Many times as a technology teacher I have found myself trying to justify the teaching of technology skills (Typing, Software Instruction, etc.) as separate entities from everyday lessons in the classroom. I do believe that there is a time and place for both integration and stand alone technology lessons, but maybe it's because I teach at a elementary school that I find the need to have more lessons on the technology itself. I have found that some of the teachers at my school are quick to say things like type this document up in a word document. Now, this might seem like a no brainer to the teacher because they feel like they are teaching their students how to use technology as a tool to help them with their work. Then, they get every body's word documents and look with horror as their students have created documents with strange fonts, font size, improper titles and headings, and no paragraph indention. Not to mention that the students pecked it out with one finger and it took them twice as long to complete their document because they have never developed any typing skills. I have come to find that when teaching elementary age students you can never assume that students know how to use certain technology we take for granted properly. It is necessary to show students how to use any tool. You wouldn't give a table saw to a 10 year old and say, "cut this piece of wood. Make sure it's a clean cut because you only get one chance!" Although this may not seem like the same thing as telling a child to type up a word document, but in many ways it is the same. We are asking our students to create a quality product with a tool they have never been trained on. Which means we are setting them up for failure from the beginning. Same as the table saw we are also putting them in danger because we are allowing them the opportunity to develop bad habits they can follow them into high school and beyond. I should know. I still peck around the keyboard with two or three fingers because I was never trained with proper typing skills. So this blog, will take me longer than someone who has received the proper typing training. At the same time we have to be careful to not implement any technology skills into lessons because then students have a hard time understanding that technology is a seriously helpful tool for learning. It is a fine line we walk as educators, but as with the table saw you wouldn't want to teach your students how to cut a piece of wood just for the sake of cutting it. We have to teach that it is a means to an end. We want to show that by having the proper training with tech skills we create something that has meaning and use. Then our students can take that table saw and use it to express their creativity in a proper way.
http://www.libraryinstruction.com/info-tech.html
http://www.newhorizons.org/strategies/technology/front_tech.htm
http://www.gmu.edu/resources/facstaff/part-time/strategy.html
Monday, January 25, 2010
My last Awful PD
In my most recent technology cohort class the question was posed to me, "What was my last awful professional development, and why was it so awful?" I immediately laughed to myself because I knew exactly when it was. That same day of course. HA! The same day my professor asked me that question I had attend a CPS Tech Tuesday training on the use of iPods in the classroom. Before I got to the PD I was very exciting about learning something new I could show my teachers and the teacher I had brought with me to the training. What I was hoping for was maybe some new ideas on lessons and teaching strategies that my primary teachers could actually use. I had hyped it up to the 2nd grade teacher I had brought with me, and boy was that a mistake. The ALL DAY LONG PD was basically spent on showing us how to use a iPod. Okay, now I understand that working an iPod might be difficult for some but seriously, COME ON PEOPLE! This is the year 2010! The number of the people that have had no experience with an iPod in this PD was probably 1 out of 50. The entire PD was spent on how to work the different features of the new video iPod. There were no teaching strategies talked about. No real outline for lesson plans. No ideas offered on how to manage the use of iPods in the classroom, or anything of that nature. In fact, some of the best ideas from the PD came from the teachers that were there to learn from the presenter. It made me realize how important it is to think about the PD you are going to give thoroughly, as well as the audience that you are trying to target. It seems to me that PD is best when the presenter has a very specific implementation idea that they want to discuss with the trainees. Anything other than that is just worthless. Then again that's just my opinion.