Professional Development & Program Evaluation
"Technology coaches conduct needs assessments, develop technology-related professional learning programs, and evaluate the impact on instructional practice and student learning." (From the ISTE NETS-C website).
There are several pieces to the professional development puzzle that must fit in order for teachers to accept and integrate technology tools. First, teachers need awareness of what educational technology tools are available. Second, they are often most influenced by other teachers that have already incorporated a tool and can give first-hand knowledge of how to implement it and how students react to it. Third, once a teacher is interested in a tech tool, it is important to make them comfortable with its use. To fill these three needs, I create monthly newsletters that create awareness of new technologies and their implications for education. Finding teachers that are interested in trying new devices is never a problem. Once these teachers evaluate a device, their input is critical for teachers that are a bit leery of technology. Having teacher advocates of technology integration is a critical piece of the pie. Last, I provide the technical and sometimes pedagogical training for staff to become comfortable. Twice a year, staff are surveyed as to what technology professional development they wold find most beneficial as well as the format and dates for training. From that information, a combination of face-to-face, blended, and online training sessions are created. Some samples of items in this area are listed below.
There are several pieces to the professional development puzzle that must fit in order for teachers to accept and integrate technology tools. First, teachers need awareness of what educational technology tools are available. Second, they are often most influenced by other teachers that have already incorporated a tool and can give first-hand knowledge of how to implement it and how students react to it. Third, once a teacher is interested in a tech tool, it is important to make them comfortable with its use. To fill these three needs, I create monthly newsletters that create awareness of new technologies and their implications for education. Finding teachers that are interested in trying new devices is never a problem. Once these teachers evaluate a device, their input is critical for teachers that are a bit leery of technology. Having teacher advocates of technology integration is a critical piece of the pie. Last, I provide the technical and sometimes pedagogical training for staff to become comfortable. Twice a year, staff are surveyed as to what technology professional development they wold find most beneficial as well as the format and dates for training. From that information, a combination of face-to-face, blended, and online training sessions are created. Some samples of items in this area are listed below.
- Monthly Newsletters ISTE Nets-C 4b
For over 12 years I have been creating monthly newsletters to highlight various educational technology issues for staff members. Some recent examples include a newsletter titled "Free Educational Tools," "Technology Skills for PARCC Online Testing," and "Preparing for PARCC." The full archive of newsletters can be found HERE. - Technology In-Services ISTE Nets-C 4a, 4b
For over 13 years, I have been training teachers on wide variety of technology topics. Each semester I start with a evaluation of needs by conducting a quick survey of interests and technology needs. Some examples of in-services include "Teaching and Reaching Today's Student," and the most recent "Summer 2013 Tech In-Service." - Online Training ISTE Nets-C 4a, 4b
One needs assessment indicated that some staff were having difficulty attending face-to-face training sessins. Due to this need, several online training courses were created for those teachers. A full Moodle course with tutorials from beginning to advanced topics was created called "Managing Moodle." For teachers wanting to use the school's Google Apps domain, a training site called Google Web was created. - Training Videos ISTE Nets-C 4a, 4b
Needs assessments indicated that staff would like to be able to use some of the training videos with students. Using a YouTube channel, the majority of software training is recorded and uploaded for playback for teachers to use as needed.