This professional development plan is designed to enable teachers to improve technology integration in classroom instruction and use educational features of Sakai effectively. This Professional Development Plan will increase teachers and students’ engagement, creativity, and production. This PDP will help teachers to equipped students with knowledge to enable them learn Dari language collaboratively and continuously.
10. Objective: Introducing and explaining SAKAI’s features. Indentifying and using educational features that enable teachers and students to create, elaborate, incorporate and share learning. Identifying and applying useful features that facilitate learning Dari language in-classroom and outside- school. Identifying and using features that help extension of in-classroom tasks to outside classroom.
11. Need assessment: (Online Survey/Assessment) Need assessment will be done in order to identity the gaps between the level of staffs’ understanding of using SAKAI and the skills needed to fulfill the students’ demands. Identifying the gaps will help to align and focus the objectives of professional development plan.
20. Teachers will be given periodic training and guidance Teachers will be provided guided and hand-on practices Teachers will be given opportunities, time, and resources to research and come up with ideas and models Teachers will be given chance to demonstrate and share their innovations and models through presentation in training workshop, group study, peer observation
21. Research: Participants/ teachers will be assigned to do research about use of particular feature of SAKAI such as Blog, Discussion Board, Wiki, Assignment, Test & Quiz, Announcement and Resourcesby giving time to conduct research or by sending them to National Conferences. Participants/ teachers will be asked to create and design tasks along with activities and clear observable outcome to engage students learn Dari language collaboratively and improve students creativity and productivity. Teachers/ participants will share their findings with other faculty members during Faculty Study Group.
22. Example 1: This example show you how to use discussion board to engage students learn collaboratively. Designing discussion thread is very important and has to be step by step and assess enduring understanding: Students read and listen to few passages about security in different parts of Afghanistan. The following discussion thread is developed: 1stEntry: (Explaining the facts based on the reading passages, websites links and audio clips) Define the main reasons for insecurity in big cities, especially in Kabul. What happen in Jalalabad? What happen in Kondoz? Who are going to be blamed? How the foreign forces are involved? Why the police and other security forces are unable to provide security? What about Pakistan and Iran? Your first entry has to be at least 2 paragraphs (75-100 words). 2nd Entry: (Stating opinion and supporting opinion based on the units’ materials) What do you think, why is the security getting worse day by day? What do you think about the level of capability of Afghanistan armed forces? Do you really agree that the root of insecurity is outside of the Afghanistan? If yes, why do you think so? If no, why do you think so? Which country do you think is more responsible for instability? What do you think, how the police and Afghanistan army can provide better security? Your second entry should at least 2 paragraphs (75-100 words) and should be posted before the assigned deadline. Third Entry: (Expressing agreement and disagreement) Please read your classmates’ opinions and write comments. Please state your reasons that why you agree or disagree with their opinions. You have to write comments at least to 3 students’ opinions. Your comments should be at least 1-2 paragraphs (50-75 words) and should be posted before the assigned deadline.
23. Research: The following websites will help you to conduct your research about different features of SAKAI. Collect your findings and design a model to share with other teachers during training workshop or faculty study group. http://www.nps.edu/Technology/CLE/index.html https://wiki.nps.edu/display/SakaiCLE/Sakai+Student+FAQs http://www.longsight.com/sakaimodules http://info.t-square.gatech.edu/files/Georgia%20Tech%20Instructors%20Manaual.pdf http://www.unicon.net/opensource/sakai
24. Evaluation: The professional development plan will be evaluated immediately after the completion of training workshop as well as through an ongoing assessment of whether faculty members are using or applying contents of training in classroom instruction successfully. Also students learning progress, periodic students evaluations of teachers, distributing a short evaluation forms that will assess the quality of process and contents and reflection of feedback forms will be considered in ongoing evaluation of Professional Development Plan.