Excellent! 50/50 pts.
Professional Development Proposal
Kimberly Taylor
10/14/11
EDT 531
Professional Development Proposal Checklist
Connection to student learning
Hands-on technology use
Variety of learning experiences
Curriculum-specific applications
New roles for teachers
Collegial learning
Active participation of teachers
Ongoing process
Sufficient time
Technical assistance and support
Administrative support
Adequate resources
Continuous funding
Built-in evaluation
Tentative schedule
Connection to Student Learning:
The main goal of this professional development is to help teachers implement a learning management system (LMS) into their classroom to enhance the learning process for students. Using a LMS in the classroom can increase the amount of communication the teacher has with the students, promote student participation, raise student engagement, and increase student collaboration. By integrating this technology in the classroom, teachers should see students that are more excited about the learning process because they are having a more meaningful experience.
Hands-On Technology Use:
Professional Development:
After surveying the teachers who are participating in the professional development, I have found that they are lacking confidence in their abilities when it comes to integrating technologies into the classroom. Throughout the course of the professional development I hope that they will feel more comfortable when using the technology so that they will be able to implement it with their students.
For 7 of the 8 professional development sessions the teachers will be on a computer. During this time they will be creating their own LMS and will be learning about the different features. By the end of the professional development each teacher will have an LMS and be able to implement many of its features in their classroom as needed to enhance the learning experience for students.
Classroom:
When the teachers implement the LMS into their classroom, students will also have hands-on technology use. They will be communicating with other students, collaborating, and completing assignments in an online environment.
Variety of Learning Experiences:
Professional Development:
To ensure that my professional development is beneficial, I am designing it to help the teachers by modeling what they can do with a LMS, spacing the professional development out over 8 sessions during 5 weeks, and by providing support and feedback. I will provide the participants with a sample LMS that I have created and used in the classroom. I will use this LMS to show them the different features available and how I have used them, which will hopefully give them ideas of how they may choose to use it. Also, I think having the professional development spread out over 8 sessions will be helpful for the teachers. They will be able to learn how to use the LMS features during the professional development and then will be able to take as much additional time as they need experimenting with it so that they will be comfortable using it. Finally, I will provide all participants with support and feedback during, between, and after professional development sessions. It is important to offer help as they need it and also acknowledge their work and comment on it.
Curriculum-Specific Applications:
Professional Development:
To help the teachers see the connection between the curriculum and the LMS, I will be showing them the LMS I have used with students. Since we are all teaching language arts they will be able to see how the LMS supports the curriculum. We will discuss how we can accomplish general goals, such as increased student participation and collaboration, while also discussing how we can take specific assignments and enhance them with the use of the LMS. A goal of this professional development is to help each teacher find ways to use their LMS in their classroom so that the learning experience is better for the students than it was before.
New Roles for Teachers:
During Class:
When using their LMS, the teacher will become a facilitator of knowledge. Students will be able to communicate more frequently with each other while the teacher is guiding and supporting them. This is something that will be modeled during the professional development. When learning about chat rooms I will have all the participants go into a chat where I will present the question: What do you do in a chat room? As they respond I will guide them, but will mainly encourage them to keep responding to each other. Hopefully we will eventually get to the point where they realize that as the teacher they will be facilitating by doing things such as keeping the conversation on topic, pushing students to dig deeper, and positively reinforcing the students.
Outside of Class:
A LMS gives teachers the opportunity to be available for their students outside of their regular class time. Teachers can make themselves available to answer questions for students at certain times in a chat room or set up a forum where students can ask questions. The participants only see their students for one hour a day. It may not be possible to individually help every student in that time, but the LMS will help them to find other time. This is also going to be modeled during the professional development. Although I will see the teachers at school, I will encourage them to ask me questions on the LMS as needed. If they are at home practicing how to use a feature and get stuck they will have the option to contact me and I can respond before seeing them in person. By experiencing this from the student’s perspective I hope they will appreciate how frustrating it can be for a student to get stuck when they do not have anyone around to help them and maybe they will use their LMS to help students the way I helped them.
Collegial Learning:
During the professional development, I will create a LMS for the teachers to use. They will be able to use it as a student and can use this space to ask and answer questions. This will give the teachers the opportunity to try out the LMS from a student perspective and see how they can use it to increase communication, which will be beneficial for their students.
Active Participation of Teachers:
I hope to motivate the teachers to participate in the professional development by giving them opportunities to demonstrate how they have used their LMS with students effectively. After a teacher successfully implements a feature of the LMS, such as blogging, I will ask that teacher to show the group that portion of their LMS. This will hopefully encourage the other teachers to try this feature and also to use the other features as we learn them so that they will get the opportunity to present it to the other teachers. Whenever a teacher shares a success story it should inspire the other teachers to create their own successes with the LMS.
Ongoing Process:
Since it takes time for teachers to learn a new technology and implement it with their students, I plan to extend the professional development beyond the 8, one hour sessions. The initial sessions will introduce the different features of the LMS and the teachers will implement them in their classroom when they feel comfortable. During and after the 8 sessions, I will be available to support the teachers as they are using the LMS in their classroom. Additionally, I would like to meet at least once a month after the initial sessions to have teachers share their LMS with the other teachers and also express any questions or concerns they may have.
Sufficient Time:
To increase the effectiveness of the professional development, I will be scheduling time for the teachers to brainstorm ideas, practice using the LMS, collaborate, reflect, and be observed. During each professional development session I will be showing the teachers how to use a specific feature of the LMS. This time will be used not only to learn how to use the features, but also to discuss how they may use the feature with their students. After the teachers feel comfortable using a feature of the LMS they will be encouraged to use it with their students. I will provide assistance in planning and/or implementing as needed. Also, if a teacher would like to be observed, we can schedule a mutually convenient time where I can attend their class and provide them with feedback.
Technical Assistance and Support:
For this professional development I will be providing technical support for the teachers. The teachers can email me throughout the day or come and get me if immediate assistance is needed. Also, EDU 2.0, the e-learning platform we will be using for the LMS, has a help section that can be referenced if I am not available. This help section will be discussed and viewed during the professional development to ensure all teachers will know how to access it.
Administrative Support:
The administrators in my district are very supportive of technology integration. They understand the value that technology plays in learning and that technology can truly enhance the learning experience for students. In my building, the classroom teachers are encouraged to integrate technology whenever it can help student learning. There have been more professional development days pertaining to technology, so teachers are now getting more of the support they need.
Adequate Resources:
My school is fortunate to have adequate resources to support using a LMS as part of the teaching and learning process. The school has 2 computer labs, a classroom set of computers in the library, a laptop cart, and also a computer and Promethean Board in every classroom. Also, students and teachers can access the LMS outside of school.
Continuous Funding:
EDU 2.0 is a free LMS, so it will not cost the school anything to have teachers use it in the classroom. There are other free virtual classrooms available, such as Moodle, HotChalk, Ecto, and Brainhoney. However, to use any LMS we need to have computers for the students to use. Currently my school has great resources, but if we ever needed more money to support this technology we could look into technology grants andappropriate advertising on classroom websites. We could also save money by having teachers conduct professional development like I am currently doing.
Built-In Evaluation:
Preformative Evaluation:
Before the professional development, I spoke with teachers about what kinds of technology they would like to implement in their classroom. Then, I asked the teachers to fill out two surveys. The first narrowed down a specific technology to focus on. This survey, Technology Professional Development Survey 1, can be viewed on page 8. The results from this survey indicated that the teachers were interested in learning about class websites, so the second survey focused on their experiences and knowledge of class websites. This survey, Technology Professional Development Survey 2, can be viewed on page 9.
Formative Evaluation:
At various points throughout the professional development I will be checking with teachers to see if there are any changes I need to make to create a more valuable experience for them. This will help me determine when I should move on or when I should spend more time on a topic. For example, while the teachers are brainstorming ideas for how to use an LMS with their students I will be checking to see if they are coming up with specific ways to use it to enhance the learning experience for students before moving on. Then, when I am showing them how to use a specific feature of the LMS I will model how to use it, give them time to try it out, and then check to make sure they are able to do it independently before moving on.
Summative Evaluation:
At the end of each professional development session I will ask each attendee to fill out a short survey (level 1). I will use the responses to guide my future sessions if I find the teachers need more or less time on certain aspects. After the 2nd and 4th sessions I will be asking each attendee to fill out a more specific survey (level 2 and level 3) that will help me understand their learning and also find out if they are proceeding adequately. Also, at the end of the 8 sessions I will ask each attendee to fill out a longer survey (level 4 and level 5). I will use the responses to help me reflect on the professional development. The Five Levels of Professional Development Survey can be viewed on page 10.
Tentative Schedule
There will be 8 scheduled professional development sessions. Each session will be one hour. There will not be professional development on Thursday, November 8, 2011, because there is no school, or on Tuesday, November 17, 2011, because there is a half day.
- Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Topic: Introduction to Learning Management Systems (LMS)
- What is a LMS?
- How can a LMS be used in education?
- Where can I create a LMS?
- View LMS and give an overview of features
- Resources
- Lessons
- Blogging
- Chat Room
- Forums
- Quiz/Freeform
- Survey
- Thursday, October 20, 2011
Topic: Creating Your Class LMS
- Setting up a class LMS
- How to use calendar
- How to post syllabus
- How to update news
- Creating student accounts
- Survey
- Tuesday, October 25, 2011
Topic: Resources
- Benefits of providing resources online for students
- How to upload files from your computer
- How to provide links to external resources
- Survey
- Thursday, October 27, 2011
Topic: Lessons
- Educational benefits of having online lessons
- How to post lessons
- Survey
- Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Topic: Blogging
- Educational benefits of blogging for students
- How to set up blog
- How to respond to blog
- Survey
- Thursday, November 3, 2011
Topic: Chat Room
- Educational benefits of using a chat room with students
- How to set up chat
- How to reference chat
- Guiding vs. telling
- Survey
- Thursday, November 10, 2011
Topic: Forums
- Educational benefits of having students use forums
- How to post forums
- How to respond to forums
- Survey
- Tuesday, November 15, 2011
Topic: Assessments
- How to design quizzes
- How to implement quizzes
- How to design freeform
- How to implement freeform
- Survey
Technology Professional Development Survey 1
(Used During the Preformative Evaluation)
Needs Assessment
Hello Support Teachers: For one of my classes in my Masters in Educational Technology Program I am working on developing professional development that would help us integrate technology into our classrooms. In our discussions many of you expressed interest in learning more about some online communication tools. To get a better understanding of your needs, please fill out this survey to the best of your abilities. Thank you! -Kim
1. Please place a check next to any of the following technologies that you feel comfortable integrating into the classroom:
_____Blogs_____Class Websites_____Wikis
2. Please place a check next to any of the following technologies that you do not feel comfortable integrating into the classroom:
_____Blogs_____Class Websites_____Wikis
3. Please place a check next to one of the following technologies that you would most like to receive professional development on:
_____Blogs_____Class Websites_____Wikis
4. Please place a check next to one of the following technologies that you would least like to receive professional development on:
_____Blogs_____Class Websites_____Wikis
5. Please place a check next to any times that would be convenient for you to participate in professional development (all activities would be scheduled between October 17 and November 13):
_____Monday (2:45-3:30)
_____Tuesday (2:45-3:30)
_____Wednesday (2:45-3:30)
_____Thursday (2:45-3:30)
_____None of these times work for me
Technology Professional Development Survey 2
(Used During the Preformative Evaluation)
Teacher’s Level of Technology Competency
Hello Support Teachers: Thank you so much for taking the time to fill out the first survey. After looking at each survey, I found that you all wanted to learn more about using a class website. In order to create the professional development I need to know about your experiences and also about what your learning goals are. Please take some time to complete this survey so that I can develop professional development that we can all learn from. Thank you! –Kim
1. I have designed a class website: Yes / No
2. I have used a class website (that belonged to another teacher): Yes / No
3. I have seen a class website: Yes / No
4. I have designed a website outside of school: Yes / No
5. I have uploaded resources to a website: Yes / No
6. I am familiar with tools for creating websites: Yes / No
- If so, what are they? ______
7. What do you hope to learn from this professional development activity on class websites?
______
8. How would you like to integrate a website into your classroom?
______
9. Do you have any other questions for me about this professional development?
______
Five Levels of Professional Development
(Used During the Summative Evaluation)
Level 1: Participants’ Reactions
At the end of each professional development session the teachers will be asked to respond to these questions:
Do you think today’s session was a productive use of your time?
Did the activities help you learn more about the topic?
Do you have any questions/suggestions for the next session?
Level 2: Participants’ Learning
At the end of the 2nd professional development session the teachers will be asked to respond to these questions:
How do you plan on incorporating your LMS into the teaching and learning process?
How will your LMS change communication between students?
How will you your LMS change how you teach in your classroom?
Level 3: Organizational Support and Change
At the end of the 4th professional development session the teachers will be asked to respond to these questions:
Do you have sufficient resources to effectively implement your LMS?
Were problems addressed quickly and efficiently?
Were your successes recognized and shared?
Level 4: Participants’ Use of New Knowledge and Skills
At the end of the 8th professional development session the teachers will be asked to respond to these questions: