Week1ReadingReflection

Technology facilitator Standard I : Technology Operations and Concepts  As a technology leader it is our responsibility to ensure that our faculty has the basic knowledge to understand technology concepts and to operate technology. The teachers are required to understand the basic hardware available, the parts of the hardware, basic care and maintenance to the hardware, simple troubleshooting, and understanding basic networking and communication.  While over the years teachers tend to have gotten more comfortable with technology, we are still not all on the same page of proficiency. We are all somewhat proficient, just for the mere fact that the internet and email are part of our daily lives. As technology leaders on our campus it is our responsibility to make sure that we demonstrate an in depth knowledge and understanding of technology. I feel this is very important because if we’re not competent in our area, how would we expect the staff to be? It is imperative that we keep our staff as up-to-date in trainings to understand what technologies are available for them to use with their students. I think in order to do this technology leaders can provide staff developments, meet with teams to develop lessons based on equipment available, and keep adequate equipment readily available to the campus.  Technology Facilitator Standard II : Planning and Developing Learning Environments and Experiences  As the campus’ technology facilitator, it is necessary to assist teachers in implementing the use of technology in the classroom. Technology tools to solve problems or create original ideas are shown to aid students in demonstrating their learning. However, while it would be nice to have a connected classroom, integrating technology requires teachers to engage in planning without any guarantee they will have the needed support to successfully implement technology.  It is clear that a large majority of teachers use technology for administrative tasks but a clear minority never use technology to support instruction. Planning technology integrated instruction is challenging because teachers have to figure out what to teacher, how best to teach it, what resources to use, and how to assess student learning. It also seems evident that the school’s climate can complicate the implementation of technology in that opportunities and time to learn the technology are limited.  The TF/TL Standard II provides suggestions to address some of these problems. For example, the technology facilitator can provide criteria describing the type of learning experience the teacher should be providing with the technology. This should be supported by a school technologist modeling effective technology use. Sample lesson plans might be provided. Technologist should also engage teachers with scenarios similar to those the teacher would be using in their class. This will help teachers see how the technology can lead to a better learning experience in their own classrooms. The facilitator should also provide teachers with best practice examples for managing the technology and student learning. Finally, the facilitator should be able to rely on solid research proving the effectiveness and ease of implementing technology into the classroom to help teachers embrace pedagogical change. As the facilitator it would be my role to directly support the teachers by engaging in the support methods discussed above. It would also be my job to show the teachers how to use the technology, assist them with the technology and support them when they are actually using the technology as part of their lesson plans and classroom instruction.