Training/Professional Development

KETC 99

The difference between success and failure

EVEN IF YOU DO A FIRST CLASS DESIGN, WITH THE HIGHEST QUALITY COMPONENTS THAT WERE CORRECTLY AND MOST EFFICIENTLY INSTALLED, WITHOUT THE CORRECT LEVELS OF SUPPORT RESOURCES AND STAFF TRAINING IN THEIR EYES IT DOESN'T WORK AND THEREFORE YOU WILL HAVE FAILED.

The Six Measures of Successful PROGRESS

#1 Get the $$ #2 Standards and products picked #3 Information Tool is Deployed #4 Training..self and formal #5 Instructional Integration & Daily #6 Students Daily Use and

Maximization of Technology Tools.. Can Make them “Sing” when compared to the nation’s most talented.

Given most folks know they need more PD.

What are the most common reasons or excuses on why people do not attend PD?

What are some selling points?

A WIN95 PD ExampleThe environment

Upgrading 700 workstations Employees have a favorable attitude toward the

use of technology and nearly every employee must use it to complete work tasks or communicate. Technology is a big part of our environment

Release time. Getting a substitute. Have competing pressures beyond technology. KDE has a good number of former teachers and

administrators... similar to schools.

A WIN95 Training session

Too expensive. Was free. Conflicts, can't leave my office that day. Was

available 8 different times in 3 months Too far away. 5 minutes walking distance The class is too long. Lasted one hour. Quality of course. Those that attended rated it

high in their evaluations. Availability of technology tools during PD

session. I am embarrassed to let others see

Lack of availability of the tools at their work space.

Insider, one of our own staff Voluntary It is something they said they wanted. They understand the value of

teaching/learning since so many are former educators or administrators.

It will increase your skills, productivity and even your marketability.

What percentage of employees do you think attended the PD?

How can you explain those results?

So what is the #1 reason folks are not going to PD? Hint, its not $$ Commitment of Time. By far. It is also tough to get 90% of staff to attend

training in large group sessions even if it is offered at various times ...no matter how inexpensive or convenient.

Like eating right and exercising most know they need to be doing it but its difficult to make it priority. But why? We need to find out how we can make it a priority

Most want to go to PD though.

Why should this worry technology support staffs?

Can you predict the impact it had on Help Desk support calls?

Support staffs are already small in schools and districts. It takes 6 times more support staff to support an untrained person.

Not just a teacher issue but for administrators as well.

Also if they don’t try to self help/train themselves for at least 3-5 minutes, then you have a real support problem.

Impact on productivity It takes an untrained person 2-3 times

longer to do a simple task. Up to 5 times. Some can’t complete the task. 911 for

support Some blame their struggle on the

technology versus their skill level and requires 911 from support staff.

Futz factor. Loss of 5 hours per week. Only using 1% of its capability. Not

maximizing. Look beyond moving a mouse and doing just enough to get by.

How do other types of organizations get better results?

See technology as a competitive advantage or adding tremendous value (e.g.,Anderson County)

Technology tools are part of the culture. Usually takes 3-5 years to reach that level

A requirement of employment A requirement to stay employed A requirement for advancement or a way to get rewards Performance relies on knowledge and skill of tool Expectation of self training..even on their own time Expectation of Sr Leadership. Beyond just encouraging

If we only had more money for PD. Money is needed but it’s a time not $$$ issue

The tools and sw will change very frequently so one time PD is not enough

If we could get it part of one of the 4-5 PD days. 1 day per year not enough. Average company has 5-7 full days worth. $9M per day to add a PD day. $11M to add an instructional day.

Kentucky Milken results

While KY is high in most other categories we were low in PD.

Kentucky teachers attitude is good toward technology and they are able to achieve above average results. Just think the level we could quickly bring them with PD.

But David, we are doing PD in my school.

You must always ask “What percentage is going?”

Most commonly it’s the same 20% of the people versus different people.

We must find ways to reach that other 80%

Two major categories of PD Basic technology skills. Word processing,

spreadsheets, databases, presentation, operating system, Internet resources, e-mail.

Integration into the teachers curriculum and administrators work tasks. This is the tough one. Can’t just give them basic skills PD and expect them to automatically know how to integrate. Best success occurs if it is from someone in the school or district’s inner circle

Well at least the new graduates coming into our schools from our universities or new administrators will have technology maximization skills. Is that true? Technology basic skills and integration

skills are currently not part of teacher or administrator certification programs.

Recent Milken research on teacher programs shows it is poor.

Colleges of Education only have teachers 2 years(and sometimes just 1). How much basic and integration training can occur?

The Circuits coming to town

An analysis by the Kentucky Long Term Research Commission of the technology use and delivery in Kentucky. What are the two key factors in determining the use of technology

1. Education and PD the person had previously received.

2. Age. Even with low levels of education and PD, the young are big users of technology

How well does train the trainer really work in reaching teachers in 90% of their classrooms and administrators in 90% of their offices?

How much really gets shared? Even for those with good intentions to do it usually don’t. Information sharers or really information consumers?

Not given the opportunity, intended to but got back and got buried in the day to day, lacks the confidence or initiative, lack of time of the trainer or trainee.

On average less than 5-10% really gets shared. As each day passes the probability gets smaller.

It can work. But expectations must be set up prior.

How well do full self paced packages work?

Computer, text, video, audio, just in time web based instruction.

On their own time, by themselves and at their own pace.

Work hours, non-work hours It is a technique to reach a few(5-10%). Tough to keep them updated as versions of

software change

Technical PD for Technical folks. Why should we train them? They’ll just leave after they get it.

Would you rather train someone and possibly lose them, or not train them and probably keep them? …for a long time!

So what can we do?

PD Direct The most effective technique by far is going

into the classroom/office in small chucks of time(e.g.,15 minutes) and working with them. People make time for this technique.

It reduces the embarrassment factor. They will ask questions more freely.

Ideally an insider to the school. Ideally a person whose time is dedicated for that purpose. A person that spends 95% of their time showing how to maximize versus fixing

KETS funds can go toward this. STCs stipends, full time integrator with focus on classroom

Find ways to get release time and

making it financially worth their time.

KETS EDTECH can now be spent for stipends and pay for substitutes for teachers attending basic technology skills or technology integration training.

Find ways that entices teachers and administrators to

use technology during non-school hours. Buy them laptops that can be taken home during

weeknights and weekends versus desktops Provide dial-up services at the school or district level for

teachers and administrators so they can access the school’s fileserver(data), their Exchange e-mail, and the Internet from home.

Make them telecommuters. Not only will their skill and confidence go up, but

their productivity as well during and after school hours.

KETS Edtech funds can be used to pay for this.

Expect self training and self improvement

Set expectations for administrators or teachers to spend at least 3-5 minutes trying to figure it out first.

Set expectation that the school or district will provide some PD but not all the PD that person will need that year or forever.

When we ask the question”What would motivate you or make it easier to justify going to technology PD or use it?”

What are the top 2 responses?

If it was part of my certification or recertification

If it was part of our assessment for students

Some Objectives

Student, teacher and administrator technology standards developed with lots of district input

Integrated versus separate Part of teacher and administrator

certifications Part of assessment. Integrated versus

separate

The Help Desk can be a trainer Attention rate is the highest Retention rate is the best(small chunks) Don't just give them the answer, help them

arrive at the answer. Turn each call into mini-training session so they get stronger versus dependent.

However each call costs $50. A person could have gone to a full course

Help desk data can tell you what products you need PD on the most.

Other PD techniques

Leadership needs to ensure it’s occurring versus just encouraging/supporting the concept of PD.

Short “Sneak” Training Make the interfaces and use simpler Student Mouse Patrols assist with training. Increase the number of optimists(conferences like

KETC, e-mail access, Internet access). EDTECH can pay for student’s PD to train

teachers and students training teachers

Stipends to teachers for development of technology-related projects for PD for the classroom

Payment to teachers for preparation of materials for training peers

Payment to MicroComputer Solutions, the KETS contract training provider, for "how-to" basics courses