TEACHING NEW TECHNOLOGY
Teaching Teachers how to Integrate New Technology
Challenge: Kevin Nelson is a teacher turned Technology Integrationist. His daily challenge is to educate the 50 plus teachers how to integrate technology into their classroom in a way that improves pedagogy & teaching. His department is responsible to support teachers who teach about 1600 students in the high school. The teachers are using many applications, with low tech teachers using 3 programs to the highest tech teachers using more than a dozen programs. These programs range from their grade book, attendance systems, to other resource tools. Teachers have to learn processes such as how to weight their classes, add assignments, and create seating charts. Kevin has to support all those applications.
Process: The process pre-iorad was to record a video and upload it to YouTube. Kevin liked that they could get the information as they needed it at their own pace. He shared that the video approach was okay but a lot of teachers wouldn’t have time to watch a video. He would also prepare tons of documents with step-by-step directions. He found that those were very time intensive; however, teachers liked them because of the documentation aspect.
Results: Iorad allowed an approach that was a combination of the both, as well as, allowing him to use everyday vocab to personalize it for their staff. Kevin said: “iorad’s take me 30 secs to create and they(teachers) get to see the interface which can be tough for them to follow along in a video.” Kevin demonstrates how to use the various applications at a staff meeting but then can provide a library of iorads for reference after they leave the meeting.
Also, Kevin works alongside many co-workers, recently he was working with the school counselor to create differentiated College & Career prep programs for the ELL students. Kevin insightfully stated, “they don’t have to know the language to know where to click. For them to see where they have to click on the screen is half the battle.” Utilizing iorad’s Google Translate feature removes yet another barrier for those ESL learners. The teachers are beginning to use it as well to create self-pacing online courses. The iorad’s teach the kids how to navigate through the courses. He loves that the generated iorad embed link even makes the tutorials super easy to embed into Moodle courses.
Kevin shared, “I never knew how bad I needed this tool! It has saved me so much time. I’m very picky & want to get the right menu terms & it would take me a while to get the right verbiage. Then, I would have to go make it look pretty. It would take me half hour to hour but with iorad, I can make them in 4 minutes.”
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