Making the Change – Adopting Digital Tools into your Teaching Practice

As teachers we spend our time developing our craft to a point where we feel confident and comfortable standing in front of 25 pairs of eyes staring at us. Our time is spent developing classes, courses and learning activities that engage the students, that drive their learning to new heights and that have them leaving the class with new tools and knowledge that they can carry forth into their lives. Then new teaching practices are presented, new tools that we can and “should” be using and we find ourselves at square one once more. It is this challenge that i see creates the most barriers for teachers moving forward with their practice. Moving out the comfort zone is quite daunting and can hinder our students growth and indeed our professional development as well. This post is designed to float a few ideas that can help those teachers to take the step towards making the change, especially when it comes to Digital tools in modern education.

The first step is to surround yourself with inspiring teachers. I am currently sitting at the ADE2015 conference in Singapore and i find myself surrounded by teachers and educators who are innovative with the way in which they use Digital Technology in their teaching. They are using various tools, websites and approaches to learning that blows my mind. Though this exposure to “innovation” can be daunting at first, with thoughts like “Am I able to do this? Or “Im not in their league” – its is this inspiration that, if we choose as teacher to adopt into our practice, can launch our teaching in new and exciting directions. Its accepting the fact that change is good, and that change can make our teaching lives more enjoyable, easier (in the long term) and it can find our students more engaged in our lessons especially in this active and busy world that we live in today. It allows us to take that first very important step towards embracing the change and reaping the rewards from our endeavours. So firstly don’t be afraid of the unknown, don’t be afraid of stepping out of the comfort zone that you have worked so hard to establish. Though the second “first” step that you’ll take in developing your teaching practice can be the hardest, its work the leap.

The second step that i suggest is don’t be afraid to revisit what you know and seek ways to grow your skills to take your existing ideas in new and exciting directions. As a music educator who uses applications like GarageBand on the Mac and iPad regularly i feel that i am quite a proficient user of this technology so some might say that i would need to look at ways in which i can improve how i use this application, however this is not true. Yesterday i sat in a presentation that saw someone demonstrating how they use GarageBand to create a music score to accompany a video story. Just watching their use of the application and how they approached adding layers, manipulating the sound and producing the audio track really showed me other ways in which processes that i am already familiar with can be improved and enhanced. This really inspired me to adopt some of these new practices and approaches in the ways in which i use GarageBand in my teaching – enhancing my learning activities and hopefully increasing the learning outcomes and learning experiences for my students. My suggestion here is, don’t be afraid to revisit your existing skills, ones that you feel confident in and try to find ways that you can push your teaching practice in new and exciting directions. There will always be someone out there who has more experience or exposure to various tools that you use and as soon as you connect with this fact and understand that they can help you to improve you will find that your practice grows and develops in new and exciting ways you couldn’t even fathom.

In conclusion, don't be afraid of change. Yeah there may be times where you try and you fail, but that is ok. Think about a small child learning to walk. They stand up on their shaky legs, take the important step forward and then fall over and land on their butt. This doesn’t stop them, as they pull themselves up and try again. They repeat this process over and over until they get to the point where they don’t fall over, that the first step is followed by a second and before they know it, they are walking. This simple analogy teaches us all that through our desire to try and our persistence to get it right, especially when we are adopting tools like Digital Technologies into our teaching practice and after a few times where we “fall on our butt”, we will eventually find ourselves at a stage where we are taking our second step forward, and then a third and before we know it our concerns that we had regarding whether or not we had the skills or abilities to change our teaching practice has vanished and we find ourselves on an exciting and rewarding new educational adventure.

Try it. Take the risk. Take that challenging second “first” step…. You won’t regret it.