Ed Tech Notes

My presentation on ITRT Resources and Web 2.0 in the state of Virginia is now online. Thanks to those who showed up! Enjoy the rest of the NECC 2009 Conference!

Cheers!

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• A Book By Its Cover ~ Part II

May 19, 2009

Instructional Technology Resource Teacher: Guidelines for Teachers and Administrators

This was released yesterday and though I haven’t had enough time to go through it all, it does say something about my position in a rural school division here in Virginia:

One of the principal findings of the Virginia Tech study (2007) was that ITRT are spread too thinly, particularly in rural areas (p. 36). Ideally, there should be one ITRT per school or per two schools; this would require increased funding for additional positions in rural areas. Even when ITRT are spread too thinly, they can be used more effectively through organization and planning. When an ITRT is split between locations, effective planning is essential. For instance, ITRT can conduct face-to-face training at centrally located sites; information about these sessions needs to be disseminated widely in advance to give teachers and administrators time to plan their schedules. Another strategy is for ITRT to work at a different location each day; again, communication is important so personnel know where the ITRT will be on a particular day.
Another option is to alternate weeks at different schools. This works only if the ITRT has only two or three locations; otherwise, there will be too much time between visits to each school. This strategy also requires advanced planning and scheduling of professional development.

I agree with this wholeheartedly in my situation. Given that there are 133 school divisions in Virginia, everyone’s experiences in this position are probably quite different. I travel to three schools each week, and then float as needed on the other two days of the week. It keeps me busy and at the same time I have to work at being organized to stay on top of everyone’s needs for technology integration and support.

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Today I’m working on helping a teacher get set up for using the online movie creation site called, “primary access.” Basically you can set up online movies through the interface of this site and then students can go in and actually create their movies which are then viewed through a web browser, online. It’s a pretty cool idea, but the interface needs some work as it isn’t very intuitive. Nonetheless, we’re going for it! Enjoy

today is full of working with teachers after a brief meeting with my supervisor. we’re off on a webquest that is looking up information on plate tectonics!

This is the first post of my new Instructional Technology Resource Teacher edublog blog! Here we go–