Title: How Teacher Training Apps Enhances Teacher Performance
1HOW TEACHER TRAINING ENHANCES TEACHER
PERFORMANCE COPING WITH TECHNOLOGY AND APPS
- Teacher Training With a New Focus
- Teacher training, both pre-service and
in-service, has always been a key factor in
ensuring quality education. The sudden
transition to technological platforms during
Covid, however, dramatically changed the focus
of teacher training. In this series of articles,
we look at certain aspects that edtech companies
and school managers should consider when planning
teacher training. - Areas to Be Addressed in Teacher Training
- The transition to online teaching during lockdown
transformed education. Teachers, school managers,
kids, and parents faced a new reality, and a
different set of training needs emerged.
Education providers stepped into the breach to
design online materials, extend access, and
provide teacher training to cope with the new
needs. Even advantaged schools, where educational
apps and smart tools were already in use,
reported that major teacher training initiatives
were required to support teachers. - Post lockdown, the classroom environment is
different. Kids, teachers, parents, and school
management have become more adept at using
technology and have heightened expectations in
terms of content quality and mode of delivery.
Schools have adopted apps, like XSEED Super
Teacher and Universal, and teacher training
aimed at supporting educators to adjust and excel
in the use of these apps and other technology is
a priority. The following broad areas for teacher
training have been identified - Technological skills to deal with smart tools and
teaching apps
2- Classroom and assessment management practices in
smart classrooms - The implications of technology on classroom
methodology - School, student, and parent communication
systems. - This article deals with the first need
identified. - Teacher Training Use of Technology
- Whether teachers used technology in class before
the pandemic or not, teacher training in the
advanced use of technology emerges as the
top-most training need. Teachers specified the
following needs in polls conducted - The use of smart tools such as smartphones,
whiteboards, and tablets - Technology provides instant access to
information. Most kids are comfortable with
technology, but teachers requested specific
training sessions on the optimal use of
smartphones and which settings to use. - Teacher training in the use of specific teaching
apps such as the XSEED Super Teacher app - Generalized teacher training in technology is not
enough. Teaching apps can be tricky to negotiate,
and teachers need to understand the features of
an app to use it to the best effect. The XSEED
Super Teacher app provides detailed lesson plans,
but a well-trained teacher may, for example, want
to spend more time on the keywords given in the
lesson if the class needs additional vocabulary
support. Teachers with adequate training on the
features of an app will be able to use it
confidently and successfully. - Training in the use of school management and
school communication apps such as Universal - A well-designed, user-friendly school management
app is an essential administrative and
communication tool. It offers features such as
automated student attendance records, the
creation of student timetables and schedules,
tracking of student performance, and seamless
communication between students, teachers,
parents, and management. Teacher, parent, and
management training are essential to explore and
optimize the use of the app. - Training in the use of assessment apps such as
the XSEED Test Maker app
3Teachers will agree that setting assessment
questions is a time-consuming task. Training in
the use of an assessmentapp such as the XSEED
Test Maker empowers teachers to compile sets of
practice questions, tests, and exam papers in
much less time. With adequate training, teachers
can draw from thousands of questions to generate
print-ready papers that test a range of content
as well as skills at different cognitive
levels. Self-help and troubleshooting A teacher
who uses smart tools and apps in the classroom
needs technical training to acquire the
confidence to troubleshoot when faced with
challenges, such as poor sound quality or low
Internet bandwidth. Training to address commonly
experienced challenges will boost teacher
confidence and self-reliance. Having emphasized
the necessity of teacher training in the
efficient use of technology, it must be said
that face-to-face classroom teaching and personal
coaching and mentoring of teachers remain vital.
Just as technology-enhanced classrooms can never
run without a good teacher, teacher training
cannot be effective without personal mentoring.
Website https//www.info.xseededucation.com/