Goal+8+Professionalism+-+Tracie

Goal Eight: Professionalism


Tracie Weisz EDET698 Masters Portfolio Goal 8 - Professionalism Spring 2014

Implementing technology integration initiatives in schools is one thing, but sustaining them is another. Far too often, the goal of meaningful technology integration falls flat because the model is not set up for sustained and supported professional development in a way that is most effective and aligns with teachers' growth and independence. Much of the literature review I wrote for EDET668 Action Research details how professional development in technology integration must be sustained and increasingly personalized in order to support teachers' motivation to continue to implement and innovate. This is also an idea we had in mind when developing the idea behind the structure and contents of the Alaska TOOLkit. We wanted to provide a means to meet teachers at their readiness levels, but also to provide avenues for growth. When a teacher arrives at the interface of the Alaska TOOLkit, they are selecting first and foremost their learning goals for their students in the form of the standards. After that, the tool gets personalized as the teacher then browses and selects a level of comfort with technology integration. Clear descriptors are given to help teachers select these levels, which apply not only to TPACK levels (technological, pedagogical, content, knowledge), but emotions and feelings about technology integration. Although many of the resources within the TOOLkit that work well for beginners are still excellent tools for advanced users, the difference is in how they are presented. If a teacher is selecting a beginner level and is presented with a basic presentation tool such as VoiceThread, there will also be links to simple tutorials, and suggestions and strategies for easy uses to begin with. A teacher selecting a proficient or advanced use level of integration might also get strategies for VoiceThread, but they would also include more sophisticated levels of use and innovation with that software.

It is in this way that the Alaska TOOLkit supports ideas upheld by research about offering sustained and personalized professional development. The TOOLkit can't take the place of a technology coordinator or coach, but in places where those human resources are scarce or non-existent, it can offer a good deal of support. For districts with a coordinator or coach, the TOOLkit is a supportive resource for that person as well, as they have something they can use as a structure as they work with teachers that also happens to be a useful tool they can leave them with when their time is done. This allows the teacher to take the lead with more specific ideas about what they want for their own classroom when working with the coordinator or coach.

As teachers use the TOOLkit, there will be more familiarity developed with common platforms such as blogging, websites, wikis, and sharing suites of tools like Google Drive. This kind of familiarity with multi-use platforms for learning can lead teachers to advocate for their own professional development focused on their common needs. If enough teachers use the TOOLkit and begin to use blogging with their students, they might request further professional development in that specific area. The TOOLkit very much supports crosscurricular, multi-use categories of tools. Although there are many suggestions and links for single-use tools, the strong base of the TOOLkit resources is multiple strategies and assessments built around a strong few multi-use categories. Single-use tools suggested often can link with or even be embedded within the multi-use platforms. It is this foundation of multi-use platforms that needs to be the basis of teacher development as they use the TOOLkit and learn more about technology integration. This allows teachers to have common conversations and begin to develop common ideas about the possibilities of these tools for student learning. Knowledge and collaboration among teachers about these ideas leads to more advocacy for specific professional development, and also for teacher leadership.

ARTIFACTS:

The attached document is from EDET636, Impact of Technology on Student Learning. In it, I describe how blogging is a real-life skill, valuable for both teachers and students. The blogging platform is presented and encouraged in many iterations throughout the Alaska Toolkit. 

The attached document is from EDET 668, Educational Technology Leadership. I discuss the environments for learning we create for students at school, and how this impacts our expectations for them. I relate a story in contrasts comparing student behavior within a challenging technology-rich environment, and without. It's important to understand that as a professional, the environments we create for our students in school are not only physical. What and how we offer opportunities, experiences, content, and tools to kids can have a real impact. This is the kind of change or transformation in classrooms that we want to emphasize to teachers as they build confidence, experience, and skills through their use of the Alaska Toolkit. 

The attached document is from EDET 668, Educational Technology Leadership. It discusses how shifting the models of teaching and learning to a technology-rich environment not only increases expectations and broadens students' ability to learn, but also changes the professional culture of the school. It is this shift and impact we are seeking to affect through teachers' use of the Alaska Toolkit. 