Students Help Their Teachers Learn Technology
Again and again teachers are urged to try new tech initia- tives. But if that new tool or
innovation is unveiled without follow-up support or a clear understanding
of how it contributes to the overall
mission of increased student achievement, enthusiasm fades and frustration kicks in.
I have to own up to my role in this
failed paradigm. As part of the first
wave of millennial educators, I have
always tried to make technology
integration in my classroom intuitive
and fun. With fewer years invested
in a pre-tech curriculum, I have embraced change with no hesitation.
And to pay it forward, I have enthusiastically volunteered to lead workshops and summer boot camps with
prepared worksheets to introduce my
colleagues to a smorgasbord of tech
goodies.
However, despite my good intentions, I have committed most, if not
all, of the cardinal sins of technology
integration. Instead of communicating
a clear and overarching vision of what
an integrated classroom looks like, I
have haphazardly introduced my colleagues to a variety of tech tools without context or connection, resulting in
confusion and ambiguous priorities.
And while I subscribe to a constructivist, student-centered approach to
teaching, it didn’t transfer to my workshops and boot camps, where I found
myself using traditional and ineffective lecture methods. And finally, as
I was a full-time teacher and only a
volunteer tech integrator, I had no
time to follow up with differentiated
support for my colleagues who needed
extra help. Looking back, it is no surprise that few if any of my pearls of
tech wisdom were implemented.
But as Henry Ford said, failure is
simply the opportunity to begin again,
this time more intelligently.
A More Effective Approach
For my second attempt at tech integration, I paired up with a tech-savvy
math teacher, Tanya Komandt, to
create a student-led tech club that
provided teachers with personalized
technology instruction that met their
individual needs. We called our club
Mouse Mischief, and in contrast to
student-run tech help desk initiatives,
we trained our students to tutor teachers in tech tools, such as iMovie, Prezi,
and Glogster.
To provide incentive to join the
club, we convinced administrators to
pay our student tutors minimum wage
for the hours they worked with teachers and to hire a few star performers
as summer IT interns.
We initially had 20 students join the
club, which met once a month during
a structured clubs time when mem-
bers, or “mice,” received direct
training in targeted tech programs.
We paired teachers with student
tutors who shared common breaks,
so that as much as possible, instruc-
tion occurred during the teachers’
planning periods. Additionally, groups
of mice met after school to perform
the basic tech maintenance that of-
ten gets overlooked, such as cleaning
computer carts or interactive white-
boards.
