Saturday, October 22, 2011

Professional Development

When implementing technology changes on campus - be it school-wide or individual classroom, upgrade or brand new technology, learner or educator - there exists the challenge of how to train and maintain the technology and teaching skills of the end-user. Training classes can be expensive and can leave beginners behind while alienating more advanced users. Not every instructor is motivated to learn a new technology independently, and not every instructor is prepared to blend the technology with the curriculum. How can institutions implement effective professional development (PD) plans within budget, within an acceptable timeframe, and without being exclusive to any member of the campus?

The Need for Professional Development

Finding time for professional development is not always easy. However, time must be set aside in order for educators to not only improve on skills, but to also learn new skills.
  • "Education must respond to the changing needs of students and their teachers, just as business has reacted to its changing needs by implementing employee training" (Cook, 1997).
Teaching standards, curriculum revamps, new technologies, and student interactions are changing constantly. These changes need to be monitored and action needs to be taken to keep up with these changes.
  • "The reality is that teachers likely will require more than 20 percent of their work time for learning and collaboration if they are to be successful in implementing ambitious reform initiatives" (Cook, 1997).
PD doesn’t just mean "…individual workshops or one-time training sessions" anymore (Critical Issue: Providing Professional Development for Effective Technology Use, 2000). PD has changed to an on-going necessity that educators need to adopt professionally.

Challenges of Professional Development

In any given institution, there are bound to be challenges with respect to implementing or managing professional development. These challenges include:

Institutional culture and support

With dwindling funding and tightened budgets across the country, financial support for a professional development plan can be in short supply. Additionally if a technology is relatively new and has little to no research backing it up - or if the institution has little experience with integrating technology in the classroom - then skeptical administration may be reluctant to implement a full-scale professional development plan.

Time limitations

The primary role of any educator is to teach. With the plethora of administrative meetings, curriculum development, lesson planning and preparation, grading, and tutoring, there is little time for professional development.

Knowledge differentials

Every faculty member is different. Some may be technology beginners - they can type a paper or send an email; some may be more comfortable with using media software such as Photoshop or iMovie; some may be unable to locate the power button if their lives depending on it; some might be perfectly at home re-imaging a machine and installing a new operating system. Each institution is going to have a very diverse set of technological skills - the challenge is how to meet each group’s needs.

Belief systems

You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink. If an educator does not "buy-in" to the idea that technology can be used to enhance learning in the classroom, then all the professional development in the world may not get him or her to take advantage of the technology and actually use it in the classroom. Part of implementing a professional development plan is to have all parties on board, including administration.

Resource constraints

Private technology training or hiring a technology consultant can be very expensive and not always effective. The age and quality of technology may be sub-par. The facilities for full-campus meetings might be exist. Each institution is going to have a subset of resource challenges that will limit what can be done in professional development.

Longevity

Software and hardware can quickly become outdated. What was en vogue one year might be passé the next. Spending a lot of time and money on learning a specific technology - only to have it become obsolete - can impede future attempts and technology integration or professional development. . A solid professional development plan needs to aim for the long term, and transcend specific technology usage or timeframes.

Execution

Many questions can arise with the creation of a professional development plan. What do you teach? Who teaches it? Who do you teach it to? How do you teach it? And most importantly, how do you use it? Just knowing how to create a video or Flash animation is not enough. The true skills lie in being able to truly use the technology to benefit learning in the classroom, which involves much more than just learning about technology.

Scope of Professional Development

Professional development should not focus solely on the technology itself; it should be much more encompassing. Integrated into the topic of discussion should be that of Content, or knowing the subject matter, as well as Pedagogy, which includes not only the methods and practices of teaching, but developing the curriculum, processing the evaluation, and managing the classroom as a whole. Once these three areas - Technology, Content, and Pedagogy - are blended, we get Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPCK) (Mishra & Koehler, 2006).

Assessment

A very important step in developing a professional development plan is to assess the current situation. This includes not only evaluating the current technology usage levels of educators, but also evaluating the current state of technology in the given institution. Computer labs and storage closets should be inventoried, including available software and peripherals. Library subscriptions should be reviewed, including access to electronic media such as video, audio, e-books, or periodical materials. It is important to determine the assets that currently exist before determining what needs to change.

Below are some rubrics that will help measure the current skills and knowledge of an individual for a given technology subject and help determine the technology skills which still remain to be developed:

Setting Goals

Administration should work with educators to determine and establish the goals for professional development. If there is no clear objective, then it can be difficult to determine whether any progress has been achieved. Goals should be created for both the institution and the individual and should cultivate agreement from all parties involved. Multiple time frames should be taken into consideration, with both short-term and long-term goals being developed. A good rule of thumb is to set a 10-year vision, a 5-year vision, a 2-year vision, and a 1-year vision as well as individual milestones along the way. Goals should be established using the SMART criteria, which is to say that goals should be:
  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Attainable
  • Relevant
  • Timely



Professional Development Plan (PDP) Goal Interview: Writing a Quality Goal (video 18 min). This video captures a discussion between a DPI-trained facilitator and an educator as they navigate the PDP Goal Writing Process (Cullen, 2009).

Create the Professional Development Plan

Every institution is unique with unique faculty, unique administrators, unique students, unique objectives, unique resources, and unique constraints. There is no one professional development plan that can meet the needs of all institutions. However, there are several guides available to help select the best method available:

The Seven Dimensions outline how schools can begin to measure their own progress in transforming classrooms into active, stimulating and academically sound learning environments that use technology (Milken Family Foundation, 2000).

Here is a list of PD tools and standards that can assist you with your PD efforts (TDA, 2010).

Make a plan for your Professional Development (PDP) with the Professional Development Plan: Initial Educator Toolkit and the Professional Development Plan: Educator Toolkit (Professional Development Plan, 2009 and Professional Development Plan: Educator Toolkit, 2005).

Ideas for Professional Development

  • Take advantage of existing resources, such as email systems, learning management systems, web space, and various Web 2.0 tools. It is difficult to find someone who knows everything there is to know about every technology tool.
  • Create a regular newsletter (i.e. "Tech Bytes") allowing for open contribution and intended for instructors, administration, and support staff including:
    • Teaching tips
    • Resources
    • Spotlight on an instructor or learning activity
  • Follow the Learning by Design approach. See //Learning by Design// below.
  • Follow the modified IMPACT Model. See //IMPACT Model// below.
  • Focus on a specific technological application or implementation. See //Resources// below.

Learning by Design

Learning by Design gets away from two-hour "how-to" seminars on technology usage. These types of seminars generally follow a one-size-fits-all approach in that they don’t quite meet the needs of the novice user who isn’t yet up to speed, but they also don’t meet the needs of the most advanced user who might be beyond the content. In addition, "how-to" style of workshop may teach someone the steps needed to function within the technology, but they often do not teach an educator how to use the technology in the classroom. These seminars can also be expensive, making them even less effective.

Instead of focusing on the technology, Learning by Design focuses on the curriculum outcome and seeks ways to use the technology to solve the problem. Educators don’t learn the complete ins and outs or every nuance of technology - which is often the definition of "mastery" - but rather they learn what they need to know in order to accomplish a curriculum goal.

Often the educators will discover or invent new uses for technology that go beyond their intended functionality. This process changes the way educators learn "how to learn" about technology and forced administration and educators to think differently about technology usage. In this context, educators become technology designers, not technology users.

IMPACT Model

The IMPACT model was developed by North Carolina Department of Public Instruction as a means for converting a typical K-12 school into one which is technology immersive. The model itself is very heavily focused on professional development and many of its principles can be used to establish an institution-wide professional development plan. The IMPACT Model focuses heavily on collaborative planning and execution of professional development.

There are five stages to the IMPACT Model, including:
  • Building Support
  • Readiness Assessment
  • Setting the Stage for Successful Collaboration
  • Formal Collaboration
  • Beyond the Classroom

1. Building Support

Building Support includes preparing the institution, its members, and the community for the approaching changes to the professional development plan. In this stage a Technology Facilitator is hired or appointed, a technology-driven committee is formed, and the school is educated on the flow and structure of the upcoming program.

The Technology Facilitator’s role is to drive and organize the main technology discussion. This can include speaking at meetings, gathering resources and links in online forums, or arranging guest speakers or webinars for consumption. The Technology Facilitator will collaborate with the subject matter experts and teachers in the classroom to creating meaningful curriculum using a specific technology. Often the Technology Facilitator can provide personal expertise on a subject or technology, as well as assist in teaching the usage of a particular technology, but this isn’t always the case. An instructional technologist is best as the Technology Facilitator but where budget constraints prohibit the hiring of a specific position, the role can be rotated among willing faculty - and not necessarily those who are the more technologically-advanced. Some other suggestions for filling the role include existing information technology support staff, library specialists, or any interested party. The objective is to keep the conversation flowing and not lose sight of the ultimate goals.

The technology committee - IMPACT calls it the Media and Technology Advisory Committee (MTAC) - will help steer the direction of the professional development plan and should include a representative from every key player at the institution. This includes:
  • Representative from each grade, subject, or technology group - the important thing is to make sure the educators are adequately represented
  • Technology Facilitator
  • Library Specialist
  • Administration
  • Student Representative if possible
  • Parents / Community Members if possible

The MTAC should have regular, scheduled meetings, either in person or virtually, and will work together to assess the progress of the plan, work to set or modify new goals, and captain the direction of the professional development.

2. Readiness Assessment

Phase 2 of the modified IMPACT Model is to assess all resources, both physical and knowledge-based, within the institution. See //Assessment// above for more details.

3. Setting the Stage
MTAC will work with all key players to establish institution-wide expectations for

  • Benchmarks / Goals
  • Collaboration
  • Technology Implementation
  • Evaluating Technologies / Usage

The Benchmarks and Goals are an integral part of implementing the professional development plan. All assessments from Phase 2 should be carefully reviewed and a long term strategy developed based upon the results. Some things to consider are determining the minimum expectations for each educator or each technology and establishing tiers for meeting such goals. As an educator reaches a particular tier, an incentive might be tied into the accomplishment. Monetary awards, a new titles, or even something as mundane as a certificate, can go far in supporting morale while also reaching goals. See //Setting Goals// above for more information.

In addition, the MTAC will establish a public calendar of events and meetings so all vested parties are aware of the forums and timeframes that are in place. Any additional resources are to be scheduled as well, including computer labs, meeting facilities, portable hardware and peripherals (such a laptops, tablets, microphones, etc). While these schedules are by no means permanent or inflexible, they demonstrate a longer term commitment than just a few awkward meetings.

Finally, the institution should acquire the technology needed to begin working on the highest priority of goals. This technology does not need to be expensive or cutting edge, but should be chosen because it assists the school work toward meeting an initial goal.

4. Formal Collaboration

Collaboration is the most important aspect of the modified IMPACT model.

It is recommended that educators partner across disciplines and technology levels and together they will work to plan and design instructional activities for use in the active classroom. Using groups of three to four participants, each educator will be a member of at least two teams. The curriculum-based teams may have different technology levels and abilities, but coming from similar grade or discipline levels. The technology-based team may have different grade levels or subject matters but similar technology levels. This will allow subject matter experts to collaborate together on using a different variety of technologies, as well as finding new uses for similar technologies. Achieving numerous perspectives on the same content or technology will improve the overall outcomes for the learners.

external image cartoon1.jpg
By Sidney Harris; Published in The New Yorker 11/7/1988

Collaborative groups facilitate learning through collaboration, promoting mutual respect and trust. They provide support resources for one another and together they can celebrate achievement and provide a safe haven for discussing failures. Collaborative groups can assess both learner and educator outcomes and use those results to redesign classroom activities. Using a "Learning by Design" approach, they can achieve classroom objectives while also learning about the technology and each other. See //Learning by Design// for more information.

The Collaborative groups meet on a regular schedule established in Phase 3, allowing for even distribution of meeting time between the two different styles of groups. Having the meetings run on an alternative level can provide a different perspective to the same current set of curriculum challenges and together the groups will collaborate to achieve similar goals.

If possible, members of all groups (i.e. the institution) will meet together periodically to discuss overall progress and share successes or failures. A typical meeting might follow a similar format whereby a Collaborative group presents a learning activity which was developing using Learning by Design. The Collaborative group will discuss why and how the technology was selected and used in the classroom. A demonstration of the activity will be made and the results from the activity will be shared. The entire group will discuss the results and merits of the discussed application, allowing other groups the benefit of seeing the technology in action.

This type of meeting and division of collaborative groups allows for bite-size demonstrations of technology which prevent technology novices from being overwhelmed, while still allowing advanced users to get snapshots of differing applications.

5. Beyond the Classroom

The final phase of the modified IMPACT model is going beyond the classroom. Integrate social media, personal learning networks, personal and institutional blogs and wikis, and other resources into the plan, sharing your results and triumphs with the world. Partner with other schools, locally within the district or across the planet, and share expertise and knowledge or even technologies. In pooling resources and collaborating with others, institutions can expand their professional development plan and more readily meet professional development goals.

Resources

Education Resource Organizations Directory (EROD) U.S. Department of Education: Promoting Educational Excellence for all Americans - lists education departments by State (Ed.gov, 2011).

ISTE Webinars are the answer for just-in-time professional development! These one-hour presentations are offered by some of Ed Tech's leading voices, on topics of interest to educators around the world (ISTE - Webinars, 2011).

ISTE Casts: The trusted voice of Ed Tech - Audio podcasts produced by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE - Podcasts, 2011).

iPads

Personal Learning Networks (PLNs)



Podcasts


Podcasting is a way to share audio or video files on the Internet. Use Podcasts in learning for:
  • Guided audio tours of your school or classroom - maybe in several languages!
  • Class news reports
  • Language practice - English or others
  • Interviews and oral histories
  • Vocabulary and spelling practice
  • Storytelling and dramatic readings
  • Book reviews and library news
  • Collaborative podcast--many students can record, respond, and contribute to build a podcast
  • Read books aloud for younger readers
(Generation YES, 2006)

Below are podcast feeds that contains frequently updated content from the 'Teacher's Podcast'. When you subscribe to a feed, it is added to the Common Feed List. Updated information from the feed is automatically downloaded to your computer and can be viewed in Internet Explorer and other programs. http://teacherspodcast.org/feed/

The Teachers' Podcast -Dr. Kathy King & Mark Gura

Information Repositories:

Skype

Miscellaneous


References
This is an excerpt from the Techstanding wiki - Chapter 11
Original authors: Heather Crites and Andrea Zweifel
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