For many administrators, the key to successful implementation is knowing how to maximize the technological skill of their teachers. In this article, educator and computer guru Ted Nellen offers suggestions on how to quickly and accurately assess staff skills and determine staff development needs. In the field of education, we gather lots of data and spend a great deal of time assessing. We often spend too little time actually doing. The use of technology in the classroom has a long history.
Many people see the use of the Internet in the classroom as the great democratizer.
The Internet provides students with access to primary, secondary, and tertiary resources that are generally unavailable in school libraries, public and private libraries, and even in bookstores. For those reasons, the need to implement computer technology in the classroom successfully, efficiently, and quickly has become a priority for school administrators. One of the most pressing concerns for administrators is determining the technological readiness and needs of their teachers, assessing what the staff already knows, and preparing people to use technology more effectively. The traditional method of evaluating technology needs has been to create an assessment tool that determines the technology skill levels of the teachers and then to somehow determine what skills those teachers still need. Many tools for Assessing Staff for Technology are available.