A technology facilitator and leader is a teacher of teachers and administrators. We have many responsibilities, but my philosophy has always centered around two. Empower teachers and administrators to breakaway from the traditional bounds that have restricted them from teaching the way that they wish they could. Teach teachers and administrators to empower their students to breakaway from the bounds that restrict them from learning the way they should. Below are a few of my efforts to accomplish those two goals.
Coach teacher with a digital storytelling project
I coached a teach who wanted to have her students create a digital story about someone who is a personal hero. The first ISTE standard for facilitators involves providing assistance for teachers who are trying to use technology. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) Video projects like digital storytelling are projects that have become very popular among teachers the last year or so. The challenge is that the teachers don't really understand the project. I generally approach the project suggesting that the teachers create one themselves first, but it is very rare that they actually do. This experience was the same. The teacher was learning as she worked with the kids. I had several meetings with the teacher. In each meeting, I taught her a different part of the process and then she spent the next two weeks or so repeating that with the students. The part of the process that was included in my internship log was the final step of adding background music and saving each project as a video. This teacher didn't believe the kids were capable of making the story themselves, so she sat down with each student individually and did everything for them. The second standard for facilitators involves planning units for students that are developmentally appropriate. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) It is tough, but as teachers use the technology, they begin to see what the students are capable of. Until then, they will consistently underestimate their student's capabilities. This teacher's students still had the experience, and they got a good product to take to parents, but it could have been much more powerful. Convincing teachers that their students are capable of creating these activities is a challenge. They tend to see the project from their perspective as digital immigrants, not as digital natives that Marc Prensky discusses. Kids miss out on a lot of quality experiences because we don't give them credit for being able to do things that we don't fully understand. Sometimes we just have to learn to get out of their way.
Meet with 4th grade iPod integration team
We decided to implement a pilot program to explore the use of iPod Touches in the classroom. I worked with the teachers to research ways to use these technologies. This is discussed by Williamson and Redish in the second standard for technology facilitators, planning learning environments and experiences. I also set them up as a professional learning community and met with them regularly to debrief and discuss their efforts. Standard three of the technology facilitation standards is about implementing the use of technology in the classroom. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) We discussed their use of technology during each meeting. This was an exciting project, but it was complicated by the fact that they didn't get their iPods until the end of February. It is very difficult to focus on a new technology or process when the TAKS test is staring you in the face. The teachers did a great job of exploring the technology while they were trying to do what they consider necessary to prepare the students for the test. As it worked, the teachers used the Touches to give every student a chance to conduct research. A couple of teachers had the students working with their blogs. Others were using downloaded apps for the students to participate in more traditional educational practices like math flash cards. I don't particularly like that type of use for technology, but there is nothing wrong with some rote styled activities as long as the students also get to enrich their lessons with research and collaboration.
Manage the 2 Year Teacher training online course
My school district has determined that we should have all teachers complete a basic technology proficiency training course during their second year in the school district. This single activity is a part of almost every standard listed by Williamson and Redish in their book Technology Facilitators and Leadership Standards. I created this course and manage the teachers efforts to complete it. I redesigned the last module dropping two lessons about creating a database and replacing them with Internet safety lessons about cyberbullying and Social networking. This new module and one of my favorites about information literacy, is what technology facilitation standard five about social, ethical, legal, and human issues. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) I based all of the modules on the SBEC standards for beginning teachers. These are not simply understanding the mechanics of using technology, but they are focused on how to teach with technology. That is something that every teacher needs regardless of their technology proficiency. My course is focused on conducting research to see how other teachers are using the basic technology tools with their students and then creating an example of the project they like. All assignments are posted in forums and teachers are expected to submit one original post and reply to two other posts in each forum. We use Moodle as the platform for the course. It took a while this year to get the reporting tools working in Moodle. There are several teachers who resent having to complete this professional development. I feel that I should respond to every forum submission to give them as much feedback as I can. That guides the teachers, but also shows that I value the training. Many still don't complete the modules. This means that I have to report progress to campus administrators. Some teachers never registered for the course, so I had to create their account so they would show up in the reports. Moodle also didn't have a place for teachers to put their campus when they created their accounts, so I had to enter their campus manually to sort the reports for each campus. This course is exciting as I see the teachers grow and share these ideas, but the amount of time required takes it's toll and gets very frustrating as the year goes on.
Prepare and manage weekly principal meeting
Each week, I prepared a slideshow for a web conference with district administration and principals. Standard seven says, "Use distance and online learning facilities routinely." (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) That is just the tip of the iceberg because the weekly use of the web conference brought principals and district administrators into the discussion about policies and school needs. At the beginning of each week, I would remind the district administrators to send information for the meeting to me. As the year went on, I began to use Google Docs to create the slideshow and invited district administrators to add content themselves rather than sending me the information. On Wednesday each week, I download the slideshow and then upload it to Wimba, our web conference system. Then I sent an invitation to the principals. Then I managed the web conference each week. After each meeting I saved the archive and send that link to the meeting participants. This allows me to explore the possibilities and functionality of web conferences. I was also able to get district administrators to start using Google Docs. While trying to get them to see the possibilities of Google Docs, they didn't resisted it until it made one of their duties easier. Standard five includes modeling the use of technologies. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) Modeling Google Docs has influenced our curriculum team a great deal.. They weren't interested in Google Docs when I first brought up the idea, but after a short time collaborating on the principal meeting slideshow, they have begun using Google Docs with their curriculum writing teams.
Curriculum team meeting
Each week after the principal meeting, I participated in the curriculum team meeting. This was a great opportunity for professional growth for me. I have been involved in instructional technology for 10 years and it tends to trap you in a position of troubleshooting and repair. Participating in the curriculum team meetings gave me the opportunity to extend my learning from technology to curriculum. ISTE standard 5 lists, "Develop an awareness of instructional design principles and their importance in developing hypermedia and multimedia products." (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) I believe that curriculum and instruction are the proper place for technology training, but most technology facilitators are hired for technology prowess rather than knowledge of instructional practices. We were also able to conduct informal training and help the curriculum team use technology. It also gave me the opportunity to extend our technology training into curriculum training. That was a major step forward in our district. We discussed many instructional tools to evaluate them and determine their instructional value. This was part of standard eight. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) Participation in the curriculum meetings also opened the door to participate in curriculum writing sessions. Participating in the curriculum team activities has moved our instructional technology department forward a great deal.
Work with secondary Language Arts curriculum writing team to integrate technology into the district Language Arts curriculum guides
I had the opportunity to work with a team to include technology into the district Language Arts curriculum guides. Standard two is about creating curriculum that is appropriate to a specific teaching unit. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) This was a two day session and it was a bit frustrating. The curriculum writing team spent the first day being trained for the educational philosophy the director wanted them to follow and the format of the initial documents. This was a necessary task, but it left very little room for my participation in the process. I was also learning how the documents were being compiled and it was difficult to see how technology fit in. The teachers spent the second day writing the initial documents and never got to the point where technology fit in. I helped them to use the technology tools like Google Docs and the Word templates that were set up. Standard two is focused strongly on modeling the use and implementation of technology. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) I wasn't able to get much actually placed in the planning documents, but we did model some technologies that were new to them. I had the chance to talk to some of the groups, but to my knowledge there was nothing written in the documents that referred to technology. It was an important first step, but not immediately productive. I'm certain that with time and continued effort this will pay dividends.
Prepare online training on Web 2.0 and collaboration for technology summer training
We decided to create all technology training as online courses. This makes training more convenient and effective. We will also offer face to face training days for those who prefer help in person. During the face to face training days, participants will still be completing the online course, but a technology coach will be available to help teach the concepts. Standard two discusses modeling methods and strategies for teaching. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) We feel that it is very important to use this medium so our teachers can consider the benefits of online teaching with their students. I have created an online course before for the teacher training for the second year in our district. The system we used for these courses was not user friendly. It also caused a lot of issues. I spent a lot of time trying to get everything to work. The WYSIWYG didn't even have a way to create a live link. I spent a lot of time on this and finally got all of the modules to work. I had to go back and repair a number of them later and still have to check periodically. The system also doesn't work well with Mozilla Firefox. I had to keep switching from Internet Explorer to write the course and Firefox to test it. Standard one involves the evaluation of training and training platforms. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) The use of that platform for the online courses was a very big challenge, but it is easier for the teachers and ties directly into our professional development tracking system.
Present iPod pilot program to technology directors at the region service center and attend the technology directors conference
I worked with a member of the iPod pilot team and my technology director to present our efforts to integrate iPod Touches into some fourth grade classrooms. We presented our rationale while the teacher told what they had done and how it worked. That session was presented twice, then we participated in a town hall style discussion about social networking in school. This was probably the most interesting part of the day as technology directors discussed the issues associated with allowing social networking tools through their web filters. Standard five is about the ethical issues of technology. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) There were some districts that have opened up their filter to allow social network sites. They didn't have any problems with student abuse of the privilege. They did have problems with teachers, however. We spent some time discussing who is responsible for those issues. Disciplinary issues are not the job of technology and just because technology was used doesn't change that. The idea that the web filter shouldn't be used for discipline was also discussed. This was interesting because we have been discussing ways to open the web filter up for a while. They also discussed Project Share which is a system for social networking, training, and electronic portfolios for Texas teachers and students. Evaluating technologies is an important part of a technology facilitators job. I appreciated the chance to see Project Share. It is a very interesting system and one that is worth watching. We have already begin uploading teachers to the system.
A technology facilitator and leader is a teacher of teachers and administrators. We have many responsibilities, but my philosophy has always centered around two. Empower teachers and administrators to breakaway from the traditional bounds that have restricted them from teaching the way that they wish they could. Teach teachers and administrators to empower their students to breakaway from the bounds that restrict them from learning the way they should. Below are a few of my efforts to accomplish those two goals.
Coach teacher with a digital storytelling project
I coached a teach who wanted to have her students create a digital story about someone who is a personal hero. The first ISTE standard for facilitators involves providing assistance for teachers who are trying to use technology. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) Video projects like digital storytelling are projects that have become very popular among teachers the last year or so. The challenge is that the teachers don't really understand the project. I generally approach the project suggesting that the teachers create one themselves first, but it is very rare that they actually do. This experience was the same. The teacher was learning as she worked with the kids. I had several meetings with the teacher. In each meeting, I taught her a different part of the process and then she spent the next two weeks or so repeating that with the students. The part of the process that was included in my internship log was the final step of adding background music and saving each project as a video. This teacher didn't believe the kids were capable of making the story themselves, so she sat down with each student individually and did everything for them. The second standard for facilitators involves planning units for students that are developmentally appropriate. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) It is tough, but as teachers use the technology, they begin to see what the students are capable of. Until then, they will consistently underestimate their student's capabilities. This teacher's students still had the experience, and they got a good product to take to parents, but it could have been much more powerful. Convincing teachers that their students are capable of creating these activities is a challenge. They tend to see the project from their perspective as digital immigrants, not as digital natives that Marc Prensky discusses. Kids miss out on a lot of quality experiences because we don't give them credit for being able to do things that we don't fully understand. Sometimes we just have to learn to get out of their way.
Meet with 4th grade iPod integration team
We decided to implement a pilot program to explore the use of iPod Touches in the classroom. I worked with the teachers to research ways to use these technologies. This is discussed by Williamson and Redish in the second standard for technology facilitators, planning learning environments and experiences. I also set them up as a professional learning community and met with them regularly to debrief and discuss their efforts. Standard three of the technology facilitation standards is about implementing the use of technology in the classroom. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) We discussed their use of technology during each meeting. This was an exciting project, but it was complicated by the fact that they didn't get their iPods until the end of February. It is very difficult to focus on a new technology or process when the TAKS test is staring you in the face. The teachers did a great job of exploring the technology while they were trying to do what they consider necessary to prepare the students for the test. As it worked, the teachers used the Touches to give every student a chance to conduct research. A couple of teachers had the students working with their blogs. Others were using downloaded apps for the students to participate in more traditional educational practices like math flash cards. I don't particularly like that type of use for technology, but there is nothing wrong with some rote styled activities as long as the students also get to enrich their lessons with research and collaboration.Manage the 2 Year Teacher training online course
My school district has determined that we should have all teachers complete a basic technology proficiency training course during their second year in the school district. This single activity is a part of almost every standard listed by Williamson and Redish in their book Technology Facilitators and Leadership Standards. I created this course and manage the teachers efforts to complete it. I redesigned the last module dropping two lessons about creating a database and replacing them with Internet safety lessons about cyberbullying and Social networking. This new module and one of my favorites about information literacy, is what technology facilitation standard five about social, ethical, legal, and human issues. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) I based all of the modules on the SBEC standards for beginning teachers. These are not simply understanding the mechanics of using technology, but they are focused on how to teach with technology. That is something that every teacher needs regardless of their technology proficiency. My course is focused on conducting research to see how other teachers are using the basic technology tools with their students and then creating an example of the project they like. All assignments are posted in forums and teachers are expected to submit one original post and reply to two other posts in each forum. We use Moodle as the platform for the course. It took a while this year to get the reporting tools working in Moodle. There are several teachers who resent having to complete this professional development. I feel that I should respond to every forum submission to give them as much feedback as I can. That guides the teachers, but also shows that I value the training. Many still don't complete the modules. This means that I have to report progress to campus administrators. Some teachers never registered for the course, so I had to create their account so they would show up in the reports. Moodle also didn't have a place for teachers to put their campus when they created their accounts, so I had to enter their campus manually to sort the reports for each campus. This course is exciting as I see the teachers grow and share these ideas, but the amount of time required takes it's toll and gets very frustrating as the year goes on.Prepare and manage weekly principal meeting
Each week, I prepared a slideshow for a web conference with district administration and principals. Standard seven says, "Use distance and online learning facilities routinely." (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) That is just the tip of the iceberg because the weekly use of the web conference brought principals and district administrators into the discussion about policies and school needs. At the beginning of each week, I would remind the district administrators to send information for the meeting to me. As the year went on, I began to use Google Docs to create the slideshow and invited district administrators to add content themselves rather than sending me the information. On Wednesday each week, I download the slideshow and then upload it to Wimba, our web conference system. Then I sent an invitation to the principals. Then I managed the web conference each week. After each meeting I saved the archive and send that link to the meeting participants. This allows me to explore the possibilities and functionality of web conferences. I was also able to get district administrators to start using Google Docs. While trying to get them to see the possibilities of Google Docs, they didn't resisted it until it made one of their duties easier. Standard five includes modeling the use of technologies. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) Modeling Google Docs has influenced our curriculum team a great deal.. They weren't interested in Google Docs when I first brought up the idea, but after a short time collaborating on the principal meeting slideshow, they have begun using Google Docs with their curriculum writing teams.Curriculum team meeting
Each week after the principal meeting, I participated in the curriculum team meeting. This was a great opportunity for professional growth for me. I have been involved in instructional technology for 10 years and it tends to trap you in a position of troubleshooting and repair. Participating in the curriculum team meetings gave me the opportunity to extend my learning from technology to curriculum. ISTE standard 5 lists, "Develop an awareness of instructional design principles and their importance in developing hypermedia and multimedia products." (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) I believe that curriculum and instruction are the proper place for technology training, but most technology facilitators are hired for technology prowess rather than knowledge of instructional practices. We were also able to conduct informal training and help the curriculum team use technology. It also gave me the opportunity to extend our technology training into curriculum training. That was a major step forward in our district. We discussed many instructional tools to evaluate them and determine their instructional value. This was part of standard eight. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) Participation in the curriculum meetings also opened the door to participate in curriculum writing sessions. Participating in the curriculum team activities has moved our instructional technology department forward a great deal.Work with secondary Language Arts curriculum writing team to integrate technology into the district Language Arts curriculum guides
I had the opportunity to work with a team to include technology into the district Language Arts curriculum guides. Standard two is about creating curriculum that is appropriate to a specific teaching unit. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) This was a two day session and it was a bit frustrating. The curriculum writing team spent the first day being trained for the educational philosophy the director wanted them to follow and the format of the initial documents. This was a necessary task, but it left very little room for my participation in the process. I was also learning how the documents were being compiled and it was difficult to see how technology fit in. The teachers spent the second day writing the initial documents and never got to the point where technology fit in. I helped them to use the technology tools like Google Docs and the Word templates that were set up. Standard two is focused strongly on modeling the use and implementation of technology. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) I wasn't able to get much actually placed in the planning documents, but we did model some technologies that were new to them. I had the chance to talk to some of the groups, but to my knowledge there was nothing written in the documents that referred to technology. It was an important first step, but not immediately productive. I'm certain that with time and continued effort this will pay dividends.Prepare online training on Web 2.0 and collaboration for technology summer training
We decided to create all technology training as online courses. This makes training more convenient and effective. We will also offer face to face training days for those who prefer help in person. During the face to face training days, participants will still be completing the online course, but a technology coach will be available to help teach the concepts. Standard two discusses modeling methods and strategies for teaching. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) We feel that it is very important to use this medium so our teachers can consider the benefits of online teaching with their students. I have created an online course before for the teacher training for the second year in our district. The system we used for these courses was not user friendly. It also caused a lot of issues. I spent a lot of time trying to get everything to work. The WYSIWYG didn't even have a way to create a live link. I spent a lot of time on this and finally got all of the modules to work. I had to go back and repair a number of them later and still have to check periodically. The system also doesn't work well with Mozilla Firefox. I had to keep switching from Internet Explorer to write the course and Firefox to test it. Standard one involves the evaluation of training and training platforms. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) The use of that platform for the online courses was a very big challenge, but it is easier for the teachers and ties directly into our professional development tracking system.Present iPod pilot program to technology directors at the region service center and attend the technology directors conference
I worked with a member of the iPod pilot team and my technology director to present our efforts to integrate iPod Touches into some fourth grade classrooms. We presented our rationale while the teacher told what they had done and how it worked. That session was presented twice, then we participated in a town hall style discussion about social networking in school. This was probably the most interesting part of the day as technology directors discussed the issues associated with allowing social networking tools through their web filters. Standard five is about the ethical issues of technology. (Williamson, & Redish, 2009) There were some districts that have opened up their filter to allow social network sites. They didn't have any problems with student abuse of the privilege. They did have problems with teachers, however. We spent some time discussing who is responsible for those issues. Disciplinary issues are not the job of technology and just because technology was used doesn't change that. The idea that the web filter shouldn't be used for discipline was also discussed. This was interesting because we have been discussing ways to open the web filter up for a while. They also discussed Project Share which is a system for social networking, training, and electronic portfolios for Texas teachers and students. Evaluating technologies is an important part of a technology facilitators job. I appreciated the chance to see Project Share. It is a very interesting system and one that is worth watching. We have already begin uploading teachers to the system.Armstrong, B. (Producer). (2007). Break away-ordinary people doing extraordinary things. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUT1ADtIHQU
Williamson, J, & Redish, T. (2009). ISTE's technology facilitation and leadership standards. Eugene, OR: International Society of Technology in Education.
Prensky, M. (2001, October). Digital natives, digital immigrants. Retrieved from http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky - Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants - Part1.pdf
Texas State Board of Educator Certification, Initials. (2008, April). Technology applications standards for all beginning teachers. Retrieved from http://www.sbec.state.tx.us/SBECOnline/standtest/standards/techapps_allbegtch.pdf