Educational Technology Leadership

Two weeks ago, on April 20th, Brock launched its first Educational Technology Leadership program in an elementary school. As a member of the educational technology program, I was thrilled to participate over a two week time frame to educate fellow teachers as well as students on how to successfully incorporate various technological innovations in the classroom to advance learning. During this time, I was subjected to several new and valuable learning experiences. It is in the best interest of the University to encourage its students to participate in this highly specialized program which will benefit school staff and students. 

April 20th, 2015:

Launch day! The program stipulates that student teachers must attend two periods of class with our previous class in block 2(A). As a result, I participated as a student teacher in my class helping the assistant teacher. In the afternoon, the educational technology leadership team met with our supervisors Dr.Camille Rutherford and Ingrid Goertz. Based on a survey that teachers had completed, our team formed a Master Teacher Availability spreadsheet. Only teachers who completed the survey requesting technology assistance were incorporated into the schedule. Following the construction of the master list, our team divided the teachers into groups of four and five and one team member was assigned per group. As a result, each team member formed a schedule for our two weeks of block. The goal of the day was to develop and share during our personal schedule as well as the Lunch and Learn schedule. In addition, the objective was to greet assigned teachers and request additional information regarding questions they may have, strengths, and needs. Unfortunately, because we had spent the first day of block planning and preparing our schedule, teachers were not fully in the loop and did not prepare questions or put aside specific time to share. As a result, it was difficult to ascertain information from the teachers. However, we were given flexibility in our schedules to meet each teachers needs! 

April 21, 2015:

Day two and feeling excited! Today is supposed to be an observation day. We were recommended to observe the material students are studying and record the technology that the teacher uses in class. I was able to circulate the classroom as well as discuss with teachers the material students are working on across different subjects. Teachers were also encouraged to share if they have any specific interests, needs or questions related to technology. I made sure to ask the teachers, how often they currently are using technology as a learning resource in their classroom? What technology is readily available in the classroom? What technology do you prefer to use in the classroom? If technology was more available, would it be used often? I found that teachers were very open in their responses. I gathered from our conversations that a big concern is comfort level with technology, availability of technology, and not knowing where to begin when incorporating the technology into the class. 

Mrs. P had arranged for me to come visit her during her prep time. I was not able to work with Mrs. P and her classroom but her preference was for me to show her applications that will help with small group work in reading and writing as well as social studies. Another concern for Mrs. P was fixing her Mimio which has malfunctioned. The meeting went well and I assured Mrs. P that I will find her applications to help engage students and replace the use of white-boards. I have not used Mimio before but I have been trained in Notebook. Although I felt capable in handling the Mimio, certain concerns such as this one would be nice to know more in advance so I can explore the program prior! 

I met with Mr. S and his class in the computer lab. Mr. S explained that he is open to learning about new Apps that will help his students in the learning process. Mr. S also seemed interested in Apps that will be used as tools for the teacher. This seemed like a very open process so I confronted the challenge by finding apps to reveal to Mr. S in our next session. 

Mrs. W expressed a strong interest in learning iMovie. We were able to book iPads for our next session. We discussed that the best approach is to slowly introduce students to the different features that iMovie offers. Mrs. W had a concrete idea of what she would like and this gave me a precise scope to work with.  

With several teachers, I had to clarify what my role would be over the next two weeks. Teachers were not sure how often I would visit or if I was there to teach them or the class or both. Overall, myself and the teachers seemed very excited to expand their knowledge and understanding of different technology programs and how to be realistic when incorporating technology into the classroom. 


April 22, 2015 

Today I introduced Mrs. P to a variety of apps that she can use in her language and social studies lessons. The goal was to introduce apps that will get rid of students using white boards but allow students to track their work and observe how they are improving. The apps are also small group or independent focused. The apps that I introduced to Mrs. P are ShowMe, Thinglink, and Ibrainstorm. I demonstrated for Mrs. P how each app works and we discussed how to meld the app with what the students are currently studying. For example, using Ibrainstorm to demonstrate point of view. Mrs. P, who has acknowledged in the past that she is not a tech-person, found the app easy to use and applicable for her classroom. A focus for Mrs. P centred on fixing the Mimio software. Unfortunately, and with the assistance of a co-worker, this could not be accomplished on this day. The session went very well but again, unfortunately the students were not in the classroom and Mrs. P did not put aside class time to use the technology with the students. Therefore, we could not practice the new applications with the students. 

Before I attended Mrs. W's class, I made sure to give her a 10 minute tutorial on the iMovie features I will introduce to her class today. In the afternoon, I introduced Mrs. W's students to iMovie and its features including, videoing, adding music, adjusting volume, and changing picture colour. Using the theme: Earth Day, students prepared short videos. This session went very well. Students and the teacher were excited to be using the technology and were successful in application. I was also able to coach Mrs. W and answer any questions that may arise during this time period. As a result, she was able to develop her iMovie skills as well. The lesson I prepared in advance went well and students responded very well to it. The only drawback to the entire lesson was that there was no Apple Tv or VGA converter to allow me to project the iPad onto the screen. However, I did prepare a Google SlideShow in advance to resolve this problem. 

April 23, 2015

I attended Mrs. B's classroom today. Mrs. B does not have very much technology in her classroom. She was very excited and enthusiastic to have a student help her with incorporating technology into the classroom and learning how to operate certain programs. Mrs. B had expressed a specific interest in learning more about Google Docs (teacher directed) as well as different Apps that student can use in math. Mrs. B explained that she is not afraid of learning about new technology programs but she requires guidance. Mrs. B did not have very much time to learn about Google Docs as her students were presenting their work. We reviewed and prioritized what she would like over the next two weeks. I left the class with a new direction: teaching Mrs. B how to use Google Drive as well as introducing the application ShowMe and Interactive Manipulatives for Mrs. B to use in her math class. I was pleased with the progress during this session. However, Mrs. B and I arranged separate periods, during prep, for me to teach her how to operate Google Drive. 

Mr. S and I sat down and I presented different apps and websites that he may like. Some of the applications Mr. S had already had on his iPad such as Interactive Manipulatives and Socrative. However, I was able to introduce Rubistar to help Mr. S with developing rubrics. He was very pleased with this website. I noted that Mr. S was concerned about learning new programs would also help work be more efficient. I showed and explained the benefit of each app. Some of the apps that I introduced Mr. S to included, Thinglink, Story Creator, Earth Viewer, Voice Thread, and Animoto. Some of the apps Mr. S thought would work very well in his class and some not. I asked Mr. S if he uses videos often in his class? I explained to Mr. S that I would like to teach him how to use the application Zaption which merges video and learning. Mr. S seemed very interested in this proposition! I would like to establish a direction for Mr. S such as Zaption as well as introducing him to other applications. 

April 24, 2015

Zaption lunch and learn is today! I was very excited to deliver a short seminar explaining to teachers how to use and incorporate Zaption into their classroom as well as its benefits in the learning environment. The Lunch and Learn have been wonderful. Several teachers have been attending each day and are sincerely interested in learning about new programs. This is a significant forum that allows myself and fellow co-workers to reach a vast audience over a short period of time. 

Mrs. W and I met to discuss iMovie next steps. I explained to Mrs. W that I will introduce the iMovie voice over feature as well as how to edit and cut video content. Students in Mrs. W's class are currently studying Pioneers. We felt it was best to have students exercise their knowledge of Pioneers as well as point of view for their next video. I introduced Mrs. W to the app Animoto, an alternative video tool to iMovie, but she was resistant as iMovie is her central focus. I also introduced Mrs. W to Apple TV and mirroring. She was very excited about the concept of mirroring and its advantages. I am thrilled to bring to light new methods of teaching. However, I will have to locate an Apple TV in the school in order to further display the program.