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.