My term project is the result of a request from our school's Professional Development Committee.  I was approached about teaching interested teachers about some of the technology available in our building.  This workshop allows teachers to earn CPDU's while learning about some of the technological capabilities available in our school.  The  committee sent out an interest survey with possible topics to be covered.  The results indicated that most of the interest lay in these areas: use of scanner, digital camera, LCD projector, basics of photoshop, Netscape Composer, and ideas of how to use the computer in their classroom.

I chose dates for attendance and posted a signup sheet in the office.  I decided to keep the group small allowing 15 teachers per day to sign up in order to maximize results.  The workshop will held for two days.  The first day will focus on the use of Netscape Composer, using the scanner, digital camera, LCD projector and the very basics of Photoshop.  While the second day will be devoted to taking a virtual field trip which allows teachers to find various educational websites that they can use in their classrooms.

Last year I sent out a survey to discover how our teachers were using the computers in their rooms.  The greatest use was using email.  Some teachers were searching for information to share in their classroom, but for the most part, the computers that were put into our classrooms to improve instruction were not being utilized.  Unfortunately this is common in most school districts.  Many of our teachers attended a week long workshop to learn about different software programs (IDEAL Training), but since that workshop three years ago, nothing more has been offered.  As with most workshops, teachers were excited after the initial training. Unfortunately, once school began again no follow up training was offered.  If teachers were going to be able to use the information they were given, they were going to have to find their own time to develop a way to integrate what they'd learned into their curriculum. "Lack of adequate teacher training--or of any teacher training at all--could mean that much of the money being spent on hardware and software is going to waste. 'Often, states will spend millions on equipment, and may only spend a fraction--2 or 3 percent--on training,' says Glen Bull, an education professor at the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia. 'If you're not training, you're throwing money away."(Teaching)

I would like this workshop to go beyond individual bits of information.  I'd like to see significant changes in how teachers are using the computers in their room.  In order to make this change teachers will need to go beyond the "how" and even the "why".  Many workshops give information about "why" we should change our teaching and "how" to go about it.  But still teachers come back to school and DON'T.  Why no?  Probably many reasons, but the number one reason seems to be: Teachers don't have time to implement new strategies while teaching content.(Teaching)

The second day in this workshop will focus on giving teachers an opportunity to take some time to think about how to use the technology we have available, as well as share ideas, and learn about some valuable educational websites.  I spent a great deal of time creating a Virtual Field Trip for teachers, a "Kids Only" website and a Parent Website, so that after the training they will have sites to use as a resource.  I also feel that our school will need to provide ongoing follow-up training for our teachers in order to make a significant change in the use of the technology.

As I began to develop the ideas for this workshop I felt I had many different pieces to several different puzzles.  First, I wanted to address the question "Why include technology,"  I decided to include a site on my parent page that discusses "Why Computers Matter to Your Child".  Most of the teachers who sign up for this workshop will already feel the need is important, but I thought it was necessary to have this information accessible especially for parents.  Then I decided I needed to find the main idea of what I was trying to accomplish.  I returned to the site,  What's the Big Idea?   This site suggests that to find the main concepts of what you are teaching you must list what it is you are covering and begin putting ideas together.  After looking through the content of what I was planning on including, I found one central theme or main idea:

I made a graphic organizer to help me visualize the flow of information.  I made an overhead copy to use as an advance organizer for the workshop.  I'll display it at the beginning and refer back to it as we learn different pieces constantly reinforcing the idea of changing the way we teach.
 
 

The workshop will begin with a demonstration of changing preferences in Netscape using the LCD projector.  This will be arranged in the computer lab so that after I've demonstrated a procedure each teacher will have their own computer to practice the skill.  Each teacher will change the font type and size, and change their homepage as we discuss the advantages of being able to control these features.  It is essential that teachers feel what they are learning is significant.  We'll discuss the advantages of changing fonts for younger learners and those visually impaired as well as the reasons why they may want to change their homepage.  I'll continue using the projector to demonstrate saving pictures from the web to a file folder, copying text from a page and editing it in Composer, and the use of the tools in Composer.  In my field trip I included tutorials on Netscape for teachers to refer back to as they begin to use this program. When teaching about the tools in Composer I'll need to relate what they already know about tools in others programs by asking if they see anything familiar, using what they already know to help them make connections between information and to make an easier transfer from declarative knowledge to procedural knowledge.

Teachers will later work in pairs to take photos using the camera, scan photos brought from home, and edit photos using Photoshop. It will be necessary for our district to complete the four media carts in order for all teachers to have an opportunity to use all of the available technology.  Three of the carts will be located in my room across the hall from the technology lab.

The second day of the workshop is constructed around the virtual field trip.  Teachers will occupy their own computers in the lab, change their homepage to the field trip url and then spend time looking through the sites provided.  After teachers have had enough time to look through some of the sites, we'll have a discussion about ways to use them.  I'll have a large sheet of butcher paper and markers to write down "Ways to use the sites" they've discovered along with ideas of "How to manage the classroom in order to use the technology available".
 

Goals for Day 1- Teachers will learn how to take information from the web, save it to print, change their homepages, change fonts, save pictures, take pictures with digital camera, use scanner, and use photoshop to edit photos.

Day 1

8:30- 10:00  Use projector and lab machines to learn about Netscape

10:00-10:15 break

10:15- 12:00 Use scanner, digital camera, projector hook-up and Photoshop.  Demonstration and hands-on practice.

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:00- 3:00 Teachers guided practice time and questions. This will also be time available for additional information about some of the programs we have available.  Teachers will determine what they'd like to do during this time.
 

Goals for Day 2- Teachers will find useful web sites to use in their classrooms.  They will compile ideas of how to use the computer they have and share ideas with others.  They will use the afternoon to organize their thoughts and develop new ways that they feel comfortable using the computer.

Day 2

8:30-10:00 Virtual Field Trip

l0:00-10:15 break

10:15-12:00 Share ideas of how to change our teaching, continue with field trip

12:00-1:00 lunch

1:00-3:00 Teacher Time- work on making a web page, use new web sites, use software programs, practicing with camera and scanner, take time to organize information and develop new teaching strategies.

I received approval from my principal on the subject matter above.  I felt confident in the web sites I selected for the virtual field trip when I received a copy of the "School Connection" newsletter of "Best Educational Websites" and I had many of them included in the workshop.  I did investigate another site of field trip links listed on the newsletter, but found only one site that was age appropriate for our school and not already included as links on other sites.  The Heart Tour is an excellent one to use for our circulatory system in fourth grade so I added it to my field trip.  The last step will be to send in the workshop plans 30 days prior to obtain approval for CPDU credit.

Extension Possibilities:

I'd like use this workshop to build a Technology Team.  If our school would allow us to meet during school improvement days we could use that time to share new ideas and web sites, discuss new technology we need in our school building, and develop training opportunities for other teachers.
 
 

References:

Teaching the Teachers Technology

What's the Big Idea?

Tutorials:

Netscape Composer-http://www.furman.edu/~pecoy/mfl195/composer/

Netscape Navigaor-http://home.netscape.com/eng/mozilla/2.0/handbook/docs/learn.html#C0

perferences resource- http://www.hal-pc.org/navigator/index.html

web searching page- http://www.webliminal.com/search-web.html

photoshop- http://www.cica.indiana.edu/cica/faq/photoshop/photoshop.html