Technology+Facilitator+Standard+I+Reflections

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TF-I Educational technology facilitators demonstrate an in-depth understanding of technology operations and concepts. ======

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To successfully implement Technology Facilitator Standard I, technology leaders must “ensure that their colleagues possess the fundamental understanding and skills needed to operate specific technologies and understand the concepts associated with technology use” (Williamson & Redish, 2009, p.17 ). I believe this is the foundation of a sound application of technology in a learning environment. You must first understand technology and have basic skills before you can incorporate it successfully into curriculum. That is not to say that I believe that you must be an expert in technology in order to successfully implement it in a classroom. The teacher “must serve as a facilitator and the students must become active in the learning process”(TEA, 2006, p. 18). This master’s program has helped me realize that with a basic set of skills, all teachers can effectively implement technology. Prior to this program, I like so many teachers, thought that it was the teacher’s role to present the technology to the student and teach them how to use it in addition to the concept being covered. This most likely stems from my background as a technology teacher, where it is my job to teach technology in a methodical manner and test for mastery. This might be true when teaching database or programming concepts that are not easily mastered but these students are “digital natives” as Prensky(2001, p. 1) calls them. They are masters at using technology to express themselves and solve problems. For the 21st century student, choosing the Web 2.0 tool that they will use to demonstrate a concept learned in a traditional class is exciting and allows them to merge education and technology in new and exciting ways. ======

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During my internship, I facilitated several technology related staff development trainings. One is particular was about using Office 2007. Several of the teachers reported hesitation with using it because they hadn’t mastered each software within the new version and were afraid to give assignment using a technology unless they could anticipate every possible question or problem a student would have. I was able to share some of the insight I gained from this program and assure them that it was not necessary that they anticipate every problem or be experts and that allowing the students to take the lead would enhance their problem solving skills and increase their technology skills. ======

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The goal of my training session was to introduce each user to the changes in the new version for each software within the Office product suite and show them how each could be used to make their jobs easier and implement technology into their curriculum. Teachers are frustrated with being forced to sit through technology trainings that teach them how to use some Web 2.0 tool but not how it can be useful to them and their students. As Bransford and Cocking (1999, p. 202) pointed out, teachers “are more likely to understand, retain and transfer this knowledge when it is embedded in a meaningful, authentic contexts”. As each teacher completed the training, they were given trainer evaluation cards to give feedback on things they worked and didn’t work in the training. Teachers overwhelmingly responded that they appreciated receiving relevant training on how to use Office 2007 for practical purposes and they were surprised to find classroom uses for Access and Excel, tools that several teachers never used. The feedback received during the evaluations was instrumental in helping me assess the success of the training and confirmed that I had accomplished my goal of introducing the users and ensure that they gained relevant applications for their classrooms. ======

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My colleagues within the program helped shape my vision on what is needed to successful conduct staff development trainings by detailing what went wrong in their trainings conducted on their particular campuses. Several also gave some valuable tips new technologies they used on their campuses. This gave me an assortment of tools to suggest to fellow teachers on my campus who were interested in implementing technology into specific assignments. A fellow graduate student wrote about an online stock market game that his economics teacher used to teach the basics of trading stocks to his students which I shared with the economics teacher on my campus. He said that the website played a vital role in helping his students actually understand and apply the concepts he discussed in class and they read about in the text. He shared the site with the other economics teacher within the district and the website became a permanent part of their curriculum. ======

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As I stated above, this program has caused me to reshape my views on technology training. This has had a huge impact on how I develop my training courses for teachers as well as my students. In order to be successful, basic skills are a necessity but I have learned that I we are robbing our students of vital critical thinking and creative expression opportunities by giving them all of the steps required in implementing new technology. The colleagues that attended my training sessions gave me invaluable feedback regarding the needs of teachers during technology training sessions. In response to this, I have made sure that technology training sessions include demonstrations on applicable uses for the classroom as well as allow teachers to work on relevant work during the training to gain experience using the technology tools for their classroom needs. As ongoing challenge for me on my campus is continuing to work with administrators to ensure that time is given for quality technology training that is in-depth and allows for applicable uses within our classrooms. ======

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Bransford, J. & Cocking, P. (1999). //How People learn: Brain, mind, experience, and school.// Washington, DC: National Academies Press ======

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Texas Long Range Plan for Technology. (2006). //Texas Education Agency//. Retrieved from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=2147494561&libID=2147494558 ======

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Williamson, J., & Redish, T. (2009). //ISTE's Technology Facilitation and Leadership Standards: What Every K-12 Leaders Should Know and Be Able to Do. Eugene: International Society for Technology in Education.// Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education ======