Choosing the right technology for learning involves selecting the tools you will use as the presenter, resources and devices your participants will use to be trained, and the digital means you may use to actually deliver or record your training. For this blog post, I will mainly focus on the last 2, but the presentation and modeling of effective technology use is also a crucial part of any professional development.
Take BYOD for example. As more and more schools embrace the idea of students bringing their personally-owned devices to school, teachers are realizing that there are new opportunities to make use of these devices in their classroom for learning. In my opinion, there are many digital activities that students can participate in without the need to be one-to-one in the classroom. However, there can be huge benefits for students to have their own computer or tablet to work on for assignments or even for a collaborative project. If a teacher does not have a classroom set of computers or mobile devices, then they might consider encouraging students to bring in their own device assuming the school and district have a policy that allows BYOD. This is something we are promoting in my district and in the upcoming school year, we will be training teachers in many of our schools on a variety of instructional activities, apps, and strategies they can use to improve learning and achievement. Larson and Lockee (2014) describe how teachers should familiarize themselves with the different types of technology and their capabilities in order to make the most effective choices for instruction and best support the learners in your classroom (Kindle location 4533, 4550).
Several important factors influence my decisions on the technology to include when I train teachers and provide professional development at schools:
- The topic or content of the training
- The desired learning outcomes and chosen strategies
- The existing technology available at that school or site
- Specific requests for a particular resource or device training by the principal or group of teachers
One assumption I often make is that elementary level teachers expect training to include digital tools that are appropriate for younger students. When I work with secondary teachers, there are often teachers from different grade levels and subject areas. In that case, I always try to include a balance of tools from various subject areas that are appropriate for their age group.
Over the last 5 years I have worked to develop my own Professional Learning Network (PLN) using a combination of tools including Diigo, Pinterest, Twitter, and some of my favorite online technology journals and edtech bloggers. I am always looking for new resources and tools to try out and share with other teachers both formally in training and informally through emails and in conversation. Teachers may want something new to try, but it can be a mistake to overwhelm them with too many ideas and options. In Chapter 9, Larson and Lockee (2014) share that there appears to be no standard categorization of instructional technology, but I have seen several infographics and charts recently that appear to be attempting to create this type of structure (Loc 4500). I think this is helpful for teachers because it allows them to choose a level of Bloom’s taxonomy or a certain medium they want their students to use and matches it to a digital tool, site, or resource. A visual chart like iPadagogy is useful for professional development too because it connects strategies and outcome with the tool or app.
As I work with teachers to train them on utilizing student’s personal devices for learning in their classroom, selecting the technologies to deliver the content are key to the effectiveness of the training. The convenience of anytime, anywhere learning is not just for students; it is for all of us.
References
Image retrieved from: http://elearningstuff.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/padagogy-wheel.jpg
Larson, M. and Lockee, B.B. (2014). Streamlined ID: A practical guide to instructional design. New York: Routledge.
I have been overwhelmed with too many ideas for integrating technology. I think it is important to present teachers with various technologies that are available to them and to provide examples for how they can be used to improve the classroom, but teachers should understand that just because the technology exists, does not mean it will help every teacher or classroom in the same way. Larson and Lockee present that idea nicely, emphasizing pedagogy over technology.
ReplyDeleteI love BYOD, although the rest of the staff of my program do not. They see the students' devices as distractions, especially the phones. One of the issues I've come across with BYOD, however is that there are a lot of apps that are only available on iOS, and almost nothing is available for a Windows phone. I think, when training teachers to use BYOD, that is one of the things they need to keep in mind when picking apps--only pick apps that are available on both iOS and Android.
ReplyDeleteHere is a link to a resource that has educational apps that are available on both platforms: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2014/04/38-ipad-and-android-apps-ideal-for-byod.html