Learning & Leading Through Technology

the Classroom

3. Find free apps and demonstrate how to use them. Modeling class activities
in a group setting will help build teacher confidence and provide ideas they can
use with their students. Modeling will ensure that teachers are comfortable us-
ing the device. Plus, teachers leave the training sessions feeling less intimidated
by the device and better equipped with ideas to add to their lesson plans.
During a recent hands-on mobile device training session, the teachers used a
free app to create projects that their students would later be using in class. The
facilitator modeled the lesson by demonstrating how to use the app to make a
two-minute video using images related to a science unit. After creating their vid-
eos using the app, the teachers gave a presentation just as their students would do
in class, describing how the images they selected related to the science unit.
Follow up with the teachers during the school year to ensure they are incor-
porating the apps that were demonstrated. As questions arise and teachers need
assistance, answer via email and by visiting their classrooms.

4. Establish an internal blog for teachers. This is a way for educators to share ideas, lessons, tips, and experiences. The blog should serve as a forum for teachers to post comments and partner with colleagues. For example, technology pilot programs are often incorporated in a single grade level at multiple campuses districtwide. The blog establishes an instant connection among teachers who are not teaching in the same geographic area. Blogging offers teachers flexibility to join the virtual conversation when it is convenient for them. Blogging builds camaraderie among teachers and provides additional support.

5. Create a climate where innovation is valued. Encourage teachers to explore and take risks. Give them freedom to try new techniques in the classroom and create a campus environment where failures are regarded as learning opportunities. A particular failure might be tweaked and become a huge success that all teachers can benefit from.

Take, for example, a sixth grade teacher who streamlined a process and turned a mobile device headache into a success. Initially, the teacher had all 28 students per class connect their mobile devices to chargers one by one prior to dismissal. It was a time-consuming process because students had to be careful not to break the delicate charging pin. As a result, many of the students were late to their next classes.

Once the teacher realized that the devices could hold a charge all day, she had them quickly set them on the charging station. This change increased the amount of instructional time and made the dismissal go much more smoothly.

Providing teachers with flexibility to try new concepts and ideas motivates, empowers, and challenges them to become better educators who are equipped with new skills to engage their students in learning.

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It does not matter if you are implementing laptops, tablets, or some other device—these tips can be useful in any classroom. Once you put a new technological device into the hands of your teachers and provide professional development training and support, you will discover that soon those frantic and doubt-filled expressions of “Oh no!” will be replaced by “Oh wow!” exclamations from well-prepared, tech-savvy teachers.

—Staci Stanfield is the director of communications for the Tomball Independent School District, in Tomball, Texas. She has worked in education for 14 years. In May, she earned a doctorate of education in educational leadership at Lamar University.