Christel Homrich, Education Technology Specialist
Christel Homrich is an education technology specialist at Forest Hills Public Schools. With more than 20 years of experience in education, Christel knows the challenges her faculty faces firsthand. She relies on her years of experience teaching students of many different ages to support teachers as they incorporate new technologies in their classroom. Learn more about Christel and how she applies years of teaching experience to her current role below.
What are some of the challenges you face in your current role?
My job is to support teachers and students with their understanding and usage of technology. Currently I am working in a technology department that supports an entire school district. Given the number of teachers and students my department supports, the greatest challenge is to keep up with the ever-changing world of technology and staying on top of how new tools can help our district.
How do you go about getting teachers to use technology and getting them comfortable with it?
Building a trusting relationship with teachers opens the door to tech integration. When we offer support to teachers as they begin their journey with technology, they continue experimenting with new applications and become more willing to test-drive the latest and greatest tools.
A recent project I enjoyed working on was supporting kindergarten teachers, who are hesitant to use technology. I helped them to create a showcase video of their students. The teachers downloaded TechSmith Fuse and went to town making videos of their students. I uploaded their videos into TechSmith Camtasia to create a showcase of kindergarteners at work. The teachers have now embraced technology and have the ‘itch’ to make more videos.
Why are schools interested in putting technology in the hands of students?
Technology is one more tool that can motivate reluctant or shy learners, engage students in an active way, and provide opportunities for innovative and creative children.
I think this is most easily seen when I am working with students to integrate technology in their class projects. For example, a second grade teacher was looking for a way to integrate digital story telling with research her students had compiled. I facilitated the instruction for making a Google Presentation. The 7-year-olds were amazing with their intuitiveness and eagerness to learn how to add images and visually enhance their slides. It was amazing to see their interest in using technology to enhance their project.
If you were to give one tip to educators on how to be successful with video, what would you tell them?
If I had one tip for educators, I would tell them to be prepared. If you are going to make a video for an audience (students or colleagues), treat it like the “final draft” ready for publication. Have an outline or script, be aware of the surroundings, and give it your best shot. It doesn’t have to be perfect and you need to have fun with it. But plan ahead to avoid making the process of creating videos more difficult than it should be.