Using & Teaching Educational Technology
Training Your Co-Workers in the Use of New Technology
By Lisa Parisi
Thu, 6 Sep 2007, 14:04

Lisa Parisi

As the subject leader for ICT or Educational Technology, you no doubt train your colleagues in the use of the hardware and software. In this article, Lisa provides insights about what you need to know in order to do so as successfully as possible.

Recently, after 20+ years as a classroom teacher, I began a new chapter in my teaching career: teaching teachers about technology. It happened slowly, the idea percolating over time. As I learned about technology and became excited using new tools in my classroom, I found that my colleagues starting asking me what I was doing.

Now, I love sharing my ideas and creations, encouraging my students to demonstrate their projects. So any time I was asked about a new tool or application, I enthusiastically showed off. Eventually, a colleague suggested I teach a class on how to use the SmartBoard interactive whiteboard, the latest and greatest technology tool added to our repertoire. And so I did. In the past six months, I have taught three computer classes, two on the SmartBoard and one on how to turn a class website into a home/school communication tool. I am scheduled to teach two more classes this fall: another website class and a class on Web 2.0.

I do love to teach. But the more I teach my colleagues, the more I realize that teaching adults has its own challenges, different perhaps from teaching children. And I must always be aware of these challenges while working with adults. So I have compiled this list of recommendations to remember. Hopefully, it will assist those who, like me, love teaching teachers. And, maybe it will help those who are learning understand the challenges they will be facing.

First, adults are not often risk-takers. This is crucial to remember. Children will try anything. They are not concerned with destroying the computer, losing their work, or wreaking havoc on the classroom. Adults are. So when you introduce a new application to a child, that child will click, type, move the mouse, click some more, and try to duplicate what everyone else is doing with that application. Adults won’t. They wait. They ask for help. They ask repeatedly if they are doing it “right.” Eventually they will create. But it takes time, lots of encouragement and a great deal of reminders of just how difficult it is to break a computer or destroy a program.

Second, adults often lack basic computer skills necessary for any application. I was frequently surprised to find that what was holding back the assignment wasn’t the skill I was teaching. It was the learner’s lack of basic skills needed to complete the assignment. The teacher who sets out to teach adult learners must make sure that the learners know how to:

• Log in to the computer
  
  
• Save a file.
  
  
  • I recently spent 40 minutes with a class teaching them how to use a flashdrive. What I thought was a simple task, turned into a huge lesson about USB ports, drives, and how to safely remove flashdrives from a computer.
    
    
• Navigate around the computer system, among the various drives.
  
  
• Find a file after saving.
  
  
• Copy and paste information.
  
  
  • Computer users should know how to complete this task using both the taskbar and the keyboard shortcuts.
    
    
  • One must also be aware of the fact that, often when copying pictures from the internet, a hyperlink is attached. Users need to know what a hyperlink is and how to remove it or add it to a picture or text.
  • Copyright issues must be understood.
    
    
• Do searches on the internet.
  
  
• Download applications from the internet

Just a note: While your class might not be about teaching basic computer skills, this lack of knowledge will be a detriment to your teaching any technological application. Spending a few moments demonstrating these skills early in the class can save a great deal of time later when you are expecting the class members to complete assignments in which these tasks are needed.

Third, adults need to have a rudimentary understanding of how a computer works. There is a difference between the computer and the monitor. Just because the computer is turned on, doesn’t mean the monitor is. And just because the monitor is black, does not mean the computer is broken. Also, computers require electricity to work. Whether they get plugged into the wall or run on batteries, a source of energy is needed to have the system work. Teach your class to check the plugs or the charge on the battery if the computer won’t turn on.

I find teaching other teachers very rewarding. These adults are in my classes because they are excited about new technology. They might be nervous and uncomfortable, but they want to learn. My job, then, is to not only to teach them how to use the technology, but to make them feel secure in their risk-taking. And to keep my cell phone handy. Problems working independently late at night can often drive new learners away from trying to use applications. A quick, reassuring phone call often works to calm down the caller and get them back into class the next day. I always like to remind them that the best way to master any new technology is to play. And some of them actually believe me.

Lisa Parisi is an elementary school teacher, in the Herricks Union Free School District, who loves embedding technology into her curriculum. This Long Island, New York teacher has been teaching for over 20 years, during which time she has taught all grades from 1^st – 5^th as well as worked in various universities, training student teachers and working with college students in reading, special education, and other areas needed in an elementary classroom.

© Lisa Parisi Thu, 6 Sep 2007