Answering the question ‘Whose job is it to give students technology training in a school?’, one needs to look at who does it?, who supervises it, who evaluates it, who gets given time to do it, and who gets paid to do it? I prefer to consider what is the best way to make it happen in a school.
First, the school community needs to investigate what all ‘technology training’ involves and decide to what extent it will commit energy, funds, time, and support to the students, staff, administration, and parent community getting on board. A vision, mission, and/or philosophy is then agreed upon by the stakeholders and a strategic plan is developed to get the resources to make the plan a reality.
This paragraph may seem boring or needless, but it is most essential in answering “What is the best way to make it happen?” A philosophy of parent involvement and education for parents is far from a strategy of having scheduled computer labs that all students attend on a rotating schedule. Hiring staff that are technoliterates and assigning them to train a cluster of the staff is different than bringing in presenters and requiring all staff attend PD days. And checking off each student’s computer skill ability levels is different than having students individually self monitor their technological understandings and skills and developing individual growth plans.
In a school whose focus is learning, the question might be re-phrased, “Who is responsible for the technological skills development?” I think the answer to this question needs little discussion--Everyone in the community is responsible to learn technology and support the goal of increasing the community’s technological literacy.
We all benefit from the entire community being able to effectively use PowerSchool, communicate by email, honor copyright agreements and proper referencing codes, access PantherNet information, effectively search the Web, supporting broad-band reliable access, and providing carts with computers readily accessible for student learning. Being in a department of technophiles makes my instructional environment richer and, I believe, also improves student learning.
A piece of the “Everyone” that I seldom hear this responsibility assigned to is the student. In a school priding itself in students being aware of their own learning, I advocate that students know their own strengths and weaknesses and individually develop learning plans and challenges to improve their skills. Some may find themselves learning digital photography, make podcasts, blog about a passion they have, mix music, use new data-logging probes, expand their use of other platforms, or try different avenues and levels in the communication of ideas with other students and their teachers.
Staff and the community could have similar goals to continually raise technoliteracy. In time, the community would be considered tech savvy much the same as communities are considered outdoorsy and physically fit.
Flickr image by Roo Reynolds
