Why closing the teacher training gap is key to embracing tech in the classroom

Today’s educators are facing a rapidly changing world. Both inside and outside the classroom, technology is helping to streamline and automate clunky, manual tasks. 

With the right tools, teachers can save hours in class prep each week and empower students with tailored resources and personalised content to support their learning goals. 

But there’s one crucial challenge to adopting technology in schools: teacher training. In the conversations we’ve been having with Australian educators (as part of our inaugural Tech in Schools report), just 29% of teachers believe their school provides adequate training and support for edtech tools. But schools shouldn’t be expected to navigate these challenges alone. 

There is a unique opportunity for schools and educators to join forces with tech providers to combat these knowledge gaps and help teachers effectively harness technology in the classroom. 

The benefits of technology in the classroom 

Imagine adapting a lesson plan for a student with special needs in seconds, not hours. Or producing a rubric for assessing students’ presentations just by entering a simple, text-based prompt in an AI tool like ChatGPT. 

Technology is here to help educators spend more time delivering exceptional classroom experiences and less time navigating time-intensive planning and admin. In fact, 74% of the educators we spoke with believe that technology enhances the learning experience for students. 

For teachers, technology enables efficiency. It significantly reduces the time and effort involved in creating bespoke resources, delivering feedback and planning upcoming lessons for learners across a range of different abilities. 

For students, technology enables better learning outcomes. From workshopping tricky problems on virtual whiteboards to watching concise summary videos that consolidate new knowledge, edtech offers dynamic ways for students to stay engaged during even the most content-heavy lessons. It’s not surprising that 58% of educators said students are more engaged when technology is integrated into lessons.

Why it’s worth investing in teacher training in edtech 

The benefits of edtech are clear. So, what’s holding educators back?

In our research, we found that training and support are named as the second biggest barrier (30%) to implementing technology in schools. But, 81% of teachers are open to bringing technology into the classroom—as long as the right support is in place. 

While prioritising teacher training will require time and an open mindset, schools stand to gain a big return on investment, including:

• Helping educators spend time where it really matters, rather than getting bogged down in time-intensive tasks that can make it difficult to achieve meaningful work-life balance.
  
  
• Boosting student engagement by scoring custom learning resources and revision tools that make it easy to differentiate instructions and improve learner outcomes.
  
  
• Fostering an innovative, forward-thinking workplace where teachers are supported to build new skills and continually sharpen their professional toolkit.

How schools and tech providers can set teachers up for success

You wouldn’t test your students on a new concept before delivering a lesson on it, so it’s important to give your teachers the same opportunity to learn how a new tool works before asking them to introduce it into their classrooms. 

Getting teacher training right isn’t a job that falls squarely on the shoulders of schools. Instead, it should be a collaborative effort between teachers, school leaders, and tech providers, helping everyone get the most out of the tools they’re investing in. 

The best tech providers will make onboarding a key step in their process, helping teachers across all experience levels and departments get up to speed on a platform’s features and functionality. 

Want to give your educators the best chance of successfully adopting edtech? Here are four practical places to start: 

• Keep things simple: Reduce the cognitive load for your staff and students by only using one learning management system in your school. This ensures consistency and prevents overwhelm, ensuring all online learning happens in one place (with only one set of login credentials to remember).
  
  
• Allocate time and budget specifically to training: Investing in onboarding and ongoing training for your teachers and learners is essential to success. Start with an initial kick-off session to ensure everyone has an in-depth understanding of how the tool works, followed up by annual refresher sessions tailored to new features and platform updates.
  
  
• Encourage internal knowledge sharing: Create open channels of communication across your departments, giving teachers an opportunity to share real-world examples and success stories of how they’re using tech in their classrooms.

• Make the tech work for your school: Remember no two classrooms or teachers are the same. Embrace this difference in teaching and learning styles by giving your staff opportunities to brainstorm ways to use tech in a range of scenarios based on the specific needs and goals of their students. 

Take this example: Caloundra City Private School in Queensland (CCPS) worked with Atomi to build a personalised onboarding program to ensure the smooth, school-wide adoption of the platform. By delivering targeted staff training sessions, educators were empowered to confidently harness Atomi’s content and features. Plus, students attended training sessions catered to their age group, and likely use of the platform - and the results speak for themselves. 

Since implementing Atomi at the start of Term 3 our students have answered over 82,600 questions, completed over 8,160 lessons and engaged with the platform for over 970 total hours. The most impressive part of this data is that it is consistent across all subjects and year levels.
- Richard Doreian, Head of Learning Pathways at CCPS

Tech in schools report: 2024 insights and predictions 

Our inaugural Tech in Schools report deep dives into how teachers are responding to the rise of technology in the classroom, offering a snapshot of the challenges and opportunities edtech presents and what the future holds for schools, teachers and students. It also includes case studies, tips, and templates that you can download and embed into your teaching instruction with ease.

‍Want to score engaging curriculum-specific content, continuous assessment tools and powerful intelligence to drive real student outcomes? Try Atomi for free 

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