1. Please discuss your lived experiences of Educational Technology Professional Development at your school.
I have worked in the school district I am in for 5 years. Thinking of all the professional development we have had, I would say that technology is one of the places we have had the least. The last technology inservice I had was at the end of last school year because we just got Power School, which is an online grade book, etc. The inservice was only an hour and taught us the basics of how to log onto and input grades, etc. It was conducted by the technology coordinator of our school. Before that, I can only think of one other technology training I had, and it was when I was first hired. We learned how to access email and the school network.
2. (A) Discuss criteria which define successful Educational Technology Professional Development
From the first article I read, it seemed to agree that the number one important aspect of successful professional development is the quality of the teachers. I would have to agree with this; if the quality of teacher is poor, then learning lacks in general.
It also discussed two requirements for successful technology professional development:
"First, the professional development should be an integral part of the school technology plan or overall school-improvement plan. Second, the professional development should contain all the necessary components that research has found to be important." (Rodriguez & Knuth)
The authors went on to discuss that professional development should contain certain components for success:
"...a 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, and built-in evaluation." (Rodriguez & Knuth)
Lawless and Pellegrino discuss that successful professional development is linked to high student achievement. They say that high quality professional development is longer in duration, provides access to technology for teaching and learning, needs to keep teachers actively engaged and make it relevant to them, and have a clear vision for student achievement.
Overall, both articles equated good quality professional development to high student achievement.
(B) Discuss criteria which define the effective school administrator and/or technology coordinator in the context of successful Educational Technology Professional Development.
Criteria for effective school administrator in terms of successful educational technology professional development was outlined by Rodriguez & Knuth:
- Ensure that the technology plan includes professional development as a major component.
- Pursue strategies for obtaining and sustaining funding to provide the necessary technology, professional development, technical support, equipment upgrades, and equipment maintenance to achieve educational goals.
- Use a variety of incentives and requirements to motivate teachers to participate in professional development activities designed to help them integrate technology into their classrooms. Offer technology for classroom or personal use as an incentive to participation.
- Acknowledge the benefits of using professional development for plugging educators into technology: improved student performance, increased student motivation, lower student absenteeism, and higher teacher morale.
- Understand the implications of designing staff development for the information age.
- Determine expectations for teachers in regard to their use of technology in their classrooms.
- Develop strategies for encouraging resistant educators to use technology and eventually winning teachers over.
- Provide all teachers and administrators with an Internet e-mail account. Use e-mail for all school announcements.
- Encourage teachers to attend professional development technology sessions in pairs or groups to avoid isolation.
- Develop strategies for making time for professional development activities related to technology use. Build adequate time into the school day to allow teachers to practice, plan, refine, and reflect upon technology use. Consider innovative scheduling options such as "banked" time and block scheduling to allow collegial activities using technology.
- Demonstrate support for and leadership of ongoing inquiry-driven professional development for technology use.
- Participate in professional development programs, study groups, and other technology activities with teachers and other staff members.
- Address any problems that arise with new uses of technology in the classroom quickly and efficiently.
- Recognize teacher successes with technology. Share these stories with the school and the community. Encourage teachers to share their successes with colleagues at conferences.
