After school today I saw a tweet discussing technology staff development and clicked the link. It took me to a live blog where technology was being discussed by a group of USA teachers who seem to work for the same district.
The gist of their discussion was about bridging the gap between technicians and teachers. The discussion proved interesting as contributors fed their stories of programmes to entice teachers and techs into online networks, blogs, summer camps, overtime etc. My suggestion was a teachmeet, the unconference lubricated with drinks and nibbles. This seemed to be dismissed as a 'techmeet' and some attendees weren't convinced by the alcohol approach. Obviously this is a new concept to America, or at least to this forum.
I think it is necessary to bridge this gap between technicians and teachers. As a middle man listening to the woes of both sides (but with authority over neither) I think it would be interesting to have them follow the same working agenda - TO KNOW WHAT THE OTHER IS DOING!
Why can't technicians blog about the work they're doing? Or better still use a twitter-like service, yammer for example. It might be helpful to know what technicians are doing through the day, or they could send messaqges when they are repairing some hardware, installing software, fixing this or that or researching something else. In turn it would be good for the technicians to hear about teachers using tech in the classroom; things that go right and, of course, wrong.
Connecting these bodies of personnel might help quite a lot in developing the use of technology in the classroom. I'm sure this idea is riddled with flaws but I like the spirit of it; I feel the potential it has for bringing these disparate workers together.
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