This presentation was completed by the participants of "Alternative Professional Development" session at the Powering Up With Technology 09 conference in Prince George's County, MD.
Measures of Central Tendency: Mean, Median and Mode
Alternative Professional Development
1. As presented on November 14th, 2009 at the PUWT 09 Conference
Created using Wordle.net
2. What’s the difference between “PD” and
“Training”?
What content are we doing during PD?
What are the problems with traditional
“Butt-In-Chair” PD?
What are some solutions to these problems?
A word about “Follow-up Activities”
A word about training by community
building
3. PD:
Ongoing process
Often, but not always, mandatory
Provided to larger audiences
May contain more theory
Training:
May be provided to student and/or teacher
May contain more “hands-on” interaction
Provided to a smaller number of individuals
Content is typically on one specific tool or idea
4. Differentiated Instruction done after school via lecture
Summer Inst.-3 day, in huge room, grade level talk and
practice
Hands On-Technology- One full-day, all day
Ongoing collaborative planning—planning lessons
Modeling as PD “Job-embedded” learning
How to use manipulatives
Note: The answers to the question are
Online PD360 (videos) summative based
on audience participation and
Webinars—seminars online discussion
5. Tuning out after 20 minutes
Takes away time from other activities
Interruptions/distractions (other activities going on around you)
Need high speed internet access to be engaged/to participate (some don’t have
this at home)
Getting questions answered and filling in gaps in YOUR learning—hard to
apply in real setting (at school)
Lack of follow up
“Cutesy” activities distract some learners/seem like a waste of time
They are not always differentiated to learners’ levels of proficiency
Finding time to implement the new learning
Technology-phobia/different levels of comfort with technology
Note: The answers to the question are summative based
on audience participation and discussion
6. Follow-up using different modalities (audio, video, discussion,
projects, etc)
Other sources to get information (other than just live people)
Hands –on keeps people coming back and is more effective
Many of the things on this list are good teaching skills teachers
use with students. Why should those strategies be any different
for adult learners?
Action research, provide, follow-up (feedback) and debriefing
Taking the initiative
Primary Focus vs multiple foci (Maybe focus on one thing for the
course of the school year with measurable goals and outcomes)
Discussion after the implementation
Collect data – quantitative and qualitative data & utilize the data
Note: The answers to the question are summative based
on audience participation and discussion
7. Strategy-A-Day Calendar
Creation & Distribution
AT Tonight DVDs
Creation & Distribution
Results
AT Tonight Volume 1: ~300
AT Tonight Volume 2: ~250
8.
9. Burn podcasts onto CDs to
play in the car!
Try it with the A.T.TIPSCAST.
Four volumes completed.
Download the question
booklets.
Distribute to educators.
Over 5 hours of content!
www.attipcast.wordpress.com
www.tinyurl.com/attipscast
10. ADDRESSED UNADDRESSED
Uses available time Only Awareness Level
Watch short videos on TV Training
during commercials with
DVD Still need follow-up
Listen to podcasts during Still “sit n’ get” style
commute
Not “hands-on”
Read one calendar slide a
day
No “extra” technology
required
Everyone knows how to use
a CD and DVD player
11. Recognized as a need but haven’t actually
implemented it yet.
The Ideas:
After viewing a DVD and answer the questions in the
booklet, get together to discuss what you experienced,
either web-based (online forums) or in persons
Create a product from what you heard on a podcast or
saw on the DVD and then share that somehow (wiki,
existing online resource depending on the topic)
12. Personal Learning Network (Environment)-
Educators making connections with other educators.
Foster and build this within educators
What tools do we use to make up our own PLNs?
Sorry- we ran out of time to do this one as a group- but
here are a few that I would have guessed would have
been mentioned:
•Twitter •Youtube/Teachertube/Schooltube
•Facebook •Plurk
•Moodle/Blackboard/Angel •Ning/Classroom 2.0
•iPod/Podcasts •Others?
13. When training on a specific tool that is not available to
general educators (for example, a specific AAC device)
form communities of teachers who are working with
students who are using these devices.
Example: 5 teachers (along with related services) in the
county are working with students who are using a
SpringBoard Lite (Augmentative Communication
Device). Quarterly meetings to bring these minds
together to share strategies, data collection techniques,
and resources may decrease likelihood of abandonment,
decrease time spend recreating same resources, and
increase student achievement/integration.
14.
15. Check out
Night Light Stories
Free audio stories
for children of all
ages
www.nightlightstories.blogspot.com
16. The Practical (and
Fun!) Guide to
Assistive Technology
in Public Schools:
Building or Improving Your
District’s AT Team
www.iste.org/chewat