It seems, however, that banning a technology tool only serves to take care of the surface issues while avoiding the root causes of staff apathy during trainings. After all, walk into a non-tech staff meeting and you'll see teachers grading papers, passing notes, doodling or, most often, playing Buzzword Bingo.
Why do teachers prefer Facebook or note-passing? Could it be that they thrive on social interaction? Why do teachers rewrite their Fantasy Football drafts or sketch random pictures? Could it be that they want to be creative? Perhaps we should look at all of the "off task" behaviors that occur during professional development meetings and ask why they appeal to our deeper human needs.
What if we designed trainings so that they were social, creative and relevant? If we kept the notion of motivation in mind, PD designers would not have to spend time worrying about teachers being off-task. Fantasy Football doesn't seem quite so appealing when we're creating a curriculum together. Similarly, note-passing feels irrelevant when we're delving deeper into the questions of what it means to lead a classroom.
Moreover, what if we redesigned professional development to incorporate these tools instead of banning them? What if we asked students to create podcasts and videos, access online tutorials, join discussions on a social network or participate in a school-based Twitter chat?
