Helping reluctant teachers use technology

The teachers of today are faced with many obstacles that interfere with their ability to adopt the principle of “teach smarter, not harder”. New curriculum at every turn, societal problems that invade the classroom and increased demands from the administration to teach with less and less financial support. Now add to those items the increased need to stay current, and ahead of the students, with the newest and brightest technological advances. With all of the demands of life in general, this added stress is causing some excellent teachers to refuse to adapt and leave the profession. The challenges of the library media specialist today involve more than just checking out books and keeping the shelves in order. We are the buffer between the reluctant teacher and the overworked and misunderstood IT staff. It is our job to encourage and support these two sections of the educational system and help them to find a happy medium in the education of students.

But our first responsibility must be to the teacher. Every librarian/media specialist began as a classroom teacher and they must never forget that fact. Librarians have a unique opportunity to “peer teach” along side of the classroom teacher and to demonstrate new and improved ways of conveying information that could make their own life and the life of the student much easier. But the first obstacle will be to make the teacher comfortable with the new technology. Feeling of inadequacy is a major stumbling block for many teachers. (Johnson, 2008) Teachers must feel “empowered in the decision to use the technology” and to feel as though it will make them a better instructor. (Deubel, 2003) Not that they are less of a teacher if they do not or cannot use it. But that this will give them the edge to grab the attention of that straggling student that shows no interest in the material. But the teacher has the ability and experience to evaluate the technology enhanced lesson for quality and assure that it is not just another “dog and pony show “with no educational value. (Johnson, 2009) Mary Burns states, “I have seen this pattern repeated across schools in which I have worked, both in the US and abroad, and this highlights several fundamental weaknesses in the prevalent model of computer skills training. First, in spite of the inevitable focus on the creation of an academic product (using PowerPoint to present a lesson, for example), in such a skills-training model, technology is the focus and curriculum an adjunct. Such training, according to teachers with whom I have spoken, casts technology and curriculum as separate entities in teachers' minds and makes technology manipulation appear more important than it actually is”. (Burns, 2005)

Teachers must be given time to absorb the technology and training. They should not be given an all or nothing time line. Small blocks of training can be incorporated into the in-service days with opportunities to practice included. But these training sessions do not need to try to make the teacher an expert in the program. “The “one size fits all” approach of a good deal of skills training often means that instructors spent time focusing on the “bells and whistles” of the application or on features-driven instruction (i.e., teaching “about” the technology). Thus, the software, according to these same teachers, is inadvertently presented as more complex than it really is. More critically, this form of instruction does not allow teachers to moderate technology use in order to match their own instructional needs.” (Burns, 2005)


The time to learn new and improved ways to teach involve more time than the teacher is actually paid for. A “reward program” could be used to encourage the teacher to stay for training. (Johnson, 2009) Our district has implemented just that. For every unit of training you attend, your school receives points. With those points, you help decide which technology will be bought and used. Our campus has chosen digital cameras, digital projectors and flip video cameras with the points we earned during the summer. Because the teachers “bought into the program”, they were willing to give up personal time to learn how to operate these items and are excited about ways to use them in their classrooms.


As I researched this paper, one item was very evident. Nothing will ever replace a good teacher and whether you are a technological “guru” or not, if you are not using appropriate pedagogy, your students will not benefit from the time or expense of the technology.

Resources

Deuble, Dr. Patricia. (2003).”Computing technology for math excellence”.  Retrieved    from      http://www.ct4me.net/math_projects.htm

Burns, Mary. (2005). “Just use it: Rethinking technology training for K-12 teachers”.

     Retrieved from http://www.techlearning.com/printablearticle/4330

Johnson, Doug. (2008). “Seven brilliant things teachers do with technology”.

Retrieved from http://doug-johnson.squarespace.com/blue-skunk-blog/2008/12/12/seven-brilliant-thingsteachers-do-with-technology.html>


Johnson, Heather. (2009). “Encouraging teachers to use technology”. Retrieved from http://www.digitalchalkie.com/category/professional-development