Dive Brief:

• Teacher trainer Tom Daccord says tech-focused professional development often focuses on devices, missing the point of examining how devices enable pedagogy and help teachers meet their goals.
• Daccord, who runs tech training workshops, says schools often hire him after having already completed a technology training. Leaders tell him, “The teachers don’t understand how and why to teach with [the device.]”
• He says trainings should start with the question of what teachers’ instructional goals are and figure out how to use the device to meet those goals, rather than the other way around.

Dive Insight:

One tip Daccord offers for getting teachers on board is to give them concrete examples and demonstrations of how the device or tool can help them meet their objective. For example, at the start of the year, teachers often want to get to know their students and establish a rapport. Daccord recently walked through how they could use a Padlet wall and Google Form to quickly introduce themselves and get students to answer questions.

“So, they understand that if I, the teacher, can collect useful and relevant information about them quickly, I am in a much better position to get to know my students,” he writes. “The trick, if you will, is that I am not asking them to change. I am telling them to hang on to what’s really important to them. What I’m doing is showing them is a great new pathway to achieve what they already believe in.”