Teaching Teachers and Digital Natives to go Beyond Swiping,
Posting, and Sharing
The South Carolina Social Studies standards have been revised
to become more document based, in which students will focus more on locating, evaluating,
and analyzing primary and secondary documents. No more regurgitating facts!
Students will have to put on their critical thinking caps! To help Librarians
and History teachers think more critically and integrate technology, Amy Chen of
the University of Iowa shares several web-based tools in her January 2016 blog,
Methods
to Use Digital Resources To Teach Primary Sources. The blog mentions
several history-related web tools to choose from including the National Archives:
Docs Teach and The Library of Congress: General Lesson Plans and Primary Source
Sets. Those two resources alone provide activities and/or easy to understand and
use lesson plans for teachers. In
addition to these great technology sources, I just rediscovered the National Archives’
Free to Use and Reuse photos and
other media, which I will share with students and teachers at my school. Some of
the media has restrictions on usage, but quite a bit of it is free, under public
domain.
Another interactive tool that I’m excited to learn more
about and will share with Social Studies teachers, is
an Open Source timeline called Neatline.
Students can create interactive, narratives with documents, artifacts, or
photos that overlay on map or timeline. That is digital storytelling without
making a boring Powerpoint! My only hope is that the site is not blocked to our
students because of our district’s filter!
I’m not putting Powerpoint down, but I do get tired of
Powerpoint being the main web presentation tool that I see a lot of middle
school teachers and students use. I am a
firm believer that every student has a gift and that we need to get them to realize
and understand their multiple intelligences. With that being said, I like to
give students presentation choices, but of course, they must be introduced and
taught how to use web 2.0 tools, just as we would teach them any other new course
material.
Teachers should start to assemble or add to a web 2.0 toolbox,
which can be done with introductory and continuing professional development, reading
professional journals or blogs, and collaboration with peers. Experimenting and
practicing with these tools will take some teachers and a lot of students
beyond just selfies, swiping, posting, and sharing (on social media).
According to Overbay, Molette, and Vasu (2011), schools
need to make sure they are building relationships first, ordering technology
that is tailored to the individual school setting and infrastructure, providing
professional development, allowing for teacher collaboration, and work on becoming
turn-over proof. District and School administrators also need to include funding
and time for professional development. Teachers must also make an attempt to integrate
technology in their classrooms to make sure that students graduate college
and/or career ready, which means they need to know how to think, create, and
produce, not just consume technology.
My District’s technology plan needs to be revisited when it
comes to continuing professional development. They used to have an annual Tech
Fest which I found beneficial. I know it was a lot of work to plan, but it gave
teachers an opportunity to teach and/or learn about new technologies, updates, web-based
tools, apps, etc. I have personally felt inept or just plain frustrated about using
or teaching certain devices or apps because of a lack of training. For example
we have a fairly new cafeteria with a sound system that I have no idea how to
use, a $7,000 Clear Touch Interactive Display, and a $10,000 LED street sign,
that I’ve received a total of one hour of training on … and that was for the
LED sign! And, the only reason it took one hour is because the sign company
changed the program and so, I received two 30-minute sessions to learn the basics
(no manual was provided). I had to figure out on my own how to set expiration
dates for announcements. That feat was priceless!!! That one hour is more
training than I’ve had for the Smartboard, accessing student data or using the
gradebook program, that I guess I was supposed to know how to use upon being
hired and even after not being instructed during monthly Induction Trainings! I
believe that some school district administrators think that all beginning and
veteran teachers are 21 Century digital natives … and No Training is Required?
You can probably tell that this week’s readings touched a
nerve with me! With this being my second year as a Library/Media Specialist, I
have had to make it known that I am not just a webmaster and social media
poster/communications liaison. I have been advocating my willingness to train,
plan, co-teach, and collaborate with the admin and staff to keep our school on
the STEM accreditation track. As a school, we have experienced teacher and
administrator turnover which has slowed us down on our STEM initiative, but we’re
picking up steam this year because of a shift in focus from leadership. As a
partner with the new STEM Instructional Coach, we are going to get all of our
teachers on board; integrating STEM throughout their lessons, which also
includes the “T” for Technology.
Sources:
Chen,
A. (2016). Methods to use digital resources to teach primary sources. Archive
Journal. Retrieved from https://www.archivejournal.net/notes/methods-to-use-digital-resources-to-teach-primary-sources/
Docs
Teach: National Archives. Retrieved from https://www.docsteach.org/
National Archives. Free
to use and reuse. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/free-to-use/
Neatline. Retrieved from https://neatline.org/demos/
Retrieved
from http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/feb11/vol68/num05/A-Technology-Plan-That-Works.aspx
Smith, D. (2010). Making the case for the
leadership role of school librarians in technology integration. Library High Tech, 28(4). Retrieved from
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/07378831011096277
There were so many things in your blog that I agreed with. I love the idea behind your digital tool, Neatline. I understand that PowerPoint gets overused in many schools. Our kids think that Powerpoint and Sway are the only ways to share information. I also worry when I find new tech that it will be blocked. We aren't allowed to view any blogs, Pinterest, or download any Apps on school computers. It's frustrating when you find a great new tool.
ReplyDeleteI have also experienced the frustration of being expected to know how to use or troubleshoot many things that I know nothing about. There is no training for all of the different technology options that we have. New teachers are expected to just know how to access and use things that they know nothing about, and it is definitely a struggle.
As a future school librarian who has not previously worked in a school, I found your experiences with the lack of training in your district interesting. It sounds like a truly unfortunate situation in which you are not receiving the support that several of the readings for this week's module say are essential for school librarians. It seems as if it would be difficult to be a leader in educational technology if you are not provided adequate professional development and training.
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