OTAN News

How to Gain Staff Support for New Classroom Initiatives

Have you tried to implement a new technology initiative at your school, to little or no avail? In addition to the nuts and bolts of the project itself, the right approach can help ensure the success of efforts to integrate more technology into instruction. Here are some things to consider in addition to the hardware and software:

• In Pitching a New Teaching Approach, Language Matters
  
  Why are we working on a new project? There are a number of stakeholders when it comes to a project involving teaching and technology: faculty members, IT staff members, administrators, and students. Each needs to understand the goals and potential benefits of the project in a language they can understand and that motivates them to see the project through.
  
  
• Recognize Faculty Efforts to Learn and Adapt
  
  As the project unfolds, it’s especially important to recognize the hard work that project participants have done and milestones achieved. It shows that people are paying attention and acknowledging that important changes are taking place in the use of technology and its effect in the classroom. Change can be uncomfortable and difficult; recognize that people are changing the way they do things to move their instruction forward.
  
  
• Understand the Risks at Stake from Faculty Perspective
  
  Faculty want to avoid failure in the classroom. Technology projects have the potential to generate a lot of failure before ultimate success. It is important to consider this reluctance to embrace a technology project as a fear of failure or experiences with failure in previous undertaking. Again, highlighting the potential benefits of a technology project can assuage some of this fear.

Source: EdTech