1. There are only 18 computers in the Teacher Center Computer Lab (and we prefer to use one to present so that participants see on the SB pretty much the same thing as they have on their own computer screens).
2. SMART Board training is pretty intense. More than about 12 participants makes it difficult to effectively work through the content and meet the varying needs of the trainees - even with two trainers!
Our first challenge was that that our SMART Board was not orienting properly. Manami spent over an hour on the phone with the folks at SMART Tech on Thursday to no avail. They were not sure why our SB was about an inch off, so we were left to deal with it. Then, with 19 participants, there were not enough computers in the lab for all those who joined us. On top of that, not all of the computers we had were working properly in SMART Notebook. The toolbar was disappearing on them and we couldn't figure out why!!??!! Frustrating for teachers and students to say the least!
We had asked (via email) that our participants create a gmail account and email us so that we could avoid taking up the first half hour of class sharing the Google Doc. A little over half the class received the email and/or followed the directions, so while we helped some create and send a gmail, the others waited patiently for us to begin the training. This is definitely something we need to rethink. Is it worth the time we use to make the Google Doc happen? Or would it be more effective to just print it out for those who didn't sign up and keep moving?
Having not offered one of these Saturday training sessions before, we weren't quite sure how to approach the training - in all honesty, we didn't put too much time into thinking about it. We planned to use the first day of our usual three day training. This was not such a great idea. There is too much content and very little actual application in the first 3 hours. We both agreed at the end of the session that we need to work on chunking it a bit more so that participants learn for about 2 hours, and then have an hour to work on something that they can use when they get back to their classrooms. The way we have it set up, we all left on information overload without getting to the point of creating something that could be used next week to gel what was learned. The feedback we received was all positive - much more positive than our own feelings our planning and performance.
Technology is never EASY that is for sure. There are always parts that don't quite work the way they are supposed to work. Things can stop working in the middle of something. Flexibilty is KEY! What now? 1. We need to get the SMART Board fixed. The alignment issue must be addressed. 2. We need to solve the toolbar problem. Or at least figure out how to make it reappear when it disappears. 3. We need to rework our training and address the issues we discovered (and mentioned above). We can and will do better. Whether or not we will offer another Saturday session is yet to be seen. But it is more and more evident that our staff needs this training, and we will do our best to make the trainings we do offer both effective and useful!
