Mar
26
Progress with my GAME Plan
My GAME plan was to learn how to use a SMART board
in my classroom. I am happy to say I have
been getting lots of helpful ideas and links from my fellow classmates and
fellow teachers. It is sad and funny at
the same time as to see how many different teachers are in or have been in the
same situation that I am finding myself in.
I have been given new technology and given no instruction as to how to
use it. What a waste of money that so
many teachers are given the much needed technology, but no one followed through
with the instruction leaving the teachers to put the extra time into learning
the technology on their own. It is not
asking too much to be instructed on how to use something. People from all professions know that the
education system is in many ways broken but no one has an idea how to fix
it. Here is a great idea, allow the
teachers to solve the problems and take the politics out of education.
My problem with the new
technology is just one example of the many problems in education. Neither my principal, my superintendent,
school board, nor any Politian came up with any solutions on my problem with the
SMART boards. Fellow teachers agreed and
said “Hey I had that happen to me too”.
It comes down to good old communication. This communication is not
clouded by selfish political agendas or anyone trying to justify having a job
by sitting in four thousand meetings and getting no ware. It did not have to do anything with any
tests. By communicating with someone on how
to do something and then pass that knowledge on to the next person. There was a problem and my fellow teachers rolled
up their sleeves and got to work. How
much work could be accomplished if there was not any red tape in education and
just allowed teachers to be teachers?
Not test givers but real life educators.
I
am going to have to modify my GAME plan by getting deeper in the idea of
figuring out how to use my SMART Board.
I have to basic understanding now and a few different programs and tools
for it. Now I want to know what else can
be done with using a smart board. I know
that I am able to keep my students attention when I do use the board. Students and technology is like peanut butter
and jelly. When done correctly they are
a natural fit that is hard to separate.
What I am trying to do is figure out how to get it correctly done.
If anyone else is
having any trouble with this like me these are some of the links that were
given to me. They really helped. Or if you have any links that you use that
helped I would love to add them to my list and share them with other teachers.
Posts
8 comments:
John
We have one Smartboard in our school and the teacher has no knowledge on how to use it or even turn it on. She has little desire to get training on it and the school does not seem to care if she receives training for it. I am in the process of ordering a BrightLight Smartboard for my classroom and hope that I will receive the training I need to use it. I will be keeping this post just in cast that I do not get the training and will use it to help me figure it out. I understand your frustations and I think lots of us feel the same way you do.
Kevin Sharp
It is good to see that you are making some progress on your game plan. It is common in schools for districts to purchase new technology, then not provide any instruction how to best use that technology. I mostly learned how to use my smartboard on my own, with some help from my colleagues. Then my district did have someone from the smartboard company come in and give teachers some informal training. It was helpful, but I feel like I am constantly learning about new cool uses for it. I do like the links you provided, including the random name picker. That is an easy way to keep all students involved in the class.
Good luck learning more about your smartboard.
John, I totally agree with everything you are saying. I did not know about your frustrations until I came across your blog. I am going through the exact same thing in my classroom. There was an unused SmartBoard in our high school so I told our custodians to mount it in my room and I would try to figure out how to use it. So on my own I have been playing around with it without a lot of success. Right now it is just a glorified monitor for my work station at the back of my room. My students have shown me a few things to use such as the markers and eraser, but there has to be a lot more that can be done. I am looking forward to checking out the sites you posted to see if they will help. Thanks a lot for voicing your beliefs and know that you are not the only one that feels like you do. Good luck with your PLAN. I do not know what profile to pick down below, so will probably show up as anonymous so I will sign out here. Thanks again Timothy Giese
John, I can empathize with you on this about the SMART board. My GAME plan also involved me trying to learn as much as possible about this tool and use if proficiently so as to benefit myself and my students. We just received some boards in our upper elementary classrooms and like you, no training was provided, except one day when we were shown how to turn it on, off, play DVDs and project our laptops and visualizers through it.
I’m not going to let that deter me, because I plan to overcome this hurdle. It is very true that the students know a bit about the SMART board and this is due to what some of them have gleaned from their other classes and teachers. We will learn best by trial and error, although it may take a little longer than we had anticipated.
I too will have to make some adjustments to my plan and see how best I can work this tool. I have seen some software on some of these websites (http://exchange.smarttech.com/search.html), but the next thing is I have to find out if they are approved for us to use in our school system. I will have to rely on our technical adviser and a few of the teachers who are somewhat already familiar with some of the uses of the board.
All the very best with your GAME plan.
Yvonne Morris
John,
Obviously many of our Walden colleagues have had similar frustrations as you when it comes to using their smart boards. The really sad irony is I was recently talking to our main librarian and tech guru and she said SMART boards would be or rather are on their way out in the next 3 to 5 years. Very frustrating when you consider how many teachers and now just getting trained on a tool that has been available for some time now.
Thanks for sharing such helpful links. Like you, I have been using many of the suggested tools from Dr. L. I definitely need to do a better job of cataloging this resources.
Best of luck with your game plan.
Audrey Tomscih
John,
I share your frustrations about being granted a technology that you lack the knowledge to effectively use. I too know the benefits to student motivation as a result of the Smart Board. You mention being able to keep your students’ attention when you use it. I encourage you to extend that opportunity to capable, technology savvy students to “‘discover’ how to operate the program on their own,” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 97). This could be accomplished in the same way you would assign technology leaders during class to tutor their peers; during an idle activity period; or during homeroom when time is allotted for organizational purposes, such as taking attendance, announcements, etc. Once these students begin to uncover the Smart Board’s many features, they can share them with you and other students. “Don’t underestimate the ability of your students to provide support,” (Cennamo, Ross, & Ertmer, 2009, p. 103). This was the case for me in learning the basic features of the interactive white board. When students use them in other classes or are allowed to explore technology, they pick up digital proficiency quickly through their own discoveries and the knowledge of more experienced teachers. In your case, it sounds as if the Smart Boards are new to the school and/or district, but, again, I encourage you to alleviate your burden a bit by using your students as experts. This inclusion in instruction will only encourage their accountability, promote their excitement for learning, and improve their engagement.
Unfortunately, I have no additional online resources to offer. However, I have inherited some interactive game templates, including Jeopardy and Connect4 that I would be happy to share with you. Of course, they can be customized appropriately for your subject area content.
References
Cennamo, K., Ross, J. & Ertmer, P. (2009). Technology integration for meaningful classroom use: A standards-based approach. (Laureate Education, Inc., Custom ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
April Reynolds
http://21stcenturyteaching101.edublogs.org
John,
That's fantastic that you were able to tap into the resource of other teachers to help you with your SMARTboard. I had a similar problem in that I taught for ten years in my school, and then I stayed home for ten years because I had 3 babies. When I went back three years ago, the district had implemented all sorts of technology and gave all sorts of wonderful trainings to help the teachers learn how to use it. But, by the time I got back, there were no more trainings. This was bad for me, but also for any new teachers that are hired into the district.
So, I started a meeting a couple of years ago for any teacher who wants to talk about "better teaching" once a week at lunch in my classroom. People can come with questions, or can come to collaborate with others, or can come to debate issues in education. Often, there will be technology questions and answers and I know that I have benefitted a great deal from the collective knowledge of the group.
I hope that you will continue to collaborate with those from your school to make the most of your smartboard!
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