Standard Podcast [4:30m]: Hello, and welcome back to the SBISD EdTech Podcast. Today is Friday, September the 7th, and I’m Kary Boan. In today’s podcast I’d like to take a moment and talk a little about the purpose of this podcast series and explain what we hope to accomplish by publishing it.
This podcast series is created by the Spring Branch Educational Technology Department on a bi-weekly basis. The mission of the Educational Technology Department, or EdTech for short, is to support teachers in effectively integrating technology tools into their curriculum that engage students in the learning process. Our other goal is to provide teachers with quality professional development in regards to designing curriculum and delivering instruction that utilizes technology resources and tools.
We are here to support teachers in respect to technology as it pertains to TEACHING and LEARNING. We are striving to provide a variety of resources for doing just that. These podcasts are just one way to keep you abreast of resources and information on using technology in your classroom with your students.
In making these bi-weekly podcasts, we want to keep them “short and sweet” – about 2 to 5 minutes in length. We want to provide you with ongoing information that you might find useful in your classrooms, for professional development, and even in your own personal technology usage – because until you become PERSONALLY comfortable and proficient with technology, you will probably never feel comfortable enough to use it in your classrooms with your students.
We understand that as teachers, you have different technology backgrounds, strengths and weaknesses. You are not all here at the same “level” nor have you all come here with the same knowledge and experiences when it comes to using technology in your personal and professional lives.
Because of that, we want to provide you with a variety of resources and venues to help you at whatever level you are. Having said that…we are all at a place where we must start taking responsibility for our own technological proficiencies. Its important that you know what your own strengths and weaknesses are. It’s important that you seek out professional development, resources and information that fill in the gaps and holes that you might have.
And is it the EdTech’s goal to provide you with as many different venues and resources as possible that will help you to become more technologically proficient and more knowledgeable about integrating technology into your curriculum, no matter at what level of proficiency you find yourself.
So these podcasts are just one way we strive to provide you with support, information and resources. We also maintain our primary website at edtech.springbranchisd.com. It is there that you can find information from the ACTIVclassroom, to Easy Tech and Atomic Learning…just to name a few.
Along with our main website, the EdTech department maintains a blog, a wiki, numerous discussion boards for schools, a flipchart repository for ACTIVclassroom teachers, and a number of tutorial on demand sites. Look for these web addresses on the blog or main Edtech website.
In the future, we are looking into creating more online learning opportunities, as well as “video-on-demand” tutorials. We will continue to offer face-to-face professional development that will support you in the integration of technology into your curriculum, but we realize that for all of you, your time is limited and your technology competencies are varied. Because of that, we must find a variety of ways to meet your varied needs. This podcast series is just one way we hope to do that. If you have any suggestions or have a topic you’d like us to cover, please feel free to contact us via the “Contact Us” page on our blog.
So until next time, this is Kary Boan signing off for now, thanks for listening.
