In teaching at Middleton High School, I had the opportunity of working with some of the greatest teachers that I have met. It was the first time that I had seen teachers stay in the district for the majority of their teaching career. One individual that I have come to know very well was a science teacher who had over thirty years in education but had a phobia when it came to using computer technology into the classroom. In fact the only thing that he would use the computer for was to check his email and report grades at the end of the semester.
After developing a close relationship with him, I was able to convince him that if he could teach the students about the life cycle of a moth he could insert a video about moths in his power points. He finally decided to try just one and was successful. From this meager start he went through all of his old lectures converted them to PowerPoints complete with videos that he had found on the Internet. The PowerPoint presentations were so good that the other science teachers asked to use them in their classes. Not only did I get the teacher to use PowerPoint, before I left the district he was creating web pages for his courses.
What caused this change in attitude with technology? It was a combination of several things perhaps the most important was trust that we have established and then making him feel comfortable using technology. Being with him and encouraging him when there was a road block also contributed to his success.
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