Reverse Psychology for Tech Integration

     Every time I talk to certain teachers about using technology the response I usually get is "I'm not good with computers" or "I'm not tech savvy."  It is very frustrating to me, because when I hear them say that I hear "I don't really care to try."  When I first started using computers, I wasn't very tech savvy either.  Anyone who is just starting out isn't going to be very tech savvy, but we have to start somewhere.  Getting teachers to use technology is always an issue that comes up in school and there haven't been a lot of answers to how to change that.  I have an idea that I am going to try out and see how it goes.  It may be a complete failure or it could a huge success, but I won't know until I try it out!
     Instead of fighting with teachers about using technology, I'm going to go about it a little backwards!  I am going to start pulling students and teaching them how to use different technology.  I know it will be easy to get the students interested in using technology, because most of them already use these things at home.  Once I get the students excited about educational technology and they are able to use the technology that I have showed them, I will have them introduce it to their teachers.  If the students start showing the teachers how well they can use the technology and what it is doing for them, I am hoping that it will kind of force the teacher to start using the technology.  It is going to take some time to introduce this plan and get it to truly work, but any way that I can change the way teachers think about using technology is going to help!  

Student introducing ideas to teacher

Action Plan
1. Start with a small group of students that I know are willing to start learning how to use different technology in the classroom.  
2. Have a time set out for me to work with those students and start showing them how to use different classroom tech. 
3. Decide what technology is the best to start showing them first.
     A.  iPad apps
     B.  Google Drive
     C.  Youtube/teachertube
     D.  etc
4. Meet with the students at scheduled time and work on one piece of technology with them (this could be an intervention time but just using technology so you are showing how the students are actually learning through technology)
5. After the students have shown they are gaining confidence in using the technology set up your time to integrate it into their classroom
6.  This could be the tricky part.  I have not decided exactly how, but I have a few different ideas.
      A. Have students show their teacher how they are using the technology to learn during class
      B. Go and show the teacher myself
      C. Create a video of what the students have been working on and show how they improved their scores
      D. Bring that small group into the class and have the teacher watch one of my lessons with them
7.  No matter how it is introduced to the teacher, the students will need to be the ones teaching the teacher how to use the technology to start with.  I think that will help the teacher be more apt to listen to what is being said about the technology.  If the teacher has heard it from me or other teachers hundreds of times, one more time from me isn't going to change their mind.  I believe the students will be able to get it across to the teacher that they can truly learn with the technology and not just play.
8.  Once the students have introduced the technology and the teacher has at least used technology a couple of times, then will be the time for me or another teacher to come in and give some tips and pointers on how to use the technology.

The key will be to only try to integrate one thing at a time.  The teachers that I will be trying this with are the teachers who already do not want to use technology, so it will have to be a slow process.  One teacher has described to me how she feels about technology and I think the picture to the right about sums it up!  When people think about all of the new technology they can get overwhelmed very easily.  That is why it has to be a slow process integrating it into any classroom.  Even a teacher who is very excited about integrating technology cannot just jump right into a completely Flipped Classroom and survive.  It takes a lot of time and effort to integrate all the different resources into your classroom.  

 I am sure this is not a brand new idea that no one has ever thought of, but it is what I am going to try out and see how it works.  Once I have tried it with one teacher or one classroom, I will evaluate how it worked and see if it can be used for other teachers and other classrooms.  Each classroom setting will be different, but it should give me a good idea of how it will work.