Teacher Technology Training

I have had precious few staff development technology training sessions in the past 12 years. I remember in 1998, some of us completed several sessions on Microsoft Word. I recall learning nothing, but I think I still have the handouts...I hate to say this, but technology training has been pretty much non-existent in my teaching history. I have attended several faculty meetings where United Streaming was demonstrated, but aside from that my training has been limited to someone showing us how to input test scores on a website, and demanding that we post our personal information on our class web page, (name and educational background only) in return for a free jeans pass. Precisely one year later I repeated this exercise.

I was beside myself when I was told that I no longer had to take the county technology class but that I could "test out" of it. I had no idea how I would pass the computer test as I had had no instruction at all over the years. I managed to pass that test only to discover that I had to pass 6401 when I enrolled in this program (help) which was substantially more difficult than the county course. Now I wish I hadn't spent all those years avoiding the course...

There are no official people in my school to go to for technology assistance. When I have a question about a project I am doing (always for one of the media classes, never for my own students) I have to run around the school and ask people who know more than I do. Someone usually say, "go ask Susie Q., she knows about XYZ." Then Susie says, " I can help you with Powerpoint but I don't know anything about LNMOP." It's very frustrating. I have, however, learned a great deal from the teachers in my school. I learned Powerpoint from a team member, and was fortunate enough to spend several hours during a work day getting technology assistance from another teacher who was soooo lovely to me. I could not have completed my projects without these fabulous colleagues. In return, I willingly help anyone who comes to me for help.

I believe that it would be very difficult to provide technology training for the staff since everyone starts from a different "place" and if you are not prepared to take in the information you take in nothing. We do have optional classes provided on Blackboard for teachers and staff to take for small amounts of credit. It certainly doesn't work to have mandatory training. Any training done by the county would need to be voluntary. During pre-planning, a technology department person came to our school and briefly discussed the 2007 Word which had been installed on the computers over the summer. If I were sending someone to present this topic to school I would make sure that they were extremely well versed in the program. I asked a very simple question and she could not answer it. ("How do you change the default font?" Kim Huett discovered the answer.)