understand what you are teaching them. They need more motivation. Expose them to successful classroom uses of technology. Give them a chance to share and trade with other teachers at their level successful ideas for management and use of technology. Challenge them to find an Internet project that has been done before and join it.

Some project ideas:

Journey North

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/index.html

The 100th Day of School

http://siec.k12.in.us/~west/proj/100th/index.html

35% are Reluctant Users. These people are not really comfortable with technology. They are not opposed to it, but they do avoid it if they can. Recently these teachers are aware of sticking out because they don't use computer technology, but they really don't see how to begin. They may also have questions about the value of it. They need exposure to successful use of classroom technology. They need time to play and enjoy computers. Everyone has some different thing that draws them. I have been surprised how many teachers I know started feeling more comfortable with technology because of e-mail.

15% really don't want to try. Some people feel that you should just leave these people alone rather than waste your time on them. The staff development strategy that seems to be mentioned most in articles I have read is spending time on the top 50% with the goal of enticing the others to use technology. In my experience many of these people are the older teachers. Often they have never had time to develop the hand-eye coordination it takes to work a mouse. They were trained and have done their teaching in a behaviorist method and don't know how to deal with other styles of teaching. I value these people who have put in decades of time teaching kids. There may be some who are just waiting for retirement, but others just need some personal attention.

When you are aware of what levels your staff is on and accept each of them as individuals as you would children you have as students, you will notice their success of taking a step at a time.

DESIGNING THE PROGRAM

How?

Does it need to be said that staff development in technology should be hands on? Can you imagine learning to do e-mail by having someone demonstrate it for you and talk to you about it? I can't!

Remember the study that showed that you remember only 5% of what you hear, but 80% or 90% of what you do.

Effective maintenence and support of the hardware that teachers will be using is essential. There is nothing like being excited and ready to try something

out and having to wait months for technical help. This can be a great barrier to successful use of technology in schools.

Where?

Consider also where you plan to do the staff development sessions. Having the same equipment and software in training as in the work situation is necessary. If possible set up training in the same place that the teachers will be applying the lesson you are teaching. If it has to be scheduled in a different place make sure that the hardware and software is similar to what they will be using.

When?

Most teachers are extremely busy during the school year. If they go to a staff development session they might not have time to use what they have learned right away and then they will forget even how to start, so the session changed nothing. When designing the program put in some sort of ongoing support or expectation for use of the program in the next few days. Give teachers measurable goals that they can succeed soon after the workshop. Do not be afraid of play. One of the best ways to learn is to 'play' with the computer in a relaxed, fun way.

MODELS

There are many ways of going about staff development. The model that is most often used is having a group of teachers meet in a computer lab and teaching them all at once. This may not be the most effective. Everyone is not at the same level and does not have the same needs. There will always be some who are bored and others who are lost.

Demonstration/Application An interesting model that I have heard of is having trainers who actually go into classrooms while class is in session and demonstrate to the teacher how to integrate technology into their curriculum. The teacher can work with this person to plan the lessons. The trainer demonstrates one day and then the teacher continues and finishes the lesson before the trainer comes back in a few weeks.

'Just in Time' is a concept that is very popular in the technology world today. It means that you can get what you need whenever and wherever you need it. Wouldn't it be great if teachers could get the technology support (software and integration) that they need at any time when they needed it? Without a technology coordinator for every building (and several for large buildings) this is impossible. But maybe we can learn from the idea.

Training the Trainer is another method. Rather than relying on outside trainers to come into a district or using the Technology Coordinator to do all of it, teachers at each school are trained. The district invests in these people and then they are expected (and paid extra) to be trainers in their school, or to do district sessions.

Technology Study Groups A last method worth mentioning is Technology Study Groups. This is a voluntary group that spends a certain amount of time designing a plan of study for themselves and learning certain things. The group can decide when they want to meet and ask someone to be their teacher/trainer. In some schools teachers who particpate in this receive credit on their Professional Growth Plan. This puts the responsibility for learning on the teachers themselves and lets them design sessions that would be helpful for them.

INCENTIVES AND EVALUATION

Planning incentives into staff development activities is extremely important. There should be intrinsic incentives if the staff development is effective. Some teachers experience a renewal of excitement about teaching and learning when they begin to experiment with technology. But there should also be external incentives. These can be awards, compensation, use of computer equipment, release time, opportunities to attend conferences, and many other things.

As in everything evaluation is the final step and the point at which you turn around and start over again. All of your efforts should have some sort of feedback form which can be tallied and learned from. Appropriate evaluation of some technology staff development might be use of e-mail or classroom visits.
 

OTHER STAFF DEVELOPMENT IDEAS

Visiting other classes can be extremely helpful. Find teachers in your school or district who are doing interesting things with technology and arrange for teachers to spend some time with them in their rooms.

Reading about what other teachers are doing is also eye opening. The following are websites that have stories of teachers using technology. The first site seeks teacher's stories, so you or a teacher that you know may want to write up an experience and be published on the web!

4 TEACHERS

http://www.4teachers.org

LINK 2 LEARN

http://l2l.ed.psu.edu/

TAPPED IN is a virtual office building. Teachers can enter the building, look around, and click where they find something interesting. And if they get stuck during business hours, they can get instant help from someone who is logged on to the site. The building has tenants, many of which are nonprofit groups that work with educators, such as the Lawrence Hall of Science and the Los Angeles County Office of Education. Be sure to give this site a try!

http://www.tappedin.sri.com/

Online Professional Development is another new idea for staff development. A recent article in an online journal Education Week http://www.edweek.org/ gave these reasons for the success of online programs. First of all this type of workshop can overcome barriers of typical workshops. It is individual instruction that applies directly to what the individual teacher needs to know and can be paced to suit the learning style of an individual.

This type of training is also ongoing rather than a one shot workshop. Teachers can connect on a regular basis to their list serve and get the information that they need all year.

Virtual workshops are also much more economical than their physical counterparts. There are no costs for food, transportation, lodging, or substitute teachers. Specialty information and resources can be offered that no school could afford to provide on their own.

For this lesson you should choose an educational list serve to subscribe to and get online. This is an assignment for those of you who have never tried a list serve, so if you are participating in one you do not have to do another one.

When you subscribe to a list serve you are adding your e-mail address to a list. Any message that you send is sent on to everyone in the list. You will receive many messages everyday from the other members. Some lists are moderated meaning that there is a person who reads messages before letting them go on and takes out the inappropriate ones. Other lists are automatic. Some lists are very busy (100s of messages/day) and others are much more calm.

When you first subscribe you are usually encouraged to send in an introduction. After that most people "lurk" (read and not send messages) for a while to see what the list is about.

It is easy to unsubscribe from a list and if you choose one that is too busy or that you are not interested in you can change.

I belong to the teacher 2 teacher mailing list:

http://teachnet.com/t2t/index.html

It is educationally oriented and teachers feel free to post questions about specific lessons, discipline and even conflicts with parents and administration. You can find friendships with other teachers and very practical suggestions also. The participants tend to be practicing teachers.

I also belong to wwwedu (We Do) also. It is very interesting, but less practical and more theoretical. The participants tend to be technology coordinators and University educators.

http://edweb.gsn.org/wwwedu.html

Here is one place to go and look for a list serve:

http://www.neosoft.com/internet/paml/indexes.html

In the discussion forum discuss these questions:

What was the best staff development activity that you experienced?

How can you work for effective staff development in technology in your situation?

What list serve did you choose? Evaluate it for us if you can already!

Staff Development is an important part of your technology plan. Take some time this week to add that section to your plan.

Cafolla, Ray and Knee, Richard. "Factors Limiting Technology Integration in Education: The Leadership Gap". http://www.coe.uh.edu/insite/elec_pub.html/1995/152.htm Accessed 2/15/1997

Shelton, Maria and Jones, Mary. (Oct. 96) "Staff Development That Works! A Tale of Four T's". NASSP Bulletin. 99-105.

Meltzer, Julie and Sherman, Thomas. (Jan. 1997). "Ten Commandments For Successful Technology Implementation and Staff Development". NASSPBulletin. 23-32.

These last two articles in your packet are just for your enrichment. Look at them when you have time.

Kendler, Peggy Bresnick. (Oct. 1998). "The Educator's Guide to Professional Development Resources". Technology and Learning. 41-48.

Smith, Richard Alan. (Mar. 1997). "Find the Perfect Technology Coordinator, Interviewing to the Fullest". Learning and Leading with Technology. Vol. 24, No. 6, 56-58.

Until Friday you can take the quiz as often as you want to and it will give you feedback. On Friday morning I will change the quiz set up so that it reports a grade to me. You will no longer be able to take the quiz multiple times.