Hiring a tech savvy teacher

From a recent e-mail:

I’m writing an article for a national education magazine about how to hire tech savvy teachers in a K-12 setting. I was wondering if you had some thoughts on this and would be kind enough to post my questions (and contact information) in your blog: My responses are in italics. Add your own.

Graham Wegner at Teaching Generation Z, has created some excellent answers to these questions.

• What makes a tech savvy teacher? (Is it attitude or knowledge of specific minimum of hardware/software packages?) The ISTE NETS standards for teachers are pretty darn good at describing the skills of a tech-savvy teacher.Tough to improve on these.
  
• How should a tech-savvy teacher create lesson plans? What is the mix of off-the-shelf apps, teacher-created projects/apps and traditional media (books etc.)? I've always thought the first sign of a technologically literate teacher is one who knows when to use technology and when not to use technology. A good teacher will use a variety of instructional strategies depending on the needs of the individual learner and the skill to be mastered.
  
• Is tech-savvy teaching actually more effective than traditional teacher methods or is it really just a dazzling death by PowerPoint? What makes it effective? I see technology infusion as having some major advantages in many educational situations. First it can be highly motivating and engaging if students themselves are using a technology to create a product. Second, technology allows teachers to easily create graphic and auditory representations of concepts and ideas that many kids find easier to understand than print or lecture. Finally, technology allows students to locate, analyze and communicate information in very sophisticated ways - ways in which "knowledge workers" earn a living. My sense is that technology works especially well for the student who is not highly motivated, does not embrace print as a primary means of gaining information, and simply can not or will not learn using traditional methods.
  
• When hiring a teach-savvy teacher what are some do’s and don’ts? What are some warning signs? Technology savvy is not something we specifically look for in teachers, but we do when hiring library media specialists. The question I always ask is "What is the last new piece of hardware or software that you learned and how did you learn it?" If there is not a fairly ready and recent response, I worry. On the other side of the equation, taped glasses and pocket protector are strong warning signs. 
  

Let's look at your questions framed from another perspective - what does a "tech-savvy" lawyer, doctor, salesperson, engineer, musician, farmer, etc. look like? Simply a professional who had learned to take advantage of technology to make him/herself more effective.  How's that?

When life interrupts blogging...celebrate

Nearly ten days have gone by since I've last made an entry into the Blue Skunk. And I've decided I should feel lucky. Why? Life has pushed itself between me and the virtual world.

Push One: I spent three days last week in Virginia and Maryland - two of them doing workshops for library media specialists and one visiting Monticello, Jefferson's beautiful home near Charlottesville. The librarians with whom I worked were professional, involved, lively and challenging. I had great fun on both days. I was less awed by Monticello than I was by the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley and Blue Mountains. But I was most awed by the quality of the Howard and Loudoun County educators.

Push Two: Our family spent the Labor Day weekend at Cry of the Loon lodge in northern Minnesota. Nine of the LWW's and my blended families spent three low key days playing games, watching movies, bicycling, swimming, and just lazing about. No Internet connectivity, but easy conversations, hugs and sticky gifts from little boys, and a constant patter of gentle teasing. A 15 mile bike ride around Lake Itasca reminded me just how thankful I should be that everyone in our small group was  in good health and enjoy pretty good minds when we chose to use them. Oh, and that, for the most part, we are rather loving to each other and to the world in general.

 

Push Three: I've spent many hours this last month sitting one-on-one with teachers who are getting new computers. Part of getting a new computer in our district has always meant some required staff development time. During the hour, I helped each teacher configure his/her network settings, shortcuts on the dock and his/her e-mail account. We messed about with Widgets, used the built in camera to e-mail a portrait to a significant other, and learned how to create calendar entries. And we just talked informally about technology, schools in general, and, well, stuff. I genuinely liked every teacher I worked with.

I don't know about you, but for me technology can be a subtle trap - keeping me at my desk, working in the abstract, and communicating efficiently, but bloodlessly, with faceless others. I am a teacher at heart and happiest when teaching.

I rather like it when life gets between me and the screen. A piss-poor attitude for a technology director, to be sure.

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Lest we forget.... 

The primary purpose of a liberal education is to make one's mind a pleasant place in which to spend one's leisure. -Sydney J. Harris