Technology Training in Schools

The current state of the faculty’s technology skills at Wheeler High School skills runs the gamut between inexperienced and apathetic to tech savvy and overzealous. Recently, as part of the 21st Century Classroom initiative, Wheeler High School classrooms received a DVD/VCR combo, laptop/computer connections, LCD projector, pull down screen, and many classrooms were also equipped with Smartboards. Unfortunately many of these new classroom technologies have been greatly underutilized because many teachers have not been trained to use them because they were either to busy or apathetic to attend the training in-service that the media specialists held. In my opinion this is a shame. Many of the veteran teachers at my school are reluctant to learn about new technologies because they fear that the county will change it on them the next year. The newer teachers who are technology savvy and would love to learn more are often overwhelmed with other responsibilities such as athletics and clubs that consume all of their “free” time.

In conversations I have had with the media specialists and other teachers at Wheeler High School in the past, I discovered that the Cobb County School District is in dire need of technology training for teachers and students alike. Due to recent budget setbacks, the Cobb County School District eliminated all of their ILT (Instructional Lead Teacher) positions at the end of last school year. As a result, technology training for the entire county has landed in the lap of the media specialists at each individual school. The media specialists at Wheeler High School are always willing to help with technology questions and training, but even they had to admit that it is very difficult for them to do much with this new job responsibility considering everything that they already had on their plate. When I asked how they handled requests for technology training and assistance when they themselves could not assist, they pointed me towards Atomic Learning. Since the Cobb County School District was forced to eliminate the ILT positions, they purchased a subscription to Atomic Learning. Atomic Learning is remarkably easy to use online resource that contains thousands of technology training videos and instructional resources. Actually, I decided to do my second in-service module on it because of the current state of technology skills at Wheeler High School.

When I think about how I as a media specialist would provide technology staff development, I often find myself leaning toward asynchronous technology education as opposed to school wide in-services. I know that sounds like a scandalous suggestion, but let me explain. At Wheeler High School, the majority of the teachers that would be interested in pursuing technology training often complain that they do not have time to attend lengthy in-services that consume their entire planning period. Many of them inquire with the media specialists in advance to see if there are any resources that they can take home with them to use or if our video production class plans on recording the training for viewing at a later date. However, the teachers that are apathetic about learning new technology always seem to begrudgingly attend the mandatory in-service training if for no other reason than to complain that they are wasting their planning. In other words, the teachers that want to be at the in-service are not there and the teachers that don’t want to be there are. Overall, this gives technology in-services a bad rap. I would like to empower the teachers that want to go to in-services by letting them learn the material whenever they want, wherever they want. How does this help the entire school you might ask? Well, the teachers that are turned on by the new technology will help to sell it to the reluctant ones. Additionally, the more teachers that get on board with a new technology the greater likelihood that the technology being used sticks around.