Tip:
To me, "just in time" means that the training and support is there just as the teacher needs it before implementing a lesson dealing with that particular technology. This is so much better than a summer workshop on PowerPoint where the teacher may not use it until later in the school year when students need to give a speech using it.
In our district, we have 13 elementary schools and five (5) full time, certified Curriculum Technology Partners (CTPs). None of them has more than three schools to support.
They don't do tech support. They do curriculum support, with prior planning with the classroom teacher, and then they "partner" the integration of the technology into the teaching. Teachers don't leave; they work in a collaborative teaching environment. This is as much a staff development model as it is a curriculum integration model.
In most cases they meet two weeks before a unit in presented to plan what they will do to integrate technology into the lesson. Then they work the skills needed to implement the lesson into the plan. Instead of teaching everything there is to know about the software (AppleWorks, PowerPoint, HyperStudio, etc.), they cover only what teachers need to complete the lesson.
Submitted by:Craig Nansen
Technology Coordinator, Minot Public Schools
Minot, ND
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