Make a difference

Saturday, September 20th, 2008 | training, Uncategorized

While promoting the use of technology as a teaching and learning tool in schools, are you making a difference – or are you tied up by administrivia ?

The term administrivia is a combination of two words: adminis(trative) + trivia .

One definition is: the inordinate amount of detail required to administer or manage a network .

In some cases the word has a technical connotation, but often it also refers to the trivial administrative details that are consuming time, hence standing in the way of reaching important organizational objectives.

If you are a facilitator and your job is to help teachers to come to grips with technology, be careful not to be tied up with administrivia – the endless filling in of forms, writing reports, checking logs and other administrative tasks. These tasks may take up so much time that you may lose sight of what you are trying to accomplish.

Use each visit to a school to do at least one thing to move teachers closer to the goal of becoming e-competent. After your engagement:

• Are the teachers better equipped to use technology?
• Do they have a greater understanding of the role of ICT in education?
• Are they empowered in some way to integrate technology inot the curriculum delivery process?

Days and months often pass by without any noticeable improvement in these areas.

Could it be that administrivia are standing in your way to make a difference?

Tags: educators, facilitators, training

1 Comment to Make a difference

Albie 85 + 15 = 100
Saturday, 20 September, 2008

Albie + Admin = 1/2 Facilitator

Kobus stated that …”If you are a facilitator and your job is to help teachers to come to grips with technology, be careful not to be tied up with administrivia – the endless filling in of forms, writing reports, checking logs and other administrative tasks. These tasks may take up so much time that you may lose sight of what you are trying to accomplish”. FACT.

Here I am going to make a long ONE sentence statement – YES. Admin = paperwork + reportback + feedback documents + term planner + deliverables + e-mails + checking logs + files + folders + and and and … these seemlingly endless A4 PAPERWORK and the electronic version on a laptop, consumes the other 1/2 of my time as a facilitator to get ICT deliverables in place …. if a facilitator can focus his time frames to be 85% on facilitating and only 15% of the time on the completion of documents, successful ICT deliverables to educators will be the end result where they (the educators) will become in a very short space of time competend in ICT SKILLS in their schools.

I have notice that in my IAWB training, I spend almost 90% of the time on physical, practical, hands-on training and the other 10% just to complete a short report. In this regard I must admit that I believe I am reaching important Khanya organizational objectives – to use the technology (IAWB) to deliver the curriculum IN TIME. FACT.