Top Tips - March 07

Using technology in the classroom, by Ewan McIntosh

Ewan McIntosh is New Technologies Research Practitioner for Learning and Teaching Scotland, working with teachers and students in East Lothian to find improved ways to use technology in the classroom.

1. Find out what's already there

There's no point getting upset if your new school doesn't have an interactive whiteboard and voting system in every classroom, even if you did prepare the entire course for those resources in your last placement. See what's out there in the department already equipment-wise and use it first.

2. Ask your colleagues for help

New teachers are often taken as those who will have the most up-to-date knowledge of ICT. In some cases this might actually be true, but in most cases the experiences of your new school colleagues will be just as good. Asking them for help with a technology you are less familiar with lets you learn something new and shows them you are not a threatening cyborg.

3. Offer your colleagues some training

If you know how to do something differently from your colleagues, offer everyone in the school who is interested a small training session. It might be after school or in a lunch break. Even if they can't make it the first time around the offer will be appreciated.

4. Don't become the ICT technician

First and foremost, you are a teacher with your own classes and responsibilities. While helping a colleague out by showing him or her how to plug in their printer is helpful, doing their ICT chores for them doesn't help them and uses up your valuable time. Show them how, but don't do it for them.

5. Vary the medium

It's easy to get locked into one technology when you've learned how to use it. Make an effort each term to learn just one new thing to add to your toolkit.

6.Don't rely on old technology

Don't feel you have to start out your ICT use by making a PowerPoint for every unit of work you will ever need to cover. It's a mistake to think some of the 'old technologies' are easier to use effectively than some of the 'new technologies'.

7. Don't hesitate to try out something new

Learning and Teaching Scotland's websites cover a lot of new ground in ICT. Why not try making a podcast of their classroom experiences instead of having pupils write a learning log? You don't have to be an expert in every technology either, but if you know its potential you can guide your students' efforts in the right direction and leave working out the nuts and bolts of the technology to them.

8. Ask for equipment

It might seem hard to ask for equipment, but if you really want/need a piece of kit, put your case together and ask the Principal Teacher. If there's no joy there, ask your PT if you can try to negotiate something with the ICT Co-ordinator in the school. I asked mine for a projector every other day in my first six weeks in school. By October I had one.

9. Don't be a geeky teacher

Kids might like your new way of approaching things but, if the learning inside is less demanding than what they were doing before, they will get bored and rebel. Before you start preparing something on a piece of technology, ask yourself: could this be done just as well without it? If the answer is yes, drop the technology. It'll maybe save you some time.

10. Your greatest source of inspiration is in front of you

The kids in front of you will sometimes have some wonderfully creative ideas for how they might tackle a topic. Use them for ideas before you start a topic in earnest; go away and learn what might work practically and then guide them in its use.