Yesterday at the Leadership 3.0 Symposium, a stalwart panel of educators spoke on the topic, “The Cheers and Jeers of Getting Teachers to Use the Stuff: Supporting Technology Integration in the Classroom.” The group included TICAL cadre members Lisa Gonzales, Jim Scoolis, John White, Becci Gillespie, and yours truly as moderator. We same five did this same session a year ago to a standing-room-only audience (which is why we decided to try it again) and it seems the topic still appeals. As in 2008, we had a room full of people, though we did not have quite the same fireworks among panel members that caused us to add the “cheers and jeers” to the title this year.
During the session, panelists responded to four questions:
- Many teachers report their desire to receive training and then use technology with their students, but after training, there aren’t significant changes in their use of technology or instructional practices. What success have you had with training and sustaining the use of technology after the training?
- Are there types of technology that your teachers have been trained to use that have enabled small successes, resulting in broader use by the masses?
- What support have you put in place at your school to help teachers feel like they can use and be successful with the technology available, and what technology did you have available?
- Have any of you had experience with bringing about broad use of technology at a site with minimal experience, confidence, and interest?
Want to know what the panelists had to say? Notes from the session are posted here in the TICAL Community.