Supporting teachers for implementing technology in classrooms Part 2

Last week, I spoke on providing of resources, managing of programs and sharing of information. In this week’s reflection, I will continue to touch on amount and multiple types of support I think are required by teachers for the successful implementation of technology into the classrooms, in addition to formal professional development opportunities.

Building Relationships

I believe in the need to spend considerable energy on the quality of relationships between teachers. In work, there will be strains and tensions at times, especially during hectic short periods like Term 2 and 3. I foresee a need to spend a great deal of time in the initial phrase talking to teachers about proposed changes and getting their buy-in. There is why in the last reflection, I mentioned that the ICT Time was important. I believe what once “if my argument is strong, through constant dialogue and information of sharing, the battle will be won.” And once that argument is won, teachers will be more supportive of the change and agree to try out new ideas with technology. At the same time, I must also be mindful of what an article on "Managing the Leading" called "a case of ‘if we don’t do it, the one in charge will’" symptom. I do believe that our teachers are capable and I must let them "go on with it"

Creating “Achievement” Targets

The main focus of teachers is on students learning and raising achievements. I think there is a constant need to reinforce this idea when speaking of technology. It must be clear that the significant change in teaching and learning was needed, along with the general improvement in instructional performance of teachers with technology. Very often, we should be speaking of the necessity of placing better teaching and learning for our students at the heart of technology implementation. It is also important to remind teachers that this improvement requires a shift in beliefs and adopting a view that all students (who are the native learners) can learn better with technology. All this attention of technology integration is just another way of trying to pay attention to our teachers’ core business of teaching and learning above everything else.

The prime goal with technology integration was to maximize students’ learning and reinforce the core message that all students (regardless of generations Y,YY, Z) can achieve well in our education system. Academic excellence for all becomes the focus this year, and significant investments made in the new approaches (collaborative and independent learning), along with the use of technologies is just to make teaching and learning more interesting, exciting and relevant to the coming generations of students. Observation of teaching then needed to be set up to create a dialogue about pedagogy. How can technology support such pedagogy? Achievement targets are currently the same for everyone, but should not individual achievement targets be set for different teachers (Beginning teachers, less than 5 years, and experienced teachers) on improvement in teaching and learning as well? These individualized targets will then be an important contributor to improvements in teaching and learning.