The Bridges of Technology
Leadership
Copyright December
1996 Miguel Guhlin
They say it pays to train your teachers,
but the truth is you pay to train your trainers. As a district technology
trainer for several Texas districts, and, now as an education technology
specialist for a regional education service center, I have discovered
five ways to cut the price of providing training for your district
technology trainers. Build on these activities, and you can maximize
the impact of in-house training and minimize trips to expensive conferences.
1) Find talent within your city.
New ideas are old ideas in other districts. As a district technology
coordinator, talk to your counterpart in other districts (talk to
your regional Education Service Center technology services liason
for ideas). Put aside your ego and ask, "How do your trainers
approach teaching technology integration?" Dig past their first
answer, and ask the hard questions, "Ok, I know you're tool-based,
but what are you doing with all those obsolete PCs? How do your trainers
handle training authoring tools while teachers go back to obsolete
equipment?" Develop a program in which you share your trainers°with
their distinctive talents with other districts, and provide opportunities
for cross-training. Avoid the pitfall of "We're just too busy
to talk:" electronic mail, video conferencing, and conference
telephone calls can help you organize short, weekend collaborative
meetings.
2) Find materials on the World
Wide Web. You can find materials on the Internet. As more school
districts put up home pages on the Internet, you can download a variety
of staff development guides, ranging from software evaluation to PowerPoint
presentations on cutting edge topics. Internet newbies often ask,
"Where can I find an Internet acceptable use policy (AUP)?"
The answer is painfully easy. Go to your favorite search engine (mine
is www.lycos.com),
type in "acceptable use policy." You can also visit my web
site (http://lonestar.texas.net/~jmg)
for a listing of technology resources.
Harlandale
ISD, a district I worked for, didn't waste time writing a district
technology plan from scratch. Their district technology committee
knew where it wanted to go. From start to finish, what they wanted
to accomplish guided the search for a model technology plan. Several
months later, the district technology plan was completed and in a
FileMaker Pro database to make it easily accessible. Having found
a framework to work within, the job took less time. Though the plan
was modified, the foundation didn't have to be built from scratch.
Short, focused searches on topics
such as lesson plans that integrate technology, technology plans,
research on integrating technology, constructivism and technology
will give you and your trainers a solid foundation to build on. Trust
me, the act of creation won't be as painful. Unless you believe in
the axiom, "No pain, no gain," learn to stand on the shoulders
of your peers around the world.
3) Train each other. I laughed
at the absurdity of a 20 year teacher veteran showing me how to use
a computer (I've had a computer attached since I was thirteen years
old). I stopped laughing when I saw how she organized the class, facilitated
the discussion, and laid bare the scaffolding she had built to help
me learn. How we teach each other goes beyond what we know to how
we learn.
You can build on this knowledge by
focusing less on content (How to...) to the technique used: Use a
jigsaw cooperative group to analyze research on whales. After group
sharing, organizing the data into a multimedia presentation and web
page, ask them to consider which approach would have been more engaging?
A lively discussion, where they worked together to solve a puzzle
or reading alone then working independently to create a project? Make
time to train each other, even if the content is obvious. As trainers,
what we offer isn't as important as how we offer it.
4) Share what you know. "Are
you presenting at that conference in Dallas?" my wife asked.
A previous conference, and my answer would have been "Yes."
While it was great going without a tie, I didn't learn as much (no
correlation between learning more with a tie on). Aside from learning
your topic better, you come into contact with people that you wouldn't
have met walking the exhibition floor or sitting passively in a lecture
hall. In sharing what you know, people naturally will choose to either
agree, disagree, or share what they are doing that is similar or dis-similar.
Present, and you have the opportunity to engage others in a dialogue
that may help you rethink or reevaluate what you do.
If you're a technologist, then this
isn't as frightening as it might be (or, maybe it is frightening,
but, like on a roller coaster ride, you know what you're getting into).
5) Tap into your technicians.
School districts divide their technology support staff into two distinct
groups°the instruction-oriented (usually software saavy) and the technicians
(clearly, your hardware handy-men). Whether you call them hardware
or network specialists, or technicians, these taciturn individuals
know quite a bit. They are the lubricant in your technology machine.
Spread them too thin, the grinding and whining start. Pour them on
too thick, and they gum up the works.
While you can't expect them to stand
up in front of a class after-school, you can get them to walk your
trainers through the steps they use to problem-solve hardware glitches.
From network management to setting up a web server, technicians have
valuable insights worth gathering. One-on-one, or even, two, sessions
will help your staff build the rapport needed between the two hemispheres
of the information services, or technology department, brain. Without
the sessions, your program will work but not well.
An easy way to foster this rapport
is to team technicians and instructional technologists together. Give
them the same campuses to work at. Not only will this increase accountability,
but give them the opportunity to listen to the same complaints from
your clientele. Reliance on each other in the face of tribulation,
as well as shared successes, will bring them together faster than
anything else you might do.
It's true. You pay for the training
your trainers receive every day. An old saying goes like this, "He
who would lead must be a bridge." Build the bridges between your
staff and local people, and you will save money. Invite your neighbors
to talk about what they know, and you won't pay for expensive trips
to listen to someone else's neighbors at a conference.
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