Traditional professional development has often been centered around teaching software and or tech integration methods. One of the problems we have found with this, is that once the training is complete, it is very hard for teachers to find practical uses for what they learned, or they have a hard time recalling all of the information. So we feel that one way to help this problem is not train on specific applications, but rather show a variety of different applications and focus more on larger concepts. For example, in a digital storytelling class, I might focus more on the process and then demo several applications that could accomplish this concept, rather than just teaching iMovie as a means of digital storytelling. We then follow with support in the buildings with various technology personnel.
Yesterday, we wanted to try a different approach. 26 teachers from grades K-8, including specialist teachers, volunteered to participate in a day long training in which at the end, they would be given a laptop to use as long as they were in the district. However, we wanted the training to be as much about modeling a process of learning as it was technology training.
Based on the Food Network show “Iron Chef”, we would assign each group of people (groups consisted of teachers from all different grade levels and disciplines) a project. The project in this case was to design an interdisciplinary project that integrated technology. However, like in the show, each group would have a “secret ingredient” that they would have to incorporate into their project. In this case, each group received a box full of 3-4 secret ingredients that they would have to not only use in their project, but find a way to make the pieces of technology work together within the project.
The directions were intentionally ambiguous, and teachers were noticeably frustrated at first. The lack of clear direction, coupled with being in groups of people from various schools whom they didn’t know caused some minor anxiety as they begun to delve into the project.
What ensued however was an amazing learning process. As teachers slowly began to discuss the projects, each group found themselves going in completely unique directions based on their technology and personal teaching styles.
Each group was assisted by an “Iron Tech” (a member of our district’s technology team) to help support and facilitate the project when needed. The boxes included items like, iPod Touches, Mimio Interactive Tablets, document cameras, and software like iLife and Google Docs. While most staff have been exposed to these technologies at some point, for many of them, it was the first experience to play with the tech.
As the day progressed, teachers began finding ways that students could use the technology in the lessons they were designing. In some groups, there appeared to be even a friendly competition amongst the members as to show what they had learned or had previously seen about technology.
By the end of the day, each group successfully created a lesson plan with amazing ways to integrate the technology into their projects. And while this was no doubt extremely positive, the true excitement of the day was being able to reveal to them that the point of the day wasn’t to just create lesson plans. Rather, we used the way we had structured the day to model a learning process to them. We looked at the fact that, while creating their lessons, they had been able to accomplish what we had set out to do in terms of learning about technology, and finding practical applications for them.
And while the traditional roles of teacher and student did not necessarily exist, we looked at the fact that learning had taken place, and that we could assess how much they understood by their presentations of their lesson plans. By working together in groups, collaborating, and exploring together, they were able to gain an understanding of the technology they were given, and ultimately learned about the other pieces from the other groups.
While this model may not be perfect, it is a good example of thinking outside of the box when it comes to professional development. When creating professional development, do we think about how people learn? Can you use that time to model various techniques and methods of teaching or differentiation? Lastly, can the modeling those techniques have as much or more of an impact than the actual content at times?