5.2 Professional Learning
Candidates develop and implement technology-based professional learning that aligns to state and national professional learning standards, integrates technology to support face-to-face and online components, models principles of adult learning, and promotes best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. (PSC 5.2/ISTE 4b)
Artifact: Technology Workshop
Reflection:
The Technology Workshop was a requirement for ITEC 7460 Professional Learning and Technology Innovation, but it also coincided with technology training my school had asked me to conduct. For this assignment, I led a professional learning workshop on POINT, my county’s grading management system. POINT is a $5+ million dollar investment in my county to aid in data collection and analysis, but very little professional learning was conducted when the program was first introduced. The goal of the workshop was to respond to teachers’ requests for simple-to-follow instructions on how to use POINT for the same types of tasks for which they had previously been using Scantrons, such as item-level analysis. All of the workshop materials were compiled onto a Weebly website for teachers to use at a later date. It should be noted, that several of the screencasts linked on the website are no longer publicly available. Although the screencasts were used in the training session, they cannot be made public on the Internet because they contain student names and information. I was not granted a sandbox to conduct this technology workshop so I had to use my own student data to demonstrate many of the POINT functions. The videos are still available privately and can be unlocked for individual teachers to use at my school. Additionally, most of the tasks demonstrated in screencasts also have step-by-step instructions available in pdf format, on which all student names have been hidden.
The technology workshop encompasses many necessary standards for conducting professional learning. To begin, through this workshop I demonstrated the ability to develop and implement technology-based professional learning. After conducting a needs assessment, I created content that directly addressed the identified needs of teachers. I personally created all of the materials, including a workshop agenda, step-by-step handouts, and screencasts, to supplement my own content delivery during the workshop. I also included a post-workshop evaluation survey that helped me to make adjustments to future presentations. The technology workshop was also aligned to state and national professional learning standards. Standard 2 of the NETS-T standards relates to a teacher’s ability to use technology to customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning needs and to provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments which result in data to inform teaching and learning. Learning how to use the data analysis features in POINT will allow teachers to accomplish these goals since teachers will be able to more quickly analyze their formative and summative assessments, and then design differentiated lessons and group students based on the varied needs identified. Many grouping features are even available in POINT. Similarly, TKES (Teacher Keys Evaluation System for Georgia) Standards 2 and 6 suggests that students use resources to address differentiated needs of all students and systematically gather, analyze, and use relevant data to measure student progress and inform instruction.
The technology workshop also demonstrated my ability to integrate technology to support face-to-face and online components. The POINT workshop was delivered face-to-face in order to answer teacher questions as they arose and to facilitate hands-on learning, but the workshop website can be accessed by teachers after the training or by those who didn’t attend the training to better understand many of the functions of POINT. The online component contains screencasts demonstrating the skills discussed in the workshop; these screencasts were created using the online tool Screencast-o-matic. Similarly, within the face-to-face session, I used a Google Form/online survey to quickly collect feedback on the workshop so that I could address learner needs as necessary.
Finally, the workshop was centered on principles of adult learning and promoted best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. The needs assessment allowed learners to note the types of tasks they would like to accomplish and these tasks comprised the workshop agenda. Teachers’ professional knowledge was acknowledged by having teachers suggest possible ways to use POINT in the classroom, and their time was respected by beginning and ending the workshop at the stated times. The attendees were able to ask questions throughout, and because the workshop was promoted as “for beginners,” advanced POINT users chose not to attend. Because all users were on the same learning level, questions were relevant to all learners and no one became frustrated because of technology unfamiliarity. Attendees were explicitly told how the workshop objectives related to NETS-T and TKES standards so that they understood not only the relevance, but also the importance of the training. Teacher feedback was solicited through the evaluation survey and opportunities for one-to-one follow up were offered.
Altogether, I learned so much about preparing an extensive professional learning workshop through this process, from allowing the learners to establish the agenda to creating handouts and learning aids that could be accessed face-to-face and after instruction. The one thing I would love to change about the workshop, and a change I will try to make during the next school year, is to use an online sandbox with anonymous student data for creating screencasts. Doing so will allow my videos to be public on YouTube, which expands teachers’ accessibility to the online learning. I would also like to schedule specific times for follow-up with each attendee to address any new questions that arose after they implemented the POINT data analysis in their classroom as well as offer additional sessions demonstrating more advanced tasks using POINT.
The POINT workshop should have many positive results, including improved faculty development and improved student learning outcomes. After attending the training, teachers knew how to use technology tools to simplify tasks that would otherwise be arduous (such as data analysis); they could quickly conduct analysis at the classroom or school level, as well as disaggregate data for differences in ethnic groups or look at specific items on which students struggled. Being able to use data in this way allows teachers to adjust instruction to meet student-learning needs and have proof that students do or do not meet certain learning standards.
The Technology Workshop was a requirement for ITEC 7460 Professional Learning and Technology Innovation, but it also coincided with technology training my school had asked me to conduct. For this assignment, I led a professional learning workshop on POINT, my county’s grading management system. POINT is a $5+ million dollar investment in my county to aid in data collection and analysis, but very little professional learning was conducted when the program was first introduced. The goal of the workshop was to respond to teachers’ requests for simple-to-follow instructions on how to use POINT for the same types of tasks for which they had previously been using Scantrons, such as item-level analysis. All of the workshop materials were compiled onto a Weebly website for teachers to use at a later date. It should be noted, that several of the screencasts linked on the website are no longer publicly available. Although the screencasts were used in the training session, they cannot be made public on the Internet because they contain student names and information. I was not granted a sandbox to conduct this technology workshop so I had to use my own student data to demonstrate many of the POINT functions. The videos are still available privately and can be unlocked for individual teachers to use at my school. Additionally, most of the tasks demonstrated in screencasts also have step-by-step instructions available in pdf format, on which all student names have been hidden.
The technology workshop encompasses many necessary standards for conducting professional learning. To begin, through this workshop I demonstrated the ability to develop and implement technology-based professional learning. After conducting a needs assessment, I created content that directly addressed the identified needs of teachers. I personally created all of the materials, including a workshop agenda, step-by-step handouts, and screencasts, to supplement my own content delivery during the workshop. I also included a post-workshop evaluation survey that helped me to make adjustments to future presentations. The technology workshop was also aligned to state and national professional learning standards. Standard 2 of the NETS-T standards relates to a teacher’s ability to use technology to customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning needs and to provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments which result in data to inform teaching and learning. Learning how to use the data analysis features in POINT will allow teachers to accomplish these goals since teachers will be able to more quickly analyze their formative and summative assessments, and then design differentiated lessons and group students based on the varied needs identified. Many grouping features are even available in POINT. Similarly, TKES (Teacher Keys Evaluation System for Georgia) Standards 2 and 6 suggests that students use resources to address differentiated needs of all students and systematically gather, analyze, and use relevant data to measure student progress and inform instruction.
The technology workshop also demonstrated my ability to integrate technology to support face-to-face and online components. The POINT workshop was delivered face-to-face in order to answer teacher questions as they arose and to facilitate hands-on learning, but the workshop website can be accessed by teachers after the training or by those who didn’t attend the training to better understand many of the functions of POINT. The online component contains screencasts demonstrating the skills discussed in the workshop; these screencasts were created using the online tool Screencast-o-matic. Similarly, within the face-to-face session, I used a Google Form/online survey to quickly collect feedback on the workshop so that I could address learner needs as necessary.
Finally, the workshop was centered on principles of adult learning and promoted best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. The needs assessment allowed learners to note the types of tasks they would like to accomplish and these tasks comprised the workshop agenda. Teachers’ professional knowledge was acknowledged by having teachers suggest possible ways to use POINT in the classroom, and their time was respected by beginning and ending the workshop at the stated times. The attendees were able to ask questions throughout, and because the workshop was promoted as “for beginners,” advanced POINT users chose not to attend. Because all users were on the same learning level, questions were relevant to all learners and no one became frustrated because of technology unfamiliarity. Attendees were explicitly told how the workshop objectives related to NETS-T and TKES standards so that they understood not only the relevance, but also the importance of the training. Teacher feedback was solicited through the evaluation survey and opportunities for one-to-one follow up were offered.
Altogether, I learned so much about preparing an extensive professional learning workshop through this process, from allowing the learners to establish the agenda to creating handouts and learning aids that could be accessed face-to-face and after instruction. The one thing I would love to change about the workshop, and a change I will try to make during the next school year, is to use an online sandbox with anonymous student data for creating screencasts. Doing so will allow my videos to be public on YouTube, which expands teachers’ accessibility to the online learning. I would also like to schedule specific times for follow-up with each attendee to address any new questions that arose after they implemented the POINT data analysis in their classroom as well as offer additional sessions demonstrating more advanced tasks using POINT.
The POINT workshop should have many positive results, including improved faculty development and improved student learning outcomes. After attending the training, teachers knew how to use technology tools to simplify tasks that would otherwise be arduous (such as data analysis); they could quickly conduct analysis at the classroom or school level, as well as disaggregate data for differences in ethnic groups or look at specific items on which students struggled. Being able to use data in this way allows teachers to adjust instruction to meet student-learning needs and have proof that students do or do not meet certain learning standards.