The State of Technology in Education Report 2021 recently revealed that just 2% of teachers believe that they are receiving full training and support for edtech – which represents a drop of 5% from the year before. Having explored whether the teacher training deficit is improving, we believe it’s important that edtech suppliers play an active role in helping schools to build competence and confidence among their staff.
One way to begin addressing the teacher training deficit is to carry out an edtech training audit, which will help schools to identify where there are skills or knowledge gaps in relation to technology. In this blog, we’re going to provide a framework for conducting an edtech training audit in your school…
Laying the foundations for better staff training
Conducting an edtech training audit is all about asking the right questions – and making sure everybody has the opportunity to make their voice heard. The aim is to identify the requirements of each department so that you can start thinking about how to address them. So, why not start with these:
– Questions to ask the Senior Management Team (SMT)…
- How could edtech help us achieve our strategic goals over the next year?
- What training is currently in place to help staff use technology in this way?
- If any edtech investments have been made recently, has training been made available for the new technology?
- Do we need to adjust the budget allocated to staff training?
- Are we making training available without adding to teachers’ workloads?
– Questions to ask your IT managers…
- What are your department’s edtech recommendations for the year ahead?
- If those technologies are implemented, what training will staff need to make the most of them?
- Based on the queries and support requests you receive, are there any common issues that could be avoided by making training available?
- Are there any free resources available, including resources provided by our edtech suppliers, that we could use?
– Questions to ask the teachers…
- Which edtech tools do you most like to teach with?
- Are there any edtech tools that you’d like to use, but feel you don’t have the skills or confidence to do so?
- What form of training would you prefer (eg: trainer-led sessions, self-taught using online courses, etc)?
- Is there any specific edtech training you’d like us to look into?
These questions are just a starting point – it’s best to choose those that will be relevant for your school, or even change them slightly to make sure they fit your edtech strategy. Crucially, it’s all about collecting as much information and as many opinions as possible. Once you’ve spoken to each department, you can start identifying the most pressing training priorities and considering how they stack up against your overall strategy and the budget available.
If you’re looking for training and support for Promethean solutions, why not check out Learn Promethean – our freely accessible online platform through which you can find localised guides, tutorials and specific curriculum-related advice that has been designed specifically for Australian educators.
Click here to access Learn Promethean by visiting.