Seven qualities of highly effective technology trainers

Seven qualities of highly effective technology trainers

Ran across this as I was preparing for a workshop I'm giving next week. I'd forgotten I had even written it back in 2000. Seems to have held up.

1. The problem is on the desk, not in the chair.
When a problem arises, the best trainers assume that it is a result of a hardware or software flaw - whether an actual bug or a design in the user interface that makes the technology confusing for normal people to use. It’s sometimes tough to help people increase their knowledge without making them feel stupid or incompetent, but good teachers do. Phrases like, “My third graders can do that.” “You know it works better when you plug it in.” and “No, the other right arrow.” are not recommended.

2. No mouse touching.
Good trainers are patient. One sure sign of this saintly virtue in teachers is that they never touch a student's mouse or keyboard. No matter how exasperating it becomes to watch that ill-coordinated teacher find and click on the correct button, good instructors' hands stay well behind their backs, no matter how white knuckled they become.

3. Great analogies.
There is a theory that the only way we can think about a new thing is if we have some way to relate it to what we already know. Good trainers can do that by creating analogies. “Your email account is like a post office box. Your password is like your combination to get into it. Your email address is like your mailing address – it tells the electronic postmaster where to send your email.” Now here’s the catch: truly great analogists know when the comparisons break down, too. “Unlike a human postmaster, the electronic postmaster can’t make intelligent guesses about an address. The extra dot, the L instead of a 1, or a single juxtaposition of letters will keep your mail from being delivered.”

4. Clear support materials and advanced planning.
Few things are more comforting to teachers than being able to take home a “cheat sheet” that covers much of the same material that was taught in class. Until multi-step tasks are repeated several times, most of us need reminders that are more descriptive than just notes taken in class. A short menu of task steps illustrated with screen shots is a gift for most technology learners.

Just as they take time to prepare good handouts, the savvy technology teachers check out the lab or teaching area well in advance (a week is best) for potential problems with workstations, software version, projection units, security systems, and network connections. Good instructors leave little to chance.

5. Knowing what is essential and what is only confusing.
A good trainer will have a list of the skills the learners should have mastered by the end of the training. As instruction proceeds, that list will be the basis for frequent checks for understanding. As an often-random thinker, I find such a list keeps me as an instructor on track and provides a class roadmap for the learner. Now here’s the catch with this one: truly great technology teachers know what things beginning learners really need to know to make them productive and what things might be conveyed that only serve to impress a captive audience with the technologist’s superior intellect. (“The email address is comprised of the username, the domain name, the subdomain name, the computer name, all referenced in a lookup table at the NIC.” Like that.) It’s an alpha wolf thing, especially common with males. Be aware of it, and strive as an instructor instead to use charm and a caring demeanor with the pack to achieve dominance.

6. If it breaks, we’ll fix it.
Kids catch on to technology with amazing rapidity for a very good reason. They aren’t afraid to push buttons. They know if they mess something up, it’s an adult’s job to fix it. That’s one nice thing about being a kid. However we need to instill in most of our adult learners the courage to experiment. Rather than always answering direct questions about technology, good trainers will often say, “Try it and see what happens. If you mess something up, I’ll help you fix it.” We tell our new technology learners that we can repair or replace anything but their original creations. The only real worry they should have is about backing up personal files.

7. Perspective.
Many of us who work with technology do so because we love it. We play with new software on the weekends, surf the Internet deep into the evening, and show off our new gadgets like other folks show off prize winning zinnias, new powerboats, or successful children. I hesitate to use the term “abnormal,” but we are in the minority. Most teachers see technology as a sometimes helpful thing that should occupy about 1% of one’s conscious thinking time. It’s easy to lose the perspective that teachers are teachers first and technology users second – or third or fourth. Good trainers who can remember what it was like before there were computers – the green grass, the singing birds, the books to read, the parties to attend, the fishing trips, the face-to-face human communication– tend to be more empathetic. Think back, think back…

CODE77 rubrics 2008

One of the most interesting and perhaps important questions I have been trying to answer for the past 15 years or so is -

What should a "technologically-literate" teacher know and be able to do?

I always believed it was patently unfair to ask teachers to become "computer-literate" and then not be able to describe what that means in fairly specific terms. Since I was one the people advocating for computer literate teachers back in the early 90s, I wrote a set of rubrics for our district - the Beginning CODE 77 rubrics. These later became the backbone for my book, The Indispensable Teacher's Guide to Computer Skills published in 1998. I also wrote two additional sets of rubrics - Internet rubrics and advanced rubrics in the mid 90s.

I revised all these rubrics in 2002 to bring them into alignment with the ISTE NETS for Teachers standards and to reflect changes in technology at that time. I also added a set of leadership rubrics for the second edition of The Indispensable Teacher's Guide in 2002.

Guess what? The 2002 rubrics are looking pretty dusty. I used them in a workshop last month and asked participants what things teachers now need to know about and be able to do that weren't reflected in the 2002 rubrics. Here is just a partial list: 

• Interactive white boards
• Audio systems
• Podcasting
• Web 2.0 - wikis, blogs, social networking, RSS, media sharing
• Safety
• Video streaming - online content
• Graphic tools for planning and brain storming
• Webquests
• Online learning environments
• Distance learning
• Virtual worlds

So, over the next few weeks (or months - whatever), I am going to be using the Blue Skunk to get feedback on an updated set of CODE 77 rubrics. I will be looking at just one rubric at a time, beginning with each of the beginning rubrics then moving to the Internet rubrics, advanced rubrics and leadership rubrics. I'll categorize each entry as CODE77 and rubrics. We'll also discuss whether some additional rubrics need to be added or if some can be dropped.

I have defined each set as follows:

Beginning: These rubrics primarily address professional productivity. They are the foundation on which more complex technology and technology-related professional skills are built. Teachers who have mastered these skills are able to use the computer to improve their traditional instructional tasks such as writing, record-keeping, designing student materials, and presenting lessons. These skills also build the confidence teachers need to use technology to restructure the educational process.

Advanced: These rubrics below are designed to help teachers move to a second (and final?) level of professional computer use. Rather than the computer simply being a tool which allows a common task to be done more efficiently, these skills fundamentally change how instruction is delivered, how student performance is measured, and how teachers view themselves as professionals. The technology is used to actually restructure the educational process to allow it to do things it has never been able to do before.  

Internet: These rubrics focus on using the Internet skillfully and purposely for educational purposes.

Leadership:  These rubrics are designed to help superintendents, principals and directors determine how well they use technology to improve administrative effectiveness through efficient communication, planning, and record keeping.

Looking forward to reading your ideas for improvements. 

Is the magic gone?

If you were a teacher in the Mankato schools, you'd have a one in five chance of coming in to see me (or one of my staff) this month. We'd be sitting down for about an hour unpacking, putting together, configuring and exploring your brand new computer. Had you been with the district since 1992, this might be the 4th new computer of your career with us. (Nearly half of the 40 teachers who got computers in 1992 are still employed by the district.)

That first year you teachers would have received a Mac Classic II computer (9" B&W screen, 16MGz CPU, 2Mg RAM, 40Mg hard drive), a StyleWriter inkjet printer, a 14.4 baud modem, ClarisWorks and CODE 77 training.

In 1997, you'd have gotten a PowerMac 5400. In 2002, an eMac. Today's teachers get the choice of an iMac (17" LCD color screen, 1.83GHz CPU, 1 Gig RAM, 80 GB hard drive, wi-fi, Bluetooth, built-in camera...) or MacBook laptop, both running OSX and Windows XP with Parallels and Microsoft Offfice. Just amazing to consider the improvements in the hardware.

A new computer in our district has always been accompanied by required formal, hands-on training, ranging from 30 hours the first go-round (this is how you use a mouse) to 12 hours more recently. Not enough, of course, but something.

The early days were really exciting. A lab of teachers would collectively gasp when when learning word processing when they changed the font of an entire document using Open Apple A. Sort of cool. Getting a computer was a competitive process when there were more teachers wanting one than funds available (enough for 20% of the faculty) and it was thrilling to be "up" for a new computer.

It's a different group coming in to pick up their computers this summer of 2007. Participation is no longer competitive, an honor, or even optional. The computer for too many is not about creativity, but only about work - grades, attendance, data analysis for NCLB, online testing, IEPs, parent communication, and website updates. A teacher cannot do his/her job without a networked comptuer. Who'd have thought that giving up an hour (but being paid for it) in the summer to learn about and pick up a brand-new computer would be resented by so many teachers today. Maybe I'm just naive. Is this is like expecting a convict in a chain gang to be excited about his new shovel?

But most teachers are very happy to get the new machines - and some are just as excited today about them as they were in 1992. And that is cool. I showed one teacher how to use the built in camera and ComicLife and you'd a thought she'd died and gone to heaven. She could not wait to show "her" students. Pretty easy to pick which teachers I'd want for my own kids.

Can you instill a love of life-long learning in others if you aren't an enthusiastic life-long learner yourself?

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On a side note: I had a depressing thought that after 16 years, I am still learning my job - and most days feeling about as competent as the first day I started. Time to revisit the Peter Principle???