A teacher approaches you and asks you if you can help him to start up a podcast for his class (something like Radio WilloWeb). How do you respond to the teacher? What is your role? What are the reasons behind how you choose to respond to this teacher?
I would respond excitedly. Excitedly because I know this means that at least one teacher is interested in new-age technology. Unfortunately, new technology and new ways of doing things are often resisted at my school.
To help this teacher, I would first do my “homework” and brush up on my understanding of podcasting; including what (free) software is needed or available and compatible with the type of computers we have; the equipment needed; and how to begin the start-up of a podcast.
My next step would be to share what I have learned with the teacher and actually sit down with him or her and create a podcast. We always stress that students learn best when they are "doing" so this is why I would take this route.
I would make sure that the teacher left with a comfortable understanding with how to get started and a tip sheet that detailed the steps taken to complete the project.
Hopefully this would start a chain reaction and other teachers would become interested as well. "Our" next step would be to conduct an in-service for all teachers intereseted in sharing this unique tool with their students.
Being an effective media specialist is all in the relationships you build with the rest of the faculty.
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3 comments:
You are very right that being an effective media specialist means being able to create and keep relationships with the faculty. The media specialist is expected to deal with all staff and encourage everyone to not only visit the media center but to find guidance and support there as well. It is exciting when find someone that is interested in taking on new technology. This can be very daunting to many teachers. I think that by creating a positive experience with the teacher will encourage others to follow along.
I couldn't agree more. Doing the homework and providing a tip sheet is a huge step that can save a lot of trouble down the road. This is a great tip that should be used in just about everything that we do when it comes to new technologies.
Free software is a definite plus. The equipment is another problem indeed. I particular I would think that most places have headsets but don't have microphones. I like the idea of a tip sheet. You may even think about doing a tutorial like Kimberly did for us. Paul
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