Technology in PD: Plan, Don't Ban

I just finished participating in a two day workshop on mentoring teachers in differentiated instruction put on by a professional development team in a very large Florida school district. The workshop was kicked off by having the collaborative norms read to us as has become the standard practice while attending such things. The facilitator paid particular attention the "responsible use of technology" and made it clear that they would prefer we not use the iPads and smart phones sitting in front of just about everybody.

As the workshop went on, the facilitators called everybody's attention to the last "norm" on their poster several times as people used iPads to snap pictures of the posters we created or sneak a look at their emails. My colleagues and I found this to be a bit demeaning.

The presenters could have planned to integrate technology to make their workshop more interactive. Resources to backchannel, collaborate, and network have been in common use at conferences for years now. The content of the workshop itself was mostly good but the presentation became a bit tedious and it reminded me of the schoolmarm types who are still complaining about kids having phones in their classes.

If you are still fighting it, you haven't figured out how to use it.