I really like to train others in educational technologies

It is my job and something I used to do from the classroom out of passion. When I was in the classroom I will confess that I trained people differently. First, I was not obliged to train everyone, and I didn’t. From the classroom-teacher point of view, if you were not interested in learning I wasn’t interested in training you. In my (more grown-up?) edtech role I train all comers.

It is odd to me that no one had to train us how to use textbooks. And maybe that reveals the difference, anything which did not happen to us as students may be more challenging to include in our classrooms as teachers. Be careful with that excuse though; are you going to tell an administrator that you are so fragile as a learner that you need how many years to get used to a technology? If you admit to that, you might be encouraging your own replacement with teachers who will work with forthcoming technologies.

Oh, you haven’t been trained?

You haven’t touched that new equipment yet in the corner of your room because you haven’t been trained on it? You are not using the assessment software because you haven’t been trained on it? Your students aren’t allowed to check out the Chromebooks because you haven’t scheduled them to visit the Media Center for training?

It is not just the younger teachers among us who take to new technologies, is it? It is the difference between a teacher digging into the way s/he has always done it and disregarding better options and a teacher open to the best methods of instruction, new or old. It is the growth mindset instead of the fixed mind-set which will be the optimal teacher indicator eventually.

Do you know what I haven’t been trained on?

Apathy – letting others decide what best practices happen or do not happen in my classroom because of external scheduling, no thank you. I will find out what I need to allow my students use of x, y, or z.

Spite – I don’t let it get in my way that I think it is someone’s job to spoon feed me directions and own the entire process around a piece of educational technology. I’d just rather get some use out of whatever it is with my students.

Avoidance – I am not going to passively let my leader install a piece of technology in another room without asking for my students too. And rewarding my leader with usage. My students should not have to avoid technology because I am scared of how easily I may or may not adapt to the tech.

Fear – I refuse to be afraid of a device or app. I will learn about it and understand how I fit into the application of that device or app in a student’s learning environment. Because that is my job – and the training for being a teacher doesn’t stop when you hire me.