Teaching Teachers and Students to be Successful with Technology

Technology Integration Coach, Karla Koenen, confers with Betsy Bushlack, about the
lesson they are teaching to fifth grade students.

Trying technology can be risky for classroom teachers.  One obstacle is the time to research new, different, or current trends.  Other obstacles range from having access to the right device, enough numbers of devices for class size, and a back up plan in case Internet connections fail.

Having five technology coaches across the district is one measure to lower the risks of implementing technology into classrooms at Linn-Mar Schools. 

Recently, I had the opportunity to observe a lesson modeled by Karla Koenen, elementary technology coach.  She modeled in Betsy Bushlack’s fifth grade classroom at Indian Creek Elementary.   The lesson centered on students exploring the app Shadow Puppet Edu and how to pair their work in this app with their use of Seesaw in the classroom.

Students were given instruction on how to take the best kind of photos to document work and what kinds of things they should be posting for parents, students, and teachers to view and comment on.  Students learned about "WOW" work.  

Wow! This is my best work!

Wow! I figured something out!

Wow! I did something for the first time!

Wow! I need to teach you this!

___________________

Students were able to navigate their devices, and the apps independently.  It was evident the classroom teacher and the technology coach provided extensive learning, and development of these skills with the students in advance of this lesson.  Students were competent with the technology hardware and software in their hands.

After some exploration time, students then compared the use of this app with their Seesaw accounts.  The discussion was rich.  Students discovered that Shadow Puppet Edu would allow them to post multiple pages to their Seesaw accounts.  This would allow them to document work and learning with ease for teacher and parent viewing.

Karla Koenen explains the goals of the technology lesson.

This lesson was productive and successful.  Yet, I want to share one very important observation, having the technology integration coach in the room did not ensure that technology would work perfectly.  There were a couple minutes where technology would not connect for the coach.  She remained calmed, troubleshooted and discussed with the kids what was happening. Everyone remained calm and things progressed nicely.  There was evidence that students had learned some procedures and protocols of what to do when things were not working.  Again the teacher and coach prepared them with the skillset prior to this lesson so students had competent skills to be successful

Teachers, students, coaches, and all staff can use technology with students. The benefits outweigh the risks, and success is possible.