From Now On The Educational Technology Journal Vol 10No 6March2001 How Teachers.pdf

From Now On The Educational Technology Journal Vol 10|No 6|March|2001 How Teachers Learn Technology Best By Jamie McKenzie (Note: This article first appeared in the January, 2001 issue of Electronic School, a publication of the National School Boards Association and is ? 2001, J. McKenzie, all rights reserved. It also appears as a chapter in Planning Good Change.) When it comes to teachers learning and valuing the effective use of new technologies, some schools are discovering that the kinds of training programs offered in the past may not represent the most generative method of reaching a full range of teachers and their students. The key term is generative - meaning that behaviors and daily practice will be changed for the better as a consequence of the professional development experience. Fortunately, some schools are now identifying approaches more likely to encourage teachers to employ these technologies on a frequent and sustained basis to enhance student learning. Lead districts are finding that adult learning, curriculum development projects and informal support structures are proving powerful in promoting recurrent use aimed at deep curriculum integration. After two decades of providing software classes to teachers, we need to explore different approaches — those honoring key principles of adult learning while placing both curriculum and literacy ahead of software and technology. As will be explained later, adult learning strategies are fundamentally different from training strategies and usually more promising because they are tailored to the learning styles, preferences and needs of teachers in ways more likely to win their commitment than the approach more typical of training models. In some places, eager planners have put the cart before the horse - emphasizing the purchase and installation of equipment without providing sufficient funding for the staff learning required to win a reasonable return on the huge invest