The school site where I work just purchased iPad 2s for all staff members and a set of 30 that teachers can sign out to use in their classrooms. Needless to say I am so excited about this and have started to download many great apps. However, I seem to have forgotten the greatest lesson that Richardson suggested, “before you attempt to bring these technologies to your students, first be selfish about their use in your own learning practice” (2010). While this statement refers to teachers ability to learn the technology before extending the use to their students, I should have transposed the lesson to be role as tech mentor and used the technology before giving to my colleagues. In my excitement, I quickly activated all the teacher iPads assuming they all knew how to use iTunes and how to connect the iPads to their iTunes accounts. I quickly found myself creating Podcasts to show them how to create email accounts and how to download apps.
These Podcasts were posted on a "share drive" accessible to the community so that all teachers can access them at anytime. With these Podcasts, I am trying to develop a community where teachers and their students can learn at any time and at a pace that is unique to them.
So far these Podcasts have been well received by the staff. I had many people comment that the ability to follow a video, pause it and then continue from where they left off was a great asset. In a manner of only two days all the teachers on our staff have setup their emails and have started downloading apps on their own. Teachers are now leaving me suggestions for future Podcasts so that they can continue to learn in this manner. I am so glad so see that so many teachers liked this idea and I hope to continue creating more lessons.
Great job at passing on the knowledge of using technology. I'm sure the other staff really did appreciate it as most people are just afraid of trying something new because they don't know how.
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