Technology Training

In my system, we have a technology department who is housed at the county office that is in charge of most technology and training within the schools for the teachers. Our media specialist provides little training for teachers in the area of technology. We also have a technology specialist (computer lab parapro) that does most of the troubleshooting prior to contacting the technology department. The school's technology specialist is the one who mainly teaches students on various but limited technology resources. Our school does not provide any professional development in the area of technology. Part of this is due to the limited time the media specialist has along with other areas of professional development that take a higher priority. As a future media specialist, I see and understand the importance of technology in the media center. I feel professional development is important for teachers to be up to date on the latest pieces of technology in order to provide students with relevant and engaging learning opportunities. In our system, our elementary media centers are on fixed schedules, but this do allow for a small opportunity for the media specialist to provide mini lessons on new technologies. Also, the media specialist and the technology specialist have the opportunity of working together to incorporate technologies but in the library and tech lab. If I were to lead professional development for my school, I would ensure that teachers are provided with relevant resources that they can easily incorporate in their classrooms. This could be done on a quarterly time frame or just provide email resources periodically. I know that teachers value their time and making the PD relevant and easy to use is most beneficial for teachers. I would also try to schedule time to go in and model for teachers or invite them to observe in the media center.

Coaching Technology

I have had the pleasure of working in media centers at all three levels in my current school system.  Through my experiences I have seen media centers ran in a variety of different ways and their focuses were not always the same.   Some of the older media specialist shy away from technology.  They did not push the students to use technology to look up their own books and see if they were in the media center.  Then you have teachers who are scared to use technology in the classroom because they are not comfortable with implementing technology.  The school system I work for makes an honest attempt to provide the latest technology.  We have document cameras, projectors, laptops, chromebooks, iPods, turning point kits, teacher sites, Edmodo, infinite campus and allow live streaming from a select few websites, however greater progress can be made.

            In my particular school the teachers and students want to utilize technology every chance they get, however my school is not equipped with enough individual devices such as desktops, laptops or chromebooks to keep up with the demands of the teachers. My school has about 380 laptops, chromebooks, and desktops in two computer labs to support a school of 1400 students. All of the chromebook carts and laptop carts stay checked out to a teacher everyday.  We have to make the teachers sign up for the carts ahead of time, but we do have a few teachers who come to us at the last minute thinking we might have a cart available. 

The ISTE standards for Coaches lays out the duty of a media specialist. The media specialist I work with is new to the field. She also has not used any of the current technology available for teachers in the classroom, therefore can not provide the teachers with the professional development needed to integrate technology in their classroom.   I have been trained on and used a majority of the technology while completing long term subbing assignments for 3^rd and 4^th grades.  If a teacher in my school needs technology help they come to me, the media paraprofessional, or a teacher who has attended previous PD on the technology device which is sometime provided by the county.  I can say the county goes to great lengths to educate its staff on technology, just not everyone views it as important s others and choose not to attend.

As an inspiring media specialist I would go to great lengths to assist teachers in using technology in their class to actively engage their students. I would do so by having a set day of the week to stay late to coach any teacher who is in need of training.  I would also great screencast on the most popular devices used by the teachers and email the screencast when I and unavailable to show them personally how to use the technology in question.  Technology has advanced vastly.  For teachers, technology has made presenting information more appealing to all students and it make is easier for teachers to assess for mastery of a discipline.  For students, technology has made it easier for them to grasp content and turn in assignments with Edmodo.  I enjoy coaching teachers in using technology and look forward to such a rewarding profession as a media specialist.

Tech Training

           Tech Training

              I would say technology is severely lacking in Wadley High School. Yes, the media center does have 16 laptops and ten iPads but they are suppose to serve around 400 students. Each teacher does have their own laptop but there are no desktop computers in the media center. With this being said, Mrs. Sears, the one and only media specialist is the schools technology coach. There is no technology staff at the school. She’s it. She is the one who troubleshoots software problems, removes viruses, keeps a check on their circulation and helps teachers with questions about their own laptops. I would say the school’s technology skills are pitiful considering the wealth of various types of technology, programs and apps we have learned in the course at this point.

          

            Because there is no technology staff, this is a huge barrier in itself. I think Mrs. Sears should consult the principal about this problem and address the issue at the next meeting. From there, all teachers and staff wishing to be a serious part of the technology staff could volunteer to make a serious impact on the school. She agreed that this would really lighten up her load while also allowing her to brush teachers up on their own tech skills. I think one of the main barriers would be time when it comes to meeting and since these would be volunteers, perhaps they wouldn’t take their job as serious as a true paid tech staff would. Yet, still one great strategy to supporting productive technology staff development would be to allow each member to present new ideas or new technologies, apps and programs they would like to include in their school. This would involve everyone. Meetings would be a great way to share new technologies with one another.

          

            I would personally provide technology staff development to teachers from my role as a media specialist by first of all, implementing a shared vision and goal for the staff. I would go beyond just the volunteers for my school, but also at the county level. This way, we would all agree that our main goal would be to improve the education of students in our district. Next, I would definitely try to get the funding from the state that my district needs to innovate. We need Interactive White Boards, additional laptops and iPads and desktop computers and manage the change process. Also in the ISTE Standards, it said that technology should be sustained. I could teach staff members to run virus scans and troubleshoot problems.

            

           I would be a great technology coach as a media specialist because I would continuously seek to improve my knowledge as new technologies are released. A media specialist should always embrace innovation so that is a skill perfect for a tech coach. At our meetings, I could collaborate with them on selecting new technologies and collectively conducting a needs assessment. Following the ISTE guidelines, I would teach them about new apps and programs to really grasp student learning. I could also coach them in collaborating with others and how to promote technology enhanced learning and instructional design through new apps. I would also show them how to collect and analyze their student’s data through technology. Also, part of my job as a media specialist already, I would maintain resources for teacher use as well as my students. Of course, I would promote digital citizenship so that our school would remain a secure environment and coach teachers on this, also.

Blog 5: Copyright Law and Fair Use

       Copyright law and fair use provisions within the law have definitely been areas of “fuzzy knowledge” for me.  I remember, early in my pursuit of my M.Ed  in school media, reading the copyright and fair use section of our school district’s Library Media Center Handbook and thinking OK these are the rules…. you can’t make more than X number of copies of  Y number of pages or you can’t copy from more than three authors in a collective work, etc, etc. (see excerpt from pages 63 -68 of the manual below my blog  if you like! ; ))  Anyway these rules seemed very specific and basically gave me the impression - Warning, Warning Don’t Come Near!  Now that I have researched and understand that the copyright laws and fair use provisions a bit, I realize there is no need to be so fearful.  The laws and provisions were made to be flexible so that society, often through education, can benefit and grow through use of what we already have learned.  “Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances – especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant.” (Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education, pg 1) We can understand this because we all want society and our culture to move forward for the benefit of humanity.  Ideas, literature, art, and ground breaking science needs to be pondered, evaluated, critiqued, and possibly improved over time.  Like the authors indicated “new creation inevitable incorporates existing material”, (Code, pg 5) so we must learn to evaluate the intent and extent behind the use of copyrighted materials.  Is it to transform the material/item into something bigger and better? Or is it to make the completion of a project easier or recognizable simply due to content that was already popular?  If we chose simply to “follow the law” (which is actually a misunderstanding of the law and Myth #2) we as educators likely could miss out on creative or innovative lessons and solutions.  So unlike those who simply follow the very specific “rules” laid out in a LMC Handbook, I think it is best to put some thought and collaborative discussion into lesson ideas that use copyrighted materials.  Thought and discussion will likely weed out uses that are too closely tied to others’ ideas and materials.

Source:

Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Media Literacy Education. (n.d.). In American University School of Communication Center for Social Media. Retrieved from http://mediaeducationlab.com/code-best-practices-fair-use-media-literacy-education-0

Blog 4: Video Distribution System & Georgia Public Broadcasting

I spoke with Amy Silvers who is the media specialist at Red Bud Elementary School in Gordon County. When I first asked Amy about our video distribution system, she let out a laugh and said, “Oh, ours is a dinosaur!” Although ours is old, it does still work but is rarely used. Our distribution system is typically used for instructional movies that whole grade levels need at the same time or occasionally a movie for a reward day or holiday.  We used to use it for the student recorded newscast each day but we no longer do those due to our classes starting at 7:40. Occasionally, we use our distribution system for cable programs but not very often. We get a free school service from Direct TV.  The channel has to be changed in the library. Our distribution system is pretty old and does not allow teachers to have any input or control. It must all be done through the library.  It also does not use digital transmitting over a data network.

With the increase of online digital resources, Amy said there is much less of a demand for this type of in school video distribution system. Our teachers often use Discovery Education and YouTube. Our system has a very strict online filter and has made YouTube a safe resource for teachers. I have been using Discovery Education’s online video streaming for several years. It has so many educational videos and resources that can be searched by grade level and subject. It provides activities for some of the videos, and I have found them to be engaging for the students. It is also wonderful for rainy day recesses. J It is ad free and you can feel confident that the content is appropriate.

When speaking with Amy about Georgia Public Broadcasting, she said she was not really sure how our teachers utilized it other than Discovery Education. So I took a look into some of the resources offered and found them to be very helpful! I liked how you can search the resources by level and by subject. 

Blog #3: Social Networking in School

    The question of social networks and should they be available in schools is a question that has been around since computers stared being used as and everyday tool in schools.   Social networks are a vital part of modern schools for teachers, students, and parents.   These sites help to reiterate what was taught that day.  In the case of a flipped classroom it can help the student better understand the lesson scheduled for the following day.  Both scenarios allow the parent to know exactly what the student has done for the day or what they will be doing the next.  My school system does utilize firewalls and filters to block websites deemed inappropriate.  As a paraprofessional and a long-term substitute, I have stumbled across some social networks that would be very beneficial in the classroom.  Once I return to school and attempt to show the videos or PowerPoint I get a notice in bold red letters stating "web page blocked."  As a result of the filtering, sites such as teachertube, YouTube, and even teacherlibrarian.org. are blocked and unable to be viewed in my school system.  The school system recently realized some beneficial sites were being block and  have made adjustments to allow teachertube to be viewed at school. 

     The main social network used in my school is Edmodo.  It allows teachers to post lessons, notes, assignments, and even timed quizzes for students to complete on their own time.  Included in Edmodo is a parent code, which allows parents to have access to the same information as their student.   In the media center we use Follett’s Destiny.   I have been using Destiny for the last 5 years and it recently had an update which made it and even better tool for student’s to research by allowing the media specialist to attach links they feel are resourceful and online resources like encyclopedia Britannica.  It makes surfing the web and looking for quality information easier for students and teachers without the worry of them stumbling onto unsuitable information.

     When it comes to motivating reading Destiny and MyOn they are excellent social networks.  They allow students to read and critique books so other students can decide if they want to read the book.  MyOn is strictly online and students are able to read at home on their personal devices at times that are convenient for them. As a media parapro, I was able to see what times of day students were logging in and to much of my surprise some were up at midnight reading.  

Resources 

AASL's second longitudinal survey reveals schools' acceptance of social networking tools. (n.d.). Retrieved September 20, 2015.

Fiehn, B. (2008, September 1). Social Networking and Your Library OPAC! [Available Full-Text, Free]. Retrieved September 20, 2015.

School Library Journal published Gail Metz' article "Secure Social Networking" (July 2008, Vol. 54 Issue 7, p18)