An Interview with Elizabeth Thomas

A common challenge in teaching involves surrendering the need to control the process as tightly as we might initially desire. Thomas describes how intimidating it can be when teachers feel that they are not in control. Finding ways to support educators in this transition to a new way of thinking about our role as teachers is essential.

In this interview, Thomas discusses the importance of having many options to support people through these kinds of changes. Naming the fact that things are not always going to go how we anticipated is a healthy part of this process. We can then encourage educators to take risks and know that these kinds of transitions are best navigated with an iterative mindset.

Let’s hear about your story and your own education.

This is my fourteenth year in education. I started out as an eighth-grade math and science teacher and was also the athletic director for a bit. My passion is teaching!

Early in my career, we piloted iPads and I fell in love with technology in the classroom. The learning capabilities that the students had right in front of them and how they transformed my classroom were amazing!

After that year with the iPads, I took on a new position as an educational technology coach where I worked with teachers and students trying to learn new technologies.

This changed the role of teachers, as we didn’t have to present as much content knowledge as in the past. The content was now at the fingertips of the students. Our role was to question and guide students, to help them find solutions, and to encourage them to seek more knowledge.

I really fell in love with how technology transformed teaching and learning!

Shortly thereafter, I became Director of Educational Technology and that is where I am at today. I am also a facilitator of our fifth to eighth-grade creativity lab. It opened up this year and serves as a creativity lab where students engage in different projects.

You spoke about being a facilitator of knowledge. What are some tools that you utilize to do this?

I really like Google apps for education, as students are able to collaborate on a Word document, share content through Google slides, and present collaboratively. Google Classroom is a great way for teachers to make announcements and also have students submit assignments. Google apps for education has been transformational with incorporating technology in the classrooms.

Another tool we leverage is We Video, which provides students a way to share their knowledge of learning in creative ways. These kinds of educational technologies really help students integrate and apply their knowledge in powerful ways.

Do you have a strategy or secret to help with time management? Teachers often cite that as a roadblock to technology integration.

There is a lot of technology out there and it can be very overwhelming. It is important for teachers to understand that they do not need to know all of the technology that exists. It is essential to look at using technology for a purpose.

Start with the question, “What is the purpose?” Then ask, “Why do I think technology may be the best tool?” “What am I looking for?” “What do I want to accomplish?”

Rather than trying all the different technologies, I think having a purpose for technology really helps as far as narrowing down the different possibilities. If you identify a purpose, you can match the technology that will accelerate your reaching the goal.

Students typically pick up technology pretty easily. Therefore, giving them options for how to demonstrate their knowledge alleviates the stress on teachers for having to know how to use every available technology.

Students can also be teachers of technology. Teachers do not have to know everything that is out there. Rather, we should focus on giving students different choices to pursue and demonstrate their learning.

I find that having a network of people is helpful in researching and learning about new educational technology. Being able to ask teachers, “What do you use?” “What works well in your classroom?” is wonderful. We can explore, even on social media, and find different groups that love sharing about different technologies and strategies to support learning.

There are various Facebook groups for teachers to belong to. For example, I am in a group called ‘HyperDocs.’ It is a group of teachers who engage with the learning and forward movement of using technology for education. Teachers create projects with different topics or focus areas and then share them with other teachers.

Teachers have the ability to recreate the ideas to suit their own needs in the classroom. I find just reaching out to other educators is priceless. There are a lot of great tools that teachers share and wonderful content that has already been created. Connecting with other teachers and asking for help is valuable and can save a lot of time.

What other avenues are useful in establishing a personal learning network (PLN)?

I recommend participating in Twitter chats. These are conversations that take place on Twitter at designated times. Locate what people are saying by searching for a hashtag, identified by a pound sign.

A few Twitter chats that I have found especially helpful are:

• #CatholicEdChat
• #iplearns
• #gafe
• #edtechchat

The social media part of teaching and learning is really about exploring, connecting, and sharing. There are a lot of networks out there.

The hardest part is being vulnerable within a social network community and asking for help or advice. As soon as you seek or ask, there are hundreds of people who are there to support you.

I also recommend the following websites as essential for leaders in education:

• Edutopia
• Mindshift KQED
• TED Talks in Education
• Common Sense Media

[Editor’s note: Beth shares other resources on the book’s companion website.]

How did the culture of your classroom change, once technology was introduced as an instructional tool?

What was really neat was the interest that students took in their own learning. The technology made it so they had ownership in their learning.

It wasn’t the teacher talking to the class and sharing knowledge, but rather the teacher asking questions and students going out in search of the answers.

Having the ability to change a lesson on the fly was another big change. Before technology, I used a lot of paper, handouts, and things like that to present content and knowledge, and also to get feedback on whether or not students were understanding the information.

The other thing that I found very valuable was the ability to provide instant feedback.

Now students share their knowledge or answer questions through technology, and the teacher gets to know right away whether or not students have grasped a concept. The struggles in their learning are far more evident. We can give them much more effective interventions when we have this improved view of what gaps exist in their knowledge and skills.

Something that I found very valuable, too, is incorporating exit tickets or reflection questions with technology so that I can hear from every single student. I really like this, as it allows every student to state their learning and share their thoughts or opinions.

Technology really connected me to the students, so I was able to understand where they were with the whole learning process.

What is a lesson you have learned through working with educational technology?

I have learned so much working with technology, namely being patient. There have been times in the past when I was learning how to use new technology in the classroom and would spend hours putting together an interactive presentation, only to miss the target outcome.

We had, for example, put together a review game where students came up to the board and clicked on a basketball. A question popped up and then students had to actually move the basketball player and click on something to make a basket. I spent hours working on it, but after three or four questions I saw the look on my students’ faces. They were bored with it! I think this was likely because only one or two students could go up to the board and engage at a time.

I realized quickly that as much as I love technology and like trying to make things fun, I really need to engage more students in the activities I plan. The experience also made me realize that sometimes it’s okay to adjust in the middle of an activity or lesson if you see that it’s not working.

Do you need to balance instructional modes so that you don’t use technology all the time?

I like your use of the word balance. There is an important balance with technology, especially in conjunction with writing and having conversations. I have the creativity labs this year, where there is one computer for every two students and they have to work on projects together. Part of what they are tasked with is using technology, as well as building things.

That is what I love! Having one computer between two students, because they actually have to have a conversation and talk. I love the collaboration that happens. Sometimes they lose that, getting focused on their own computer and what they are doing on their own.

I try to ensure that there is a balance between technology and students working in groups, having conversations, reading books, and writing papers.

How should we think about supporting our teachers in their learning?

As far as technology in education: it is important for educators to be confident that they have the support they need. Whether that is through grade levels working together and being able to ask questions about technology or reaching out to other schools, teachers need to know we are here for them.

Also, teachers need strategic and ongoing professional development. There are teachers who are using technology, and if there are others they can go to at school, it is super helpful to guide and support their growth and technology use!

Teaching in the past was a lot about control of the classroom and having things go a certain way. When teachers feel they are not in control, it can become very scary.

Finding ways to support teachers and grow their knowledge of educational technology, whether it is taking technology classes as personal professional development or developing within a professional learning community, is critical.

It is really about having options for support, knowing that it is okay to take risks, and acknowledging that sometimes things won’t go as planned. Most importantly, we need to always keep student learning in mind as we explore ways of integrating technology into our pedagogy.