Journal 1: Do Teachers Need Personal Trainers?

Citation: Owens, Aileen M (June/ July 2009). Do your teacher need a personal trainer? Learning& Leading with Technology, Retrieved July 18, 2009 from: http://www.iste.org/Content/NavigationMenu/
Publications/LL/Current_Issue/L_L_June_July.htm

Summary

This article discussed how an instructional technology coordinator through a partnership with Duquesne University found a way to provide free instructional technology training to the teachers who needed more support and training to create and implement technology in their lessons in the classroom.
Duquesne University offered the “Student Internship Program” in which the interns volunteered in grades 1-5 in various districts and schools to train and to create appropriate instructional strategies to increase technological learning opportunities for both teachers and students in the classroom. All teachers, students, and interns engaged in this program benefited in that teachers got more support and training than they could have received from one instructional technology coordinator, and the interns got valuable experiences to create lessons to include in their portfolios.

If I were the person who was selected to choose the interns, how would I choose them? I would choose the interns whose skills would match the areas in which teachers needed support. I would select well- skilled and creative interns who could plan and provide new and appropriate instructional strategies for the teachers at the site who would need a personal trainer in the classroom.

What are the main points of this article? As I read this article, I realize that educators’ collaboration, responsibility, and creativity can help to create a learning environment in which both teachers and students can effectively use and thus enjoy the available technology resources in schools.