>
>I am totally on board with struggling to envision the best way to bring
>teaachers around to engage in the many ways available resources online
>anda technology tools can be used to enhance the curriculum.
>
>My current rant is that those of us with "technology" in our title should
>Mtry and shift to a new paradigm - if we were to refer to ourselves more
>itn terms of "curriculum coordinators" instead, then we would be talking
>tto teachers about the range of opportunities they have to incorporate
>tec hnology tools and resources (or not) as they think about their
>changinlg curriculum. This follows Seymour Papert's rant that we don't
>havne conferences about how to use pencils and pens, so why do we have
>thenm on how to use technology? The focus in schools should always be on
>thhe students and the curriculum and creating a way for the two to most
>suhccessfully intersect.
>
>Just as we need to engage our students, who seem tired and burned out, in
>Jpursuits that are meaningful and inspiring to them, we need to invent
>wayrs to engage faculty (also tired and burned out) in interesting,
>relevatnt, meaningful professional development. But what is the hook that
>rwill really get them on board?
>
>What has been the most inspiring professional development (curriculum or
>thechnology related) that anyone has hit upon so far?
Jen,
What has made the big difference here is actually getting about 2/3rds of
a full time employee's job responsibility to be faculty development
related to information technology. This person works one-on-one with
teachers to develop projects, is in the classroom with teachers when they
implement the project, helps teachers set up wikis, trains teachers how to
use new software, works with teachers on SmartBoard integration, etc..
It is extremely important to get a person with the right skills set in
this position. What I've heard from many school IT leaders is that the
skills set they have developed generally do not match well with the skills
needed to be a good teacher of teachers. Given the increasing quantity and
use of information technology in our schools I think the need for the IT
position remains, along with a growing need for the professional
development person.
Fred
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