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Technology Tips can be used to support professional development in a
number of ways. Here are some ideas for using the various resources.
- Offer several one-hour training sessions, to
give teachers
adequate time to explore existing software features, to plan how to
integrate them, and to share their ideas with colleagues.
- Provide a few hours of substitute time
specifically to release a
teacher to do technology-related preparation, either solo, with another
teacher, or with a mentor.
- Find mentors within your district. Inclusion
specialists or other
special education staff may already have expertise in customizing
curriculum using technology that can be shared with the general
educators.
- Encourage staff to contribute a technology tip at
staff meetings
in order to share strategies that are a good fit with your curriculum.
- Ask in-house and visiting technology staff
developers to address
the needs of diverse learners whenever they provide training at your
site.
- When purchasing new software and curriculum,
look for features ,
such as text-to-speech, color-coding, adjustments for different ability
levels, and graphic options, that can support a mixed ability
classroom.
It’s also important to consider who can make changes to lab or
classroom computers; if new software needs to be added to provide
text-to-speech capabilities, can individual teachers do this or does it
require the support and consent of a lab or technology coordinator?
Encourage the site technicians to attend teacher trainings when
computer settings are involved. Investment in planning appropriate
professional development is needed
for the successful implementation of these tools. Teachers need time to
think about how to integrate technology resources into their classroom
in a way that fully supports instruction.
Next Subtopic: Trainers
& Support
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