Jun
9
Going Backwards?
June 9, 2009 | Tagged microsoft office 2007, professional development, technology integration | Leave a Comment
I am currently in my second year of conducting a program in our district called the Summer Technology Integration Program. It is a program that was created to provide teachers training on technology and how to integrate this technology into their lesson plans. Last year I decided to do the training on Digital Storytelling and how they could use three different technologies or have their students use these technologies to create a digital story.
I taught teachers how to use a Web 2.0 service called Mixbook.com, Microsoft PhotoStory 3, and finally Windows Movie Maker. Each one lends itself to be taught from beginning to end that allowed the teachers to create a final product in the 3 hours per day that each session provided. Despite a few teachers in each session who clearly were not at a level to comprehend not only how the technology worked, but how to even begin to integrate it into their lessons, I felt that the program overall worked out great and some teachers went away with new knowledge of technology and ways to integrate this technology. I felt it to be successful and went away feeling like I had accomplished something!
This year Ive decided to cover Microsoft Office 2007’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint along with how to upload their final products to their teacher website. Part of the recommendation in attending the Summer Technology Integration Program is that you come with some prior knowledge of technology. In only 2 days of this years sessions I am feeling a little disappointed. I had setup my training to show some intermediate to advanced levels of the Microsoft Office Suite and how teachers can integrate these into their lessons. However, that has not been the case in just the 2 days of training. I am spending more time showing them simple tasks like:
- How to navigate through a website to get to files that we would be using for the training.
- How create a folder with their name in the My Documents folder.
- How to download the documents from the website into their folder.
- How to actually open Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel.
- (I literally had to go over how to click on the Start Button, go to Programs, look for the Microsoft Office folder and then select Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel!)
Just those 4 tasks above ate about 30 – 40 minutes of the 3 hour session.
How can we expect our students to use and integrate technology if our teachers cant even accomplish the simple tasks listed above without having to hold their hands and walking them step by step on how to accomplish these basic tasks? Should basic computer skills be part of every teachers certification requirements? Should they be tested for these skills during the interview process? And what about our “veteran” teachers who have taught for 20 plus years, where do they fall into all of this, especially those who are trying to stay quite and hide until their retirement comes around?
Very disappointing to say the least. I am really hoping that next weeks groups go a little differently.
