First and foremost, in order to build a relationship with a colleague, you must have trust. An integrator or strategist must be approachable, open, creative, calm, and patient. If a teacher doesn't sense these qualities, s/he won't access you and, "we will have wasted every dollar we have spent on classroom technology," (Smith, 2000) if a classroom teacher refuses to use it.
The other day our TI introduced our new Digital Professional Portfolio at a staff meeting. As he literally flew through the directions, I immediately sensed the tension in the room rising and the levels of anxiety on the verge of disaster. I immediately started wandering my way through the room and answering any questions I could. I pointed some people in the right direction, guided others through individual steps, and sat even had to sit down with others one as he laboriously struggled through each phase of the process. Interestingly, when the meeting concluded, many of my colleagues thanked me for the help and support. In addition, as soon as these same people had trouble, they came to me with their questions.
The strategies I noticed that did not work that day, when the TI jumped into the process, he hadn't typed up any directions for those people who need to go at their own pace; he didn’t show a few steps and wait for people to repeat them, he cruised right through from beginning to end and then showed his frustration when people had questions; and finally, he spoke so fast, people couldn’t watch what he was doing and then reproduce the same action before he had already gone onto the next step.
Most of the time, I let my actions speak for themselves. I observe other teachers in our faculty groups or in our learning area meetings, and then share resources with them whenever I find something they could use, whether a website, a program, or an article. Whenever I'm in a small group that needs to present our work, I offer to pull it all together to show others how engaging and helpful technology can be. In the past, I’ve shown teams of teachers, what I consider basics, but others see as revolutionary; for example: how I organize my email into folders, how I save parent emails by labels, and how I create groups in email so I can contact my students quickly. The purpose is to show everyone that the use of technology is meant to be helpful, inspiring, interactive, and rewarding - it shouldn't be an additional component, but rather a tool that weaves itself into our other required tasks. Finally, I watch people to see how they use technology and offer suggestions when I see them going about processes in a round about fashion, or provide guidance as to how technology may benefit their current plan - actions I wouldn’t think of doing if I hadn’t established a prior rapport.
Smith, M. (2000). Strategies That Work: One school technology leader’s winning strategies for staff development in technology integration. [online] Retrieved from: http://www.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=60 [Accessed: 17 Oct 2013].
Yes, I like how you focus on the positive, stay calm and assessed the situation. So when things got a little crazy, you could sense it and you tried your best to do a better job at assuring them they were on the right path. Sometimes all it takes is being kind and patient.
ReplyDeleteI too have been in PD's where the presenter has flown through instructions, or the opposite, where they took a laboriously long time explaining every minute detail of the tool. In both situations, many of the participants seem to become quickly disengaged from the presentation and did not take away much from it. Where the instructions and directions were getting too quickly, participants were left confused and frustrated. The presentations that focus on minute details, the participants became bored. Presenters must try to get to know their participants and be flexible and delivery so that they can adapt to the needs of their learners.
ReplyDeleteI like your attention to detail. I'm sure teachers know that you are a person to go to when they need some extra support. It's hard enough to learn something new, but if you feel rushed or overwhelmed, it's not going to be a very positive experience.
ReplyDeleteI'm assuming your technology integrator is not a teacher? I think you mentioned this before. Some people are good "teachers" (even if they are not certified teachers) but most are not. Like when I went into Best Buy to purchase a new laptop to replace my Windows 98 laptop (the same operating system we are still using at school as well), and I realized they are all on Windows 8 now, the sales person tried to show me how "easy" it was. But like a lot of people who try to show you how to do something on a computer, he did it so fast I was just lost. (But once I got it home and started playing with it I found my way around). But the point is that the tech integrator needs to be a "teacher" as well, and break things into steps if they are going to teach teachers and students as well on how to use technology.
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