“Logging on to Staff Development”
This article discusses the some ideas that the Mobile County Public School District used to teach their staff to use technology effectively. The School District received a grant call Enhancing Education Through Technology, EETT, or E2T2. The purpose of the grant is to teach students to use technology efficiently, but you can not really do a good job of teaching students something that the teacher herself does not really understand. EETT put guidelines into the grant to use 25% of the money for staff development.
The school district decided that they would encourage teachers to take online classes put on through the grant. The teachers would take them for continuing education credit or graduate credit. They would also receive other incentives such as new personal computers. The district also had the instructional technology teachers take the classes along with the classroom teachers so that they would have someone close to direct their questions to and to get help from before they fell behind.
The school district also saw the need to offer other options for professional development since not all teachers would be on board with taking an online class. “Since teachers, like students, have different learning needs, we have not focused all our resources on online courses. However, despite being convenient in terms of time and accessibility, online courses are not for everyone. While some teachers can learn effectively via solitary study, others need more face-to-face interaction to better absorb information.” To remedy this situation, they offered a blended approach much like we have here in our program, workshops, and on-site consultations.
So, by having the opportunity the train the staff at Mobile County Public School District, the district equipped their staff to effectively teach using technology and then could meet the standard in the NCLB act that says that students should be technologically literate by the age of eighth grade.
Palloff and Pratt discussed some of the obstacles faced by teachers trying to meet together to receive training or to meet together to discuss new ideas. This idea of having the school provide online classes to train teachers is very effective. They are expected to teach using technology and to have their students able to use it as well. What better way to learn how to do something well than to be immersed in it? That what these teachers are able to do while engaged in their online class.
Logging on to Staff Development. Bush, Gloria, T H E Journal, 0192592X, Jun2005, Vol. 32, Issue 11.
LaDarrah Krogh 