Journal 1 - Do Your Teachers Need a Personal Trainer? (NETS 1, 3 & 5)

Owens, Aileen M. (Jun/Jul 2009). Do your teachers need a personal
trainer?. Learning and Leading with Technology, Retrieved July
16, 2009, from http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/
Publications/LL/Current_Issue/L_L_June_July.htm

This article discusses how collaboration with a local university’s Ed tech department could help reduce the bottleneck of School District technology training. This system would be useful in training teachers in technology while also giving university students real world experience to pad their resumes. I can see how this solution for the bottleneck of technical training is viable for University towns and even for places where the local High School has both a community service requirement for graduation and the technological ability to train young coaches that are able to be helpful to teachers. In places that have the most need of trainers, I think there would be a dearth of qualified volunteers to help. But with the rise of two-way Internet conferencing, it looks like even in more remote places, this pattern may work. The weak links in such a system are always going to be 1: leadership to push such a program through and keep running for the long run, 2: enough hardware and software to be effective in both the training and instructional development and 3: a pool of well-educated trainers.

Question 1: How could this system work in the San Diego area?
Answer: Because of the severe funding problems at both the local and state level, this would have to be a grassroots effort. SDSU has a Department of Educational Technology that would have a large pool of qualified students that might need service experience. Qualcomm has a volunteer program that may be another avenue to pursue. San Diego is rich in high technology companies that might jump at the chance to increase their visibility in the community, so this type of program could potentially be easy to implement.

Question 2: What are some of the drawbacks of this system?
Answer: One drawback would be that because this is a grassroots program, it would have limited impact. There would be little advertisement of successes, and few teachers would have access to the program. Another drawback is that the unofficial nature of this program would make it very fragile in terms of longevity. It would take the personal dedication of the individuals involved in order to keep it going. Retirements, burn-out and changing social situations would threaten the entire program. A more formal institutional structure would reduce the chances of this happening.