zaterdag 20 november 2010

Ideas to stimulate teachers to integrate technology in education

As a teacher I know it is hard to stimulate teachers to try new things. Because they stick to the things they are familiar with. So integrating new things is even a bigger challenge.

Some teachers are sceptic about implementing technology and other teachers are just afraid to use it. Teachers need self confidence to use it.
How are they getting self confidence?
Of course they need a course to know about technology. Professional development is important to get confident. But they don’t want a course or a lecture about how easy and fun it is to integrate technology, but they want to see it in practice.
Of course the need instruction about how to integrate technology but if they are motivated they will learn very quick and will try it in their classrooms.

Own experience
I think that when teachers see what there is possible with technology they will be enthusiastic. Also if they know it is easy to integrate in the lessons.
There was a presentation that caught my attention about motivation. They want to give instruction to teachers who are intrinsically motivated to learn about integrating technology. I thought that was a good idea. If only one teacher will participate in that course, but he is so enthusiastic, I think he can motivate his colleagues. Teachers will see that it works in the classroom and I think that is want they want to see.

Support
How can you be sure that teachers will integrate it in their lessons and not only use it once?
I think a school leader and maybe an ICT coordinator are important. They must stimulate teachers to use it. The school leader must look at financial things, like buying a whiteboard. The school leader can also look for courses after they did a course to integrate technology. Maybe there are nice courses about how to make a PowerPoint presentation.
An ICT coordinator must be available to help teachers with the technology and he can even look for nice courses.

Conclusion
My conclusion about how to stimulate teachers to integrate technology in education is that the teachers must see the benefits of using technology. They must be intrinsically motivated and stimulated by others to use and integrate it.

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