4+A+2+Wiki+Posting+Five+Ways+to+Think+about+Change

=4-A-2: Wiki Posting: Five Ways to Think about Change=

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List five ways to think about and address changes in technology in your classroom and school. With each way briefly describe how you plan to apply your thinking with your colleagues.
 * INSTRUCTIONS:**

Before developing your five ways to address change suggestions consider the following:
 * Considering the list of fears you brainstormed in the previous assignment, what are the common objections and fears your peers or administration may have to changes in technology?
 * How can you assess if the the objections/fears are valid? How can you educate your peers in determining if these fears and objections are valid?
 * How can you inspire peers who share similar beliefs and interests to apply changes in technology to their classroom or students' learning ?
 * How can you get peers out of the "Resistance" phase into the "Exploration" phase?

Post your "five ways to address change" in the table below. Review your peers' postings and post at least two comments in the Discussion Tab above.


 * ==**5 Ways to Address Change**== || ==**Submitted by:**== ||
 * Embrace change--be positive and open to new technology. || Jen B. ||
 * Learn ways to integrate technology into what you already do--don't make more work for yourself. || Jen B. ||
 * Value technology--it IS important to the futures of our students. || Jen B. ||
 * "Play" with your technology--practice makes perfect and mistakes are inevitable! || Jen B. ||
 * Let your students be your guide--often they can be the teachers! || Jen B. ||
 * Work with students to come up with using new ideas for technology in the classroom - students are the "net gen" kids that are not willing to sit back and wait for change, they make changes happen, therefore, embrace their thoughts. || Shelly B. ||
 * Try something new that you have recently thought about but were afraid of the outcome - take chances, our students do and they work through trial and error, use their success stories to become your success story! || Shelly B. ||
 * Talk with other "successful" teachers about what they are using and doing in their classrooms - there is a reason the students are buzzing about how great those teachers really are.... so do your investigative work and find out for yourself. || Shelly B. ||
 * Explore the Internet for the latest on the Web 2.0 Technologies - someone is always coming up with a new idea that you can possibly borrow and work with. || Shelly B. ||
 * Subscribe to RSS readers using Google and explore new teaching activities, methods, and tools - teachers love to share their success stories and they usually hope to inspire others too! || Shelly B. ||
 * Work toward using wiki's for group projects - Boomer students may have problems that will need to be worked out. Fear and resistance could become real if not worked out before hand || Karen M ||
 * Have the students locate and identify good and bad sites on the web to teach critical reading strategies - Computer use would have to be scheduled and that could be a problem for some of our staff, resistance. Admin may have a problem with the bad sites. Monitoring may be necessary. || Karen M ||
 * Use Net Gens to train the boomers to use the above technology. - This would benefit everyone || Karen M ||
 * Use more Power Points, without overdoing it, in class lecture. - Many of my peers avoid them and dislike using them in the classroom. Most likely because they have never created one and know how easy it can be. I will talk about how simple it was to create them. || Karen M ||
 * Start the dialog about the Net Gen and the effects that they bring with my peers. I think they already see some of effects and may have a better understanding of their students if they knew more about their strengths. || Karen M ||
 * Attend free educational sessions on technology through the college (CETL and get lane movement credit too) and invite a colleague to come with you. (There's safety in numbers it seems. I never would have signed up for this course online without knowing that there are 3 nursing faculty also taking it). || Karen T. ||
 * Share something new that you learned or figured out for yourself with a colleague and let them know how it has helped you. Let them know that if you can do it, so can they. Learn from someone who is better at it (technology) than you are. || Karen T. ||
 * Make the time to practice or play around with it after learning the technology. Use a cheat sheet to remember steps so you don't forget for the next time. || Karen T. ||
 * Expect glitches and problems and learn to be patient & not think you are stupid. Don't be afraid to ask for help and use resources that are available. || Karen T. ||
 * Plan ahead and double check the technology before you plan on using it. Expect the unexpected. Learn to laugh at your snafus and yourself more often! || Karen T. ||
 * Think big, but act small: try one new strategy each year and/or semester. Too much too soon can cause frustration and even failure. Better to be good at one thing than have too many irons in the fire. || Karen F ||
 * Create an on-going agenda item on this topic for faculty metings. Once a month (or even quarter), have a person share her experiences implementing a new strategy: both success and glitches. Resources amongst faculty will be created. || Karen F ||
 * Have fun with your projects! Your enthusiasm will be //catching// to both your peers and students. People will see this and want to try it, too. || Karen F ||
 * Identify a "cyber" buddy: someone whom you can bounce ideas off. Ask a newer faculty or one who has been resistent to change to join your interactions. || Karen F ||
 * Expect the unexpected: Better to be over prepared than underprepared. Think about possible glitches and how you might handle them. Anticipate problems! || Karen F ||
 * Always be nice to your "IT guy" (bring him treats, pay him compliments, whatever). They know all kinds of secret tricks no else knows about! || Sarah S. ||
 * You are not alone in your apprehension of change. Many other teachers may be feeling overwhelmed or incompetent in their integration of technology into the classroom. Don't be afraid to ask for help. || Sarah S. ||
 * After a new project or lesson plan ask your students for feedback. What worked or was really cool or fun, and what was not as good or could be better? This can help you refine your lessons to work smoothly and it gives the students the opportunity to voice their opinions without fear of paying disrespect. || Sarah S. ||
 * Keep a journal of what worked and what didn't for next year. You always think "next time I do this project I will change this one thing", and by the time a year has past you have forgotten the little "tweaks". || Sarah S. ||
 * Take baby steps to integrate small changes into your curriculum. Make it a goal to add animation to x number of slides, or use a new technology in one course per semester rather than trying to dive head first into using something new with all of your classes. || Sarah S. ||
 * 1. Offer small workshops for reluctant teachers once you are confident in using technology in your classroom or invite them in to observe a class using technology.

2. Be open to the change of integrating technology into the classroom. Having a positive attitude will encourage others to embrace the change and feel better about it.

3. Take notes during and after each lesson using technology. Reflect on the lesson, explain how you felt it went and what you will change or add the next time you teach the lesson. This will help you and your students feel more confident about the lessons.

4. Visit a technology enriched school district. Find out how they are integrating technology into the classroom. Interview a teacher and inquire about how they made the necessary changes and the steps they took to be successful.

5. Don't be afraid to ask questions and work at your own pace. Most teachers are more open to trying new things if they feel good about what they are doing. || Amy R. ||
 * 1. Use clickers in the classroom and share your ideas with other teachers. I have attended 2 inservices and have been putting this off for a year.

2. Research nursing video sites that are easy to access and share with other faculty through E-mail. If faculty could open a word document and connect to a interesting site. It would help visual learners to understand.

3. Encourage colleagues to take PLS classes. Many strategies I have learned have been in PLS.

4. Suggest faculty development classes for enhanced technology at the college. This would be very accessible for faculty.

5. Share my power point presentation on ePortfolios with nursing faculty. I think faculty and students would be interested in this subject. || CathyI || I can understand the fear regarding technology – however you just need to experiment with computers; you will not break anything. What has worked in the past may not work today. Who wants to go back to 8 track players? It does not compare to a mp3 player. I think to educate faculty – you just need to take one step at a time. Our readings earlier seemed to be clear that students do not want all technology – they like 50-50. Students still want some form of lecture. I think that as more and more faculty members begin to use new technology in the classroom it will decrease fears. Let other faculty members observe your classroom and see how it works. Help them develop methods they can use in their classroom. Start out with something that is familiar to them – such as power point and add animation to the power point or use your power point as a basis for discussion. To get them out of the resistance phase you may need to have it mandated that certain techniques be used. It could be a part of your self evaluation. Remind faculty that they are lifelong learners, and that they need to be role models for students. Take classes - I have learned so much from this class || Michele B ||
 * It seems that most of the objections to change in technology have to do with fear of the unknown. There is also a concern about the amount of time it will take to integrate technology into the classroom. If you have been teaching the same content for years – why change what works.
 * This question has been at the forefront of my last two years of teaching. My suggestions are ways I've found/am still finding to deal with technical change in my teaching style. Background: My special ed class represents a school within a school. My 10 students come from 10 districts to our mainstream high school. The classroom doesn't change, the teachers are itinerant, except for me. So, I work with a very small but dedicated staff and an itinerant administrator. # __We__, the class, fellow teachers, and I, who use my classroom, __are very lucky to be able to have a SmartBoard__ and administrators who support us in its use. __I keep a positive attitude towards technology__ because of my SmartBoard. None of us had training other than an hour introduction, but the board itself is so cool to use. For example, I've introduced teachers (and students) to, after I played with the board, a number of sites that are very useful to all our classes. I haven't pushed this with the math teacher as she is computer illiterate and very afraid of all technology. But our science teacher is becoming interested.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________ Learning new technology can be very scary for some educators. Many teachers of the baby boomer generation are not familiar with the benefits technology can have in our lesson plans and classrooms. Some things we can do to promote teachers to learn new technologies could be:  1. During faculty meetings, have a segment where we could discuss the latest technology in the building. This would enable all staff and faculty to be in the know with what is available to them.  2. Have the district offer training courses on various programs. I know our building has many Smartboards, and the district offers a training on them for one in-service credit.  3. Have teachers who are not computer savvy pair up with a mentor. One teacher can help another along with their computer skills. <span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 4. Encourage peers to take computer training courses such as this one. They will be able to explore new programs and discuss with other teachers their technology experience <span style="color: #00b050; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; msobidifontfamily: Calibri; msobidithemefont: minor-latin; msolist: Ignore;"> 5. Take baby steps while implementing technology into the classroom. I know in my building, some teachers go down to the library to use the Smartboard. This way they will have the librarian to help them out with any “technical” difficulties. || Mary-Ellen
 * 1) I noticed one teacher last year who was very technically competent. __I wanted to be technically competent.__ I watched and listened to him and he helped me set up a jeopardy game for my class activities. I made jeopardy questions out of ELA and Global topics. I've asked the students to make up questions, too. These I've plugged into our SmartBoard and been able to let the students loose to explore with this very interactive game. I had to spend a lot of time afterschool developing the game, but it has been worth it. Another teacher now wants to try out the game and the administration is highly supportive.
 * 2) The administration, at the beginning of this year, introduced all the special ed teachers to live video conferencing. All the teachers were awed but all were also scared by the technical requirements because it took our trainers one hour to get another site on-line. Given the bugs and the fact that the administration has not installed this expensive equipment in the classrooms, we're still in a holding pattern on live, videoconferencing. However, all of us that I am aware of, have taken advantage of the 10 – 20 minutes download streams that can be accessed. The science teacher actually took the first step in this and brought me on-board. __My resistance was lack of time and of course fear of doing something differently,__ even to review the sites. My students are visual learners. When I saw how well they took to the short downloads of chemical diffusion, I quickly looked for an found a site about cultural diffusion to show them. Maybe my resistance was over come by my competitiveness or maybe it was my natural curiosity to learn and teach, but __I got over the emotional avoidance__ I had in order to stream materials for my class.
 * 3) Downloading from Bookshare to use Kurzweil software on a student's new laptop and then downloading from Bookshare to use Kurzweil on the SmartBoard so the entire class could read a book on-line (//To Kill a Mockingbird//) has been an on-going project. The technical difficulties were great and involved the class, two technicians, the individual student's school district, the administration, and of course me. However, __the advantages to teaching and learning are so great with Kurzweil because of its interactivity,__ that the frustrations involved have been worth it. Also, I've the administration has said, “It takes time to learn all the technology and sometimes we can't do it all without this learning curve.” This type of support really encourages me and others to relax and not feel bad about trying new things. Also, the kids are so appreciative.
 * 4) My next big project, after I master outlining with Kurzweil, is to use games to teach the class. We have many gamers in our class of 10. The boys are always comparing on-line and hand held games. I need to get them to 'check' their technology at the door, but this doesn't always work. So maybe if I can offer them a game in class, they'll stop trying to sneak their own devices into the class. I'd like to get the math teacher on board, because the simple game I want to teach involves directional vocabulary that is so frequently used in math (let alone ELA and History.) When I get the game ready to go, __I want her to see the technology in action with the students because she will buy into it if she sees it work__. I am pretty confident, if it works, (the big if) the students will be making their own games and she will not be frustrated trying to get them to listen to her explanations about the same vocabulary.

___________

Noreen D. ||