Transcript ICT and Professional Development EDER 679.10 David Harding

ICT and Professional
Development
EDER 679.10
David Harding
Steffen Tweedle
June 5, 2003
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
“Educators at all stages of their
careers have a responsibility to act -beginning teachers to add new ideas
and energies to the profession, and to
avoid succumbing to the stale breath
of routine; mid-career teachers to get
out of the doldrums; and veteran
teachers to pass on
wisdom instead of
cynicism”
(Fullan & Hargreaves,
1992).
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The basics…
“Activities to enhance professional career growth." thesaurus of the Educational Resources Information
Center (ERIC) database
“The sum total of formal and informal learning
experiences throughout one's career from preservice teacher education to retirement" (Fullan,
1991)
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A broader definition of professional development that includes the use
of technology to foster teacher growth:
"Professional development ... goes beyond the term 'training' with its
implications of learning skills, and encompasses a definition that
includes formal and informal means of helping teachers not only learn
new skills but also develop new insights into pedagogy and their own
practice, and explore new or advanced understandings of content and
resources. [This] definition of professional development includes support
for teachers as they encounter the challenges that come with putting
into practice their evolving understandings about the use of technology
to support inquiry-based learning.... Current technologies offer
resources to meet these challenges and provide teachers with a cluster
of supports that help them continue to grow in their professional skills,
understandings, and interests.“ (Grant, n.d.)
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Overview
Two lenses: Individual vs. Staff Pro-D
A distinction between personal or individual development and
staff development is made in this presentation. It is through
these lenses that we must view this intellectual excursion into
the topic of professional development.
The first lens is held by that of an
educator who is concerned with
professional development as it relates to
their personal classroom, their personal
health, etc.
The second lens is held by that of an
ICT leader who, though most likely an
educator herself, is concerned with the
professional development of her staff as
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a whole.
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Individual Pro-D
The majority of researchers agree that
ICT professional development will
thrive in a collaborative culture, oft
referred to as, interactive
professionalism.
Fullan and Hargreaves (1992) advocate that teachers
begin with themselves to build the foundation of
interactive professionalism for professional development
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12 General Guidelines
for Teachers…for
Inspired Personal
Professional
Development
A proposal made by Fullan and Hargreaves (1992)
states that if teachers practice the following
twelve guidelines in various combinations, the
results will be cumulative, contagious and will
maximize interactive professionalism.
By the way…it does no harm to assist the principal with some
well-meaning training too! He/she often makes or breaks the
collaborative culture.
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Individual Pro-D
1.Locate, listen to, and articulate your
inner voice.
Teachers must
have the
desire to
reflect on
their practice
and reflect
deeply
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Individual Pro-D
2. Reflect In, On and About Action

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


go beyond personal impressions and gather data
from your students
engage in peer coaching, team teaching, mutual
observations & request appraisals.
reflect on context of your work & working
conditions; speak-out for change !
evoke positive personal images
recollect and dwell on WHY positive experiences
release positive energy
TECHNIQUES FOR DEVELOPING STRONG
FORMS OF REFLECTIVE PRACTICE:
*professional reading
*professional
dialogue *teacher support groups
*teacher research
*sharing autobiographies and life histories
*take stimulating courses
and advance
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qualifications.
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Individual Pro-D
3. Develop a risk-taking mentality
• be selective (try it with one or two
things)
• do it on a small scale
• take a positive risk (towards a
positive vision, rather than
refusing to do something)
Collaborate with a colleague to try out a
new practice
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Individual Pro-D
4. Trust processes as well as people.

5. Appreciate the total person in
working with others.
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Individual Pro-D
6. Commit to
working with
colleagues.
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7.Seek variety
and avoid
Balkanization.
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Individual Pro-D
8. Redefine your role to include
responsibilities outside the
classroom.
9. Balance work and life
[see the Parable at
the end of this
presentation]
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Individual Pro-D
10. Commit to continuous improvement
and perpetual learning.
11. Monitor and strengthen the
connections between your development
and students’ development
{more to come on this in next section on general professional
development by the staff}
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Individual Pro-D
12. Push and support
principals and other
administrators to develop
interactive professionalism.
COACH YOUR PRINCIPAL TO..
i) understand the culture of the school;
ii) value your teachers by promoting their professional growth;
iii) extend what you value—encourage a wide repertoire of strategies;
iv) express what you value by what you do and who you are daily;
v) promote collaboration—“our vision”, not cooptation—by:
-sharing power, rewarding staff, patience, openness and
inclusiveness
-expanding leadership roles
-patience
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Individual Pro-D
Coach your principal to…(cont.)
vi) make flexible menus, not mandates;
vii) use bureaucratic means to facilitate, not to
constrain;
FACILITATE with:
-public endorsements and official policy
-school organization, planning and scheduling
-decision-making structures
-staffing procedures
-growth-based evaluations/appraisals
viii) connect with the wider environment—for example :
-principal peer coaching
-visiting & connecting with other schools to
compare/contrast
-sending teacher teams on visitations
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-represent the school in its community
Individual Pro-D Resources

ICT Professional Growth Plan
• Attempt to create your own ICT professional growth plan
for the next school year using the following Telus 2Learn
Professional Growth Planning Tool available at
http://www.2learn.ca/Profgrowth/PDplanningTool.html
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Staff Pro-D…

A transition to our second lens…
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Staff Pro-D

Mackenzie advocated ten ideas for an ITC Pro-D leader
that will serve as a prevention against or prescription for
‘Screen Saver’s Disease’, the term McKenzie employs as
a descriptor for the condition that many computers find
themselves in as a result of being operated by undertrained, purpose-barren, time-deprived teachers.
He posits that following these ten
suggestions, which reflect the best
technology learning practices
gleaned from districts and schools
with vibrant technology use, “can
help you convert a ho-hum staff
development program into a
dynamic campaign.”
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Ten Suggestions for a ‘dynamic’ ITC Pro-D
• Designate student learning as the cause

“Teachers value increased student achievement as an
outcome of professional development more than any other
variable…and judge the value of their professional
development activities by how much they see a leap in
student learning.” (Lockwood, 1999)
• Clarify purpose: Problem-solving and decisionmaking
• Replace staff development and training with adult
learning
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“Choice is the cardinal design concept behind adult learning.”
Giving your staff a voice in how they learn engenders a
willingness to learn. If the choice is taken from them, “it sets
up a parent-child relationship often inspiring resistance and
resentment rather than growth.” (Mackenzie, 1998)
“…the system must be delivered in accordance with
recognised principles of adult learning and development.”
(Szabo, 2001)
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Ten Suggestions (cont.)
• Address the emotional dimension-the challenge of
transfer

“The basic assumption is the major reason that IT has failed
to reform education is not in the technology, but in the
tendency of individuals and institutions to resist change.”
(Szabo, 1998)
• Create teams and a culture of ‘just in time’ support
• Use surveys and assessment to guide planning
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“People most affected by the change must be empowered
to make the decisions and control the direction the change
proceeds.” (Szabo, 1996)
“Needs assessments help us identify problems that are
worthy of our training efforts and expenditures.” (Guhlin et
al., 2002)
• Provide time for invention and lesson development
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Ten Suggestions (cont.)
• Hook the passions of ALL teachers
• Spend 10-25% of the technology project budget
on staff learning and provide 15-60 hours annually
per teacher for several years

“The essential components of a technology implementation
plan includes…allocation of sufficient time and funds…and
development of a plan to extend professional
development.” (Rodriguez, 2000)
• Persist

“Professional development takes time and must be
conducted over several years for significant changes to
occur.”(Speck,1996)
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So…
We’ve looked a ICT Pro-D through both a personal
planning lens and a collective planning (staff) lens.
The question still remains, however:
We wouldn’t want to be just
“doing pro-D” as an obligation
without seeing its benefits in our
learners…
The Indicators of Engaged Learning from the
Learning with Technology Profile Tool is a set of
criteria that evaluates the utility of a planned
Pro-D enterprise.
http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profwww.htm
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Indicators of Engaged Learning
Bolstering Mackenzie’s (1998), Marzano and colleagues (1990)
suggestions, the NCREL (2003) suggests that new school
programs should support a profile called the…
Indicators of Engaged Learning:
1.
2.
3.
4.
VISION OF LEARNING
TASKS
ASSESSMENT
INSTRUCTIONAL MODELS
5.
6.
7.
8.
LEARNING CONTEXT
GROUPING
TEACHER ROLES
STUDENT
ROLES
]
(http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profwww.htm)
•These indicators provide an excellent basis for evaluating any school
improvement initiative
•Correspondingly, shouldn’t professional development programs
encourage teachers to reflect on philosophy, construct effective practice,
build skills, redefine roles, and most importantly, model Indicators of
Engaged Learning?
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Indicators of Engaged Learning
1. VISION OF LEARNING

Responsibility for Learning
Learners take charge and are self-regulated
learners.

Strategic
Learners continually apply and transfer learning to
develop and refine both traditional and creative
problem solving strategies.

Energized by Learning
Engaged learners derive excitement, pleasure and
self-motivation from learning.

Collaborative
Learners gain and value the social skills to work
with others and accept that problems/issues
have multiple points of view.
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Indicators of Engaged Learning (cont.)
2. TASKS
Authentic
Relevant tasks bear a close relationship to real world problems,
requiring in-depth study.
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Challenging
Tasks are complex and typically involve sustained amounts of time.

Multidisciplinary
Disciplines are wholly and appropriately integrated in order to solve
problems or address issues

3. ASSESSMENT
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Seamless and Ongoing
Instruction and assessment are integrated.
Generative
Learners and their mentors create the assessment criteria and/or tools.
Performance-Based
Authentic tasks, projects, or investigations that require observing,
interviewing and/or examining student artifacts and presentations
assess what learners actually know and can do.
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Indicators of Engaged Learning (cont.)
4. INSTRUCTIONAL MODELS

Interactive
Mentors respond to learner needs and interests,
and students can make key decisions regarding
their learning.

Generative
Learners are encouraged to construct/produce
knowledge by solving problems, conducting
meaningful inquiry, engaging in reflection, and
building a repertoire of effective strategies.
5. LEARNING CONTEXT

Collaborative
School is a learning community.

Empathetic
Diversity and multiple perspectives are valued

Knowledge building made public.
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Indicators of Engaged Learning (cont.)
6. GROUPING
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Flexible
Groups are formed and reformed according to the purpose of
instruction and common needs and interests.
Equitable and Heterogeneous
7. TEACHER ROLES
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Facilitator
Mentors create opportunities for learners to work collaboratively to
solve problems, do authentic tasks, and share knowledge and
responsibility.
Guide
Mentors plan to adjust the level of information and support
according to learners ' needs then help learners construct their
own meaning through modeling, mediating, and coaching.
Co-Learner/Co-Investigator
Mentors learn along with learners, and learners may serve as
teachers.
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Indicators of Engaged Learning (cont.)
8. LEARNER ROLES

Explorer
Learners discover concepts and connections and apply
skills by interacting with the physical world, materials,
technology, and other people.

Cognitive Apprentice
Learners observe, apply, and refine through practice
and ongoing feedback the thinking processes used by
practitioners in specific content areas.

Producer
Learners generate knowledge and products for
themselves and the community which synthesize and
integrate knowledge and skills.

Teacher
Learners integrate and holistically represent what they
have learned to instruct others.
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Indicators of High-Performance ICT
The NCREL (2003) also makes suggestions as standards for HighPerformance ICT for all learners. These standards should be
honored for any pro-d program for teachers. Teachers should thrive
by standards they wish to establish for students, otherwise the
pro-d process reeks of insincerity (Warlick, 2002).
Indicators for High-Performance ICT (NCREL, 2003)
A. ACCESS
Connective
Ubiquitous
Interoperable
Open ArchitectureTransparent
B. OPERABILITY
C. ORGANIZATION
Distributed
Designed for Equitable Use
Designed for User Contribution
D. ENGAGABILITY
Interactive
Designed for Collaborative Projects
Enables Learning by Doing Access to Challenging Tools Provides Guided Participation
E. EASE OF USE
Effective Helps
User Friendly/User Control
Fast [speed]
Available Training and Support & Provides Just Enough Information, Just In Time
F. FUNCTIONALITY
Diverse Tools
Media Use
Supports Project Design Skills
Promotes Programming and Authoring
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Guiding Questions
• Though aspects of all guidelines for personal Pro-D
are useful, which combination of three guidelines of
the do you think are most important to maximize
interactive professionalism?
• Thinking as an ICT leader at your school, which of
the ten suggestions, if employed, would “help you
convert [your] ho-hum staff development program
into a dynamic campaign”?
• Do you believe that professional development
programs should model Indicators of Engaged
Learning?
• What other forms of Pro-D can you suggest that are
authentic?
• How does the way ICT Pro-D is organized and
implemented differ in other parts of the world from
BC or Alberta? Think along the lines of whether the
control or responsibility for Pro-D is centralized
within the school, the district, the province, or the
country.
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Rock Parable
relating to having a balanced life as a teacher.
A philosophy professor stood before his class and had some items in
front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a very
large and empty mayonnaise jar, and proceeded to fill with rocks, rocks
about 2 inches in diameter. He then asked students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was. So the professor then picked up a box of
pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The
pebbles, of course, rolled into the open areas between the rocks.
He then asked for students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor picked up a box of sand poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He then asked once more
of the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes’.
The professor then produced two cans of beer from under the table and
proceeded to pour their entire contents into the jar effectively filling the
empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
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Rock Parable (cont.)
“Now,” said the professor, as the laughter subsided, “I want you to recognize
that this jar represents your life. The rocks are the important things -- your
family, your partner, your health, and your children -- things that if everything
else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.”
“The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job your house and
your car. The sand is everything else. The small stuff. If you put the sand into
the jar first,” he continued, “there is no room for the pebbles or the rocks.
The same goes for your life. If you spend all your time and energy on the
small stuff, you'll never have room for the things that are important to you.”
“Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your
children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out dancing.
There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, give a dinner party
and fix the dishwasher. Take care of the rocks first -- the things that really
matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.”
One of the students raised her hand and inquired about
what the beer represented. The professor smiled. “I'm
glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter
how full your life may seem, there's always room for a
couple of refreshments.”
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ITC Pro-D across the world...
Alberta

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT FOR TEACHING TECHNOLOG
ACROSS THE CURRICULUM Best Practices For Alberta School
Jurisdictions February, 1999
http://ednet.edc.gov.ab.ca/technology/bestpractices/pdf/pdfortechnology.pdf

BC
• Provincial level: BCTF

http://pdonline.bctf.ca/conferences/PD-Calendar.html
• School District level
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
Vancouver School District:

http://www.vsb.bc.ca/educators/prod/WebLinkstoProfessionalDevelopment/default.htm

Langley School District:

https://apps1.sd35.bc.ca/workshops/
US, NZ?
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References
Alberta Education. (1999). Professional development for teaching technology
across the curriculum: Best practices for Alberta school jurisdictions. Edmonton,
AB: Author [Online]. Available: http://ednet.edc.gov.ab.ca/technology/bestpractices/pdf/pdfortechnology.pdf
Fullan, M. & Hargreaves, A. (1992). What’s worth fighting for? Working together
for your school. Mississauga, Ontario: Ontario Public Teachers’ Federation.
Grant, C. M. (n.d.). Professional development in a technological age: New
definitions, old challenges, new resources [Online]. Available:
http://ra.terc.edu/publications/TERC_pubs/tech-infusion/prof_dev/prof_dev_frame.html
Guhlin, M., Ornelas, L. & Diem, R. (2002) Methods that Work: Educator
Competencies for Technology in Texas Public Schools, Paper presented at the
Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association (AERA) (New
Orleans, LA, April 1-5, 2002). Available at http://ericit.org/fulltext/IR021411.pdf
Guskey, T.R. (1997). Putting it all together: Integrating educational
innovations. In S. D. Caldwell (Ed.), Professional development in learningcentered schools (pp.130-148). Oxford, Ohio: National Staff Development Council
Joyce, B. & Showers, B. (1988). Student achievement through staff
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development. New York: Longman.
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References (cont.)
Learning With Technology Profile Tool [Online]. Available:
http://www.ncrtec.org/capacity/profile/profwww.htm
Lockwood, A. T. (1999). The promise and potential of professional development.
Unpublished manuscript.
McKenzie, J. (1998). Secrets of success: Professional development that works
[Online]. Available: http://staffdevelop.org/secrets.html
New Zealand Ministry of Education (2002). What makes for effective teacher
professional development in ICT [Online]? Available:
http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=7838&in
dexid=6920&indexparentid=1024&goto=00-02#TopOfPage
North Central Regional Educational Laboratory Website (2000).Providing
professional development for effective technology use [Online]. Available:
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te1000.htm
Planning for Professional Growth - ICT professional development links from the
Telus 2Learn website (2001) [Online]. Available:
http://www.2learn.ca/Profgrowth/pgm.html
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References (cont.)
Rodriguez, G., (with Knuth, R.) (2000). Providing professional development for
effective technology use. Pathways to School Improvement [Online]. Available:
http://www.ncrel.org/sdrs/areas/issues/methods/technlgy/te1000.htm
Speck, M. (1996, Spring). Best practice in professional development for
sustained educational change. ERS Spectrum, 33-41.
Strong, R., Silver, H.F., Hanson, J. R., Marzano, R.J., Wolfe, P., Dewing, T. &
Brock, W. (1990) Thoughtful education: Staff development for the 1990s.
Educational Leadership, February, 1990.
Szabo, M. (1996). Change in the use of alternative delivery systems through
professional development within colleges and universities, Paper presented at
the annual meeting of Ed-Media/Ed-Telecomm 96. Boston, MA. Available at:
http://www.quasar.ualberta.ca/IT/research/Szabo/Change.html
Szabo, M. (2001, March). Smoothing the transition to the instructional
technology age: A change model based on professional development and
innovation diffusion. In J. Price, D. Willis, N. Davis & J. Willis (eds.). Conference
Proceedings of the SITE 2001 Conference. Charlottesville, VA: Association for
the Advancement of Computers in Education, 2811-2817. Available at
http://ericit.org/fulltext/IR020935.pdf
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