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