When it comes to introducing new technologies in the workplace--you will experience one of two outcomes. The first outcome would be the one you would hope for which is a positive, everyone is on board and eager to integrate this new technology. The next outcome, is not so favorable, the majority of people are resisting this change and are not on board nor supportive of this new technology. There are times when the negativeness comes from the individuals not wanting change nor wanting to try new things--especially when it comes to technology.
As a business teacher and the technology coordinator of my school, I am often trained with the latest technology that the district is wanting to integrate into the classrooms. More times than not, I am faced with, "Not more work!" or "This isn't going to work in my classroom with X amount of students!" As you can see these comments are not very welcoming and typically start the in-service out on a bad foot. As a firm believer in technology, I always try to start my training off on a positive note, showing the teachers how easy it is to integrate the new technology, how it can make their work load less and how much the students will enjoy and benefit from the integration process. My teachers all know that I am only an email or phone call away if they ever encounter a problem or need help coming up with an effective integration project.
One particular piece of technology that I was to asked to train my teachers on was the use of gaggle. It is a website that allows our students to have a safe, secure, monitored email account, blog site, and social networking page. After I attended the in-service, I was hooked and I knew all of our students would be too. It was going to be the challenge of convincing our teachers to utilize this new tool. When I introduced this tool to our teachers, many of them saw it as too much work and taking away from their curriculum. Once I showed them how they could integrate the blogging into their daily curriculum instead of having the students use the traditional paper/pencil method--many of them loved the idea. I also went on to explain to them how much more work they should get from their students when the students know they are going to be able to use technology to complete the typical paper/pencil assignments. After a month of the students having access to their gaggle account and the teachers coming back together, I questioned how many of them were using this learning tool and to my surprise the majority of them are using it in some form within their classroom!
Dr. John Keller presents the "Motivational ARCS Design Process" which stands for: Attention, Relevance, Confidence, and Satisfaction. After reading his website, I was able to come to an understanding that everyone is motivated but in different ways. Everyone can be motivated, I just have to find the means that motivates each individual. I was able to motivate my fellow teachers by showing them how easy and how rewarding it would be for them to integrate gaggle into their daily lessons. Once the staff came together again, I had some of the fellow teachers that were having success with the learning tool to share some of the positive things they had experienced. Once some of the "resisting" teachers were able to hear more success stories than just mine, I found that more came aboard on the integration of this tool.
Resources:
www.arcsmodel.com
Hello Brandy,
ReplyDeleteYour blog was quite informative. I will check to see if we can use gaggle at our school. I like the way you encouraged and motivated the staff to try the site with the students. I can imagine the satisfaction you must have felt when the teachers reported success after trying your suggested learning tool.
Roger
Brandy,
ReplyDeleteI would think that motivation would come from the satisfaction and productivity of the students, and it looks like that worked with you. Here I am at a college, teaching with PhD professors and they discount the opinions of the students. Students say that Blackboard makes their education more manageable, and professors are telling me that it does not matter how they learn, as long as they learn. I love your practical take on the matter.
-Marc
Brandy,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you are the right person for the job. It's great that the teachers and students alike adopted the new technology. Having the students engaged has got to be a great motivator for the instructors as well.
Sonja
Brandy,
ReplyDeleteI am often put in the same position as you. I am the one who is expected to train staff on new technologies, and I run into a lot of the same attitudes that you do. I think the important thing is keeping the students in mind. As you noted, you knew the students would find the technology useful and seemed to keep that as your focus. Well done.
Adam