Even though I was presenting today at the 2012 Technology Institute presented by the La Crosse School District and UW-Lacrosse, I was able to attend 3.5 hours worth of Professional Development Planning. The entire presentation was on the premise of "Supporting a World Class Education: Teaching and Learning With The Use of Technology" Kim McMonagle, Educational Technology Director, Douglas County School District, Colorado was our facilitator. All the resources are owned by her.
It was intended for administrators of which I am not, but turned out to be very valuable as I will be providing professional development throughout the year to teachers in our district. Some valuable lessons I learned are that professional development by school districts to support a blended learning educational environment must have a number of items in mind.
- Outcomes
- Begin with the end in mind.
- Align blended learning outcomes to organization's strategic plan
- Need to have leaders of K12, Higher Education, & Private Sector business collaborate
- Measures
- What are our targets?
- Do we focus on some type of standard, ISTE?
- Did the instructional design improve student learning, achievement, and growth?
- Set objectives for 5% increase on skills, attendance, behavior, PLUS the subjective growth as compared to the metrics
- Learning Activities
- Professional Learning Menu provided to teachers from 7-8 PM at night
- BIG TICKET: Provide a video webinar
- Provide collaboration through online conversation
- Archived & Chat is Participatory
- Teacher tells story while technology integration specialist provides support of the tech, helps with the chat among people participating.
The Learning Activity is THE SINGLE item I will implement from today's session. This can all be done through a Google Hangout which all district employees have. I like the fact that it is 7-8 PM and am considering 8-9 PM as this will be better with teachers who have small kids at home. I can use a number of tools for the chatting such as Today's Meet or even the Google Chat feature.
Overall, a great day of learning with multiple resources available.
