How can we stimulate teachers to integrate (not just use!) technology in education?

This morning I had a meeting for volleyball practice (I give volleyball training) and there was also a teacher (primary school) present. If you have read my blogs well, then you know that I am a teacher also. And what often happens when there are two teachers sitting together: we talked about education. The woman with whom I talked has a lot of experience in education. She told me that there are many things that a teacher must do according to other people, such as people from the government. Sometimes she feels that there is not much time left where it is all about: teaching and helping children. I think she is not the only teacher who feels this way. What I try to say is that teachers are not always glad with innovations or meetings in which something new is explained. This also applies to integrate technology in education.

This blog goes about the integration of technology in education. How can we stimulate teachers?

Before teachers start using TPACK, it must be very clear what TPACK is and what the advantages of TPACK are. So, the first step is that teachers become aware of TPACK. It is very important that the instructor who explains TPACK is a teacher himself or at least he must have some experience in teaching. Otherwise the teachers will think: ‘How can he tell us how to teach, he is not even a teacher!’ Another important thing is that the instructor knows the context, so he can give an explanation more specific.

An important aspect of integration technology in education is ongoing learning and support for teachers. This means that there is not only support before the integration, but also during the integration, so teachers are not thrown in at the deep end. After a first meeting in which is told to integrate technology in their teaching, their should be follow-up meetings. Or there must be a possibility to ask an expert questions, for example by the use of an electronic learning environment. Penuel et al (2007) ass that when professional development is stretched across longer periods of time, it is more likely for the learning to align with teacher practice and thus be better transferrable.

It is important that the integration takes place in a supportive organizational context. The teachers should get support from the school, but the school should get support from the government. For example extra money or extra staff.

Another aspect that also something has to do with support is the schoolculture. The schoolculture must support the integration of technology in education. That means that the staff must have a shared vision. It is important that the teachers also may give their opinion about the vision. It is undesirable that teachers are not motivated. To prevent this, the teachers must be involved in the development of the vision. Within a good schoolculture the school leader set an example to the teachers. The school leader must show that he support the integration of technology and that he works hard to finish the integration successfully.

When you want to integrate technology in education, it is important that you start with that on the teacher training college (PABO). When those students finished their study and become a colleague on a school, they can help or motivate their colleagues. But it is also nice for those students that they already know a lot about technologies and how to integrate that in their teaching. When you start as a teacher, a lot of things are new for you and you must consider many things. It is nice that you, as a beginning teacher, do not have to learn how to use technology.

 R

Reference:

Penuel, W.R., Fishman, B.J., Yamaguchi, R. & Gallagher, L.P. (2007). What makes professional development effective? Strategies that foster curriculum implementation. American Educational Research Journal, 44, 4, 921-958.

Working with TPACK

Before I started with the course ‘pedagogies for flexible learning supported by technology’ I have never heard of TPACK. Now I dream about it....

Working with TPACK offers me some new insights. First, not only the digital technologies belong to technology, also the chalkboard or a timeline belongs to that term. Second, within those digital technologies there are a lot of technologies that you can use for education, such as GPS or the iPad. The digital technologies that arose in my mind are the computer and the interactive whiteboard. But I found out that there are more technologies that you can use in education. Third, that you can design a lesson based on different angles: the content, the pedagogical approach or the technology. I was used to design my lessons based on the content. When there is a chance, I certainly will design a lesson based on a different angle. Fourth, TPACK makes me aware of my own teaching with technology. Sometimes I showed the children a movie and then I thought: ‘Yes, I did use technology!’ And of course, I did use technology, but I did not really integrate technology in the content and the pedagogical approach. And last but not least, I think most difficult is to design a lesson based on the technological aspect. Maybe a computer or an interactive whiteboard is not that difficult for me, but sometimes you must figure out something new and I do not see myself give lessons with an iPad. But maybe that will come...

Am I an educational designer?

I do not have to write a whole blog before I can answer this question. My answer is: no.

But during this course I have gained some experience in designing a professional development program and I am very happy with that! This blog goes about that design. I will not share with you our final result, because I do not think that you will read the whole report. But I will describe some parts of the process and my own thoughts about our design.

For our final assignment we had to design something. There were two options: to design a lesson based on TPACK or to design a professional development program for teachers based on TPACK. My first thought was: ‘I want to design a lesson’, because with that I am familiar. Unfortunately, my teammembers prefer the other option J. But after we have finished this assignment, I am glad that I choose (together with my group) to design a professional development program based on TPACK. At the teacher training college I have gained enough experience in designing lessons (except the TPACK-part). To design a professional development program was totally new for me. And a bonus was, that by designing a professional development program, I could develop myself more professionally...

To clearify the assignment: we had to design a professional development program/course for teachers of a primary school in which they will learn TPACK and how to work with that.

First we brainstormed. In my group there were two teachers and one student who has followed the bachelor on the University of Twente. This means that sometimes the opinions were divided, but at the end it seems very useful to have different prior knowledge. The bacholor-student came up with a theoretical framework (which was very nice and useful) and has a lot of ideas. But sometimes we (the teachers) thought that it was not attainable. We know that teachers are not happy with all those innovations including the meetings. And they do not have much time. So we combined our ideas and knowledge.

After the brainstormsession we divided the work and individually we did our part. But we planned also some groupsessions to consult with each other and to prevent that there was inconsistency in our design.

The overall goal of our professional development program was: let teachers learn how to integrate technology into the classroom practice by developing and using TPACK.

This overall goal overlaps more specific goals:

1. For teachers to gain knowledge and skills about how to develop and use TPACK

2. To improve teachers’ technology-use in classroom teaching practice

3. To increase the student outcomes because of changed classroom practice

The most difficult part for me was the motivational aspect. How to motivate and support teachers to use TPACK? On one hand, you do not want to use much valuable time from the teacher, but on the other hand, you want to give them support. Also some researchers (see my blog about how to integrate technology in education) state that it is important that professional development is stretched across longer periods of time. And because it is better that it takes more time with good results instead of less time but no results, we choose for a design in which the teachers join a meeting each month. In the begin maybe a meeting lasts longer than at the end of the year.

To create a teacher design team, we hope that the teachers motivate each other. Maybe a teacher shows a good practice and then his colleague will use that ideas.