Technology Leadership Implementation Proposal

Abstract

Instructional technology has become an essential tool in student engagement and leaning outcomes. Today's learners require more interactive instruments to captivate and maintain their attention as well as assist in acquiring knowledge. Teachers, in addition to working hard to meet the needs of these ever-evolving students, are struggling to keep up with the advancing technology tools for education. Although teachers are now being provided with multiple instructional technology tools, the offering of staff development for those tools is inadequate and lacks specific focus of content. Offering monthly professional development sessions on various technology tools will aid teachers in continuing to advance their own skillset in instructional technology while facilitating student engagement.

Documentation of Need

Although our school currently employs an instructional technology specialist, she is often pulled in to support our IT department with maintenance and upkeep issues. Therefore, no consistent training is offered after the initial implementation of a new tech tool. Initially teachers are

brought together into a room and provided either a hardware tool, such as an iPad, or shown a software tool, such as the web/blog site Wordpress and are given generic instructions, provided limited maintenance directions, and then instructed to email the instructional technology specialist if they have any questions or problems. Recently multiple teachers in our school were chosen for an iPad for classroom instruction trial. 50 members of our 120 staff were provided one iPad per person for instructional purposes. A single training was provided. It was apparent during the training that the population was diverse in experience with Apple products. The instructions for use were vague and no suggestions for implementation were provided. Through interaction with several of those teachers it has been discovered that there are still varying degrees of comfort and use with the iPad when used in the classroom. Teachers have had their iPads for three months, so it seemed prudent to survey the participants in the trial to gather feedback on their training experience and current use of the iPad in their instruction.

The following are the results of this survey:

Habitually, teachers leave this training session having no clear expectation of use for the tool.

They were not given time to practice with it in the presence of the technology specialist to help with start-up problems, provided sample lesson plans for use, or afforded opportunities to collaborate on ideas for implementing the tool in content-specific areas. Teachers need to be presented with immediate methods to implement instructional technology in their classes. As well they should be provided with more than one opportunity to practice using the tools before trying to implement them.

Project Goals

* Initiate a "Tech Tool of the Month" program to assist teachers in utilizing current technology tools in their classrooms

o This would be organized and initiated by the instructional technology specialist, media specialist and the two technology teachers at Mount Paran.

o The instructional technologist would oversee the presentation of each monthly session with support from the media specialist and technology teachers.

* Increase teacher use and confidence of technology tools

* Create a resource database of tips, tricks and lesson plans for all teachers to utilize

Literature Review

We live in a technology driven world, but this does not mean everyone is comfortable with technology. Just as it has been proven that most individuals must hear a statement or fact at multiple times before they commit it to memory, learning technology, becoming comfortable with technology should be approached in the same way. As teachers we know that practice makes perfect, but as professional development trainers, we assume teachers are different than students and only need one lesson to pick up a skill instantly. "One major factor contributing to teachers' ill preparedness to innovatively use technologies to support student learning is the lack of ongoing, focused professional learning opportunities" (Hughes & Ooms, 2004). It is a common practice to offer one training session on a new technology tool and then become discouraged that teachers do not instantly utilize it in the classroom. Yet, a teacher would never introduce a learning concept one time, such as long division and expect the students to immediately grasp the concept. "Technology training is predominantly organized as short-term, one-shot workshops focused on learning software without specific content-based examples of their use and without pedagogical and curricular connections" (Hughes & Ooms, 2004). Students usually have several days, weeks or months to learn a concept. Teachers create unit plans to deliver information in multiple forms to ensure comprehension. "Designers of teacher learning activities need to be cognizant of the social context in which the learning is situated to maximize optimal learning" (Hughes & Ooms, 2004). Teacher-learners should be taught no differently than their students. Although technology training is necessary for successful implementation of instructional technology, it can be a large undertaking to implement successfully. Therefore more than one member of the staff should be involved in the planning and execution of such a program. "Media specialists can play an active role in providing staff development that helps teachers use technology to teach in a changing learning environment and integrate technology in the curriculum" (Anderson, M.A., 2002). Most media specialists are central members of their staffs, and individuals who other teachers turn to for technology assistance already. The job title itself implies an understanding of technology and more often than not, media centers host computer labs, as well as other technology tools that teachers check out for classroom instruction. Carter & Rundblad contend that libraries are the best location for technology instruction support. Teachers want to take advantage of technology for instructional purposes, but are unfamiliar with the tools and need guidance. "The library was a logical location for such a center because of its long tradition of providing services to instructors. The library was also seen as the center of emerging interactive techniques, such as video and computers.