Professional Development
Professional Development Goes Green
By By Barbara Bray
A professional developer can use this biomonitoring activity to start a series of green workshops. In this collaborative online environment, teachers share data, student conversations, and their own findings and reflections on the process. An Ode to Study Groups
By Folwell Dunbar
Anyone responsible for professional development will want to post this inspiring poem for all to see. How To Introduce New Technology to a Staff
By Diane Coggins
A professional development expert describes how gradually adding technology helped win the hearts and minds of teachers and parents. Digital Storytelling: It’s More Than Just Software
By Jon Orech
Even though it’s exciting and fun, Digital Story Telling is an art-form, says an expert, and one that requires thought and planning before getting absorbed in the technology. The Amazing 500-in-1 ESOL/ESL Website
By Susan Alyn
The creator of Inspiration Lane, an ESL / ESOL portal, describes why the site works for so many language learners. Excelets: Excel's Excellent Adventure
By Scott A. Sinex
How you can use a quiet little number-cruncher to create fascinating interactive learning activities for your students. Building Virtual Communities
By Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach
Online communities are essential. Here, an expert shares her views. Enabling Educators to Integrate Technology
By Kate Hoffman
How integrating technology into the curriculum enabled a magnet school not only to better achieve its stated goals but raised its students' test scores. Teachers Leaning on Teachers
By Dr. Sherry Goodvin, PhD and Jennifer Kern
Educators are able to share their learning and insights thanks to one district’s database of teacher-created materials. Three Steps to Eliminating Teacher Technophobia
By David Phillips
To convince reluctant educators to adopt technology, technology must be accessible and easy to use; here are three steps to accomplish the goal. A 3-Dimensional World Builds Community Across Countries and Continents
By Regis Gilman, John Tashner, Steve Bronack, Richard Riedl and Amy Cheney
A sophisticated high-tech 3-dimension world full of avatars using innovative communication devices helps create a true sense of community among learners in higher ed separated by hundreds or even thousands of miles.
The Model of a Modern Technology Classroom
By Virginia Richard
Here’s a look at a successful technology integration program that helps students to become 21st Century learners and teachers to become 21st Century educators. Cornerstones of Technology Integration, Parts 3 and 4
By Frank Rudnesky
When the curriculum drives the technology amazing things happen – teachers plan together and students become active participants in their own learning. Cornerstones of Technology Integration, Pt. 2
By Frank Rudnesky
How one New Jersey school solved the problems of professional development and technology integration by using a well-designed peer-mentoring program. How To Get Teachers To Attend Tech Training
By Diane Coggins
Build it (your tech training seminars) and sometimes they (your teachers) will not come, unless you find ways to make it productive, personalized, and rewarding. Tips for Building an Online Community
By Susan Taylor
Online communities are great, but since they don't just happen by themselves, here are some thought-provoking tips to creating successful online communities. To the Rescue! How an LCD Projector Saved Us
By Marty Mayer, Dina Mayne, and Barbara Rodgers
A relatively simple piece of technology facilitates collaboration, allowing three maidens-in (temporary)-distress to get the job done and remain best friends. Wikis Work for Online Tech Ed Courses
By Pam Page Carpenter and Edward Roberts
These graduate education students used wikis to learn online and now believe that if teachers are going to use new technologies in their classrooms, they must first learn to use the technology themselves. How I Became a WebHead
By Cheryl Oakes
A hard-working classroom teacher describes the amazing six-week Web-related experience that forever changed her perspectives on learning. Professional Development as Podcast
By Kathleen P. King and Mark Gura
Educators get professional development anytime and anywhere by listening to Podcasts on an ordinary MP3 player. Full Circle: From Mentee to Technology Mentor
By Frank Rudnesky, Ed. D
What goes around comes around, including with peer mentoring. 5 Steps to Problem Based Professional Development
By Miguel Guhlin
How the approach that helps our students to learn can also make professional development engaging and empowering. Let Your Mentors Do the Coaching
By Barbara Bray
There are many challenges in creating a coaching and mentoring program and this article offers advice on how to meet them. Professional Development Tips
By Barbara Bray
Here are some helpful ideas about teacher research, lessons, model lessons, and classroom observations. Learning from a Distance Brings it Home
By Barbara Bray
Videoconferencing and other online opportunities allow learning anytime from anywhere. Read about some online classroom and professional development options. Lessons a Foreign Student Learned from an Online Course
By Chaohui Wang
Here are some important lessons on how to become a good online instructor from the author's own experiences as a student and from the observations of her instructor's teaching practices. Handheld Training for Automotive Instructors
By Connie Meek
Advantages of using handhelds in the automotive technology environment are portability and compact size. Here’s how one tech coordinator prepared the teachers to use them. Professional Development Anytime, Anywhere
By Keith Restine, Martha Peet, John Rice and Louise Keeton
Teachers in Texas can engage in anytime, anywhere technology-related professional development with an online professional development portal that delivers courses, resources, and tools. The Basics of PowerPoint
By Amy Gaimaro
The purpose of a presentation is to communicate subject matter, but beware of causing confusion. Here are hints and a PowerPoint tutorial to help you. Summer Workshops Make the Difference
By Karen Vitek
Taking a weeklong summer workshop changed how one educator approached teaching with technology, helped her learn about learning, and made a difference for her students. Working with Reluctant Teachers
By Wesley Fryer
Here are some ways to help you help teachers who feel overwhelmed with all the demands on their time and see technology as just one more. Of Math and Myths: Professional Development and Change among High School Teachers
By Mary Burns
The myth that high school teachers are resistant to change needs revisiting because with professional development, they embrace both technology and learner-centered approaches. This is Your Brain on the Internet
By Barbara Bray
Online collaboration offers educators greater opportunities for seeking advice, challenging orthodoxy, meeting new minds and constructing one's own sense of self. Data Can Drive Development
By Barbara Bray
Teachers need training in both data management and data analysis as well as in facilitating discussions about data. Professional developers can help. Learn By Doing: A Hands-On Approach to Help Teachers Use Technology
By Barbara Bray
Staff development should provide opportunities for teachers to learn, plan, practice, experiment with, reflect about, and share the use of technology themselves. Digital Resources Help Teachers Succeed
By Barbara Bray
Here's how to help teachers use and produce digital resources so they and their students can benefit from this large library of content. Between Technology and Teacher Effectiveness: Professional Development
By Joan Cunningham
Technology-focused professional development for teachers is critical if technology is to be used to promote learning. Here are insights into what some school districts done.
Starting a Successful Mentor Program
By Suzanne Buza-Snead and Scott Walker
A librarian mentor can serve as professional advisor who has time-tested advice on issues and concerns related to library services.
Technology Rich, Computer Poor
By Brandi Evans
A technology specialist and twelve teachers had a mission: to find practical ways to integrate technology. The result: Web Quests and more.
Tips By and For Tech Coordinators
By Barbara Bray
At a technology coordinators' meeting, Barbara compiled thoughts on how tech coordinators view their jobs. Here's the skinny about the job, from jobholders themselves.
Getting Real with Technology
By Linda Balfour & Anne Zajac
Teachers encounter a complex learning curve in integrating technology into their classrooms. These include learning how to use the software, planning for technology use, and adjusting classroom management. These instructional technology staff developers have created a process called TMPI - Train, Map, Plan, Implement - to help teachers transition from being personal users to proactive users of technology tools.
Resistant Teachers: A Challenge for Staff Developers
By Barbara Bray
Resistance comes mostly from fear of any change. Many teachers are busy with their daily routines and can find any excuse when asked to add something new. But technology is not going away, and as a staff developer, you may be given the task to support all the teachers at your site and build their proficiency levels for technology use. Here's advice on what to do and how to do it.
Issues About Technology Integration
By Barbara Bray
Integration does not happen easily. Planning is important, and having enough time to plan is essential for successful integration. The job of staff developer includes helping teachers see what integration in their classroom looks like and how technology can be appropriately and effectively used to reach student academic goals. Read Barbara's strategies and factors for effective integration.
Study Groups Strengthen the Learning Community
By Barbara Bray
Professional development traditionally is not part of the culture of the school day. Still teachers are finding creative ways to develop constructivist approaches to teaching within the traditional system. Coaching teams and study groups can be the foundation of your professional development program if they're built into the school day.
New Dimensions
By Barbara Bray
Businesses are using new ways of working and learning. Schools, investigating integration, are following suit. Schools can use a similar Web model that encompasses the entire community and uses Internet tools for whole system change, including addressing how teachers learn. More than individual teacher professional development, we need to embrace whole school development.
Technology and Students with Special Needs
By Barbara Bray
Assistive technology helps level the field for both learning and physically challenged students, and opens doors for them to the wider world. By learning about assistive devices and other technology available, professional developers can help point to appropriate resources to support student learning and communicating. Helping teachers with bridging technology and learning for students with physical limitations starts with knowing what works.
Using A Feminist Computer Analogy to Teach Hardware
By Nan Adams
Nan's work is to help in-service K-12 teachers develop their skills and techniques with integration of technology into teaching practice through graduate level coursework. Her students were struggling to understand her attempts to explain basic computing machinery. She racked her brain and A Feminist Computer Analogy emerged. She uses this simple and somewhat humorous dialog and shares it with you.
Technology: It's Primary
By Barbara Bray and Gail Lovely
Primary students are natural users of technology; many are already proficient. They're ready to use the tools, and the adults who may be less comfortable with technology need ongoing support to create unique learning environments that encourage young children to be creative and productive.
Good Resources: A Professional Developer's Best Strategy
By Barbara Bray
In a standards-based and constructivist learning environment, professional developers will want the latest research, resources, tips and strategies at their fingertips. They'll need good information about academic content and technology standards, curriculum frameworks and assessment strategies, research and reports on educational reform. There's a lot a professional developer has to know. Here are some great resources
to get and keep this knowledge up to date.
Professional Development Goes Global
By Barbara Bray
The Internet connects people in ways we never thought possible, and effective support for teachers in building collaborative student projects brings an international approach to learning. Professional developers can help facilitate international connections by working with teachers on the development of classroom online collaborative projects. Determine which appropriate resources are available to the teacher, review the student learning goals, and do the research to find suitable projects to tackle.
Change.com: A Technology Training Success Story
By James D. Sheffield
Sweeping education reform in our state had set new certification requirements for teachers, among which was for educators to demonstrate satisfactory proficiency of computer skills. The plan was to develop a re-delivery infrastructure for training our school staffs by utilizing a peer-coaching model in order to bring relevant technologies into the classroom. James and the other coaches at the schools throughout the system, were in charge of training the teachers at their respective schools in the use of technology in the classroom. Here's how it worked.
The Administrator's Role in Professional Development and Technology Integration
By Barbara Bray
Administrators' roles change when they create professional growth opportunities within the structure of the school system. While it's ultimately the teacher's responsibility to identify when and how technology can be used to improve the student program, the administrator plays a vital role in setting the stage. Several leading authorities share their opinions on how administrators can encourage and support technology integration.
Webpages to Go: Offline with Internet Explorer
By Wesley A. Fryer
Learn to copy Internet Web pages to your own hard drive or network file server to use during your lessons. Access to these offline pages is faster and guaranteed, regardless of the speed/status of your Internet connection during classes.
Take A Varied Approach to Assessment
By Barbara Bray
Looking for effective teacher assessment of technology integration? To get the best answers, start by asking the right questions. Using assessment strategies as part of professional development can build confidence and enthusiasm among teachers and ultimately support the student program. Teachers need to start with good baseline data that's used on an ongoing basis and includes a variety of assessment tools.
Digital Photos Online
By Wesley A. Fryer
There used to be a considerable delay between capturing an event on film and sharing the resulting photos with others. Digital photography, based on bits rather than atoms, is dramatically changing this process. Today, teachers and students all over the United States have increasing access to digital cameras and digital tools, including computers, software, and Internet connectivity. This article describes several ways to share digital photographs with others on the Internet, using free online services and software available to all educators connected to the information superhighway.
On the Right Track
By Barbara Bray
Everyone wants students to be successful and understand what they have studied. Using student data and examples help teachers determine if they on the right track. This planning process should drive the professional development program. Linking the technology professional development program with improving student achievement provides teachers an effective action plan that teachers can use.
Online Courseware
By Wesley A. Fryer
Many educators find the prospect of creating and posting web pages on the Internet to be intimidating. Browser based web page services can make this process easier and enable classroom teachers to publish course content and even teach online with a minimum of Web development expertise. This article presents three different options for educators who want to create web pages to supplement and/or teach a course. These include Blackboard, Yahoo Courses, and WebCT. Including a variety of both free and fee-based features, these web services are worth examining for teaching with online content.
Technology Professional Development for Life Long Learners
By Brian P. Czapla
In January of 2001, Smith Middle School opened its doors in a new technologically-rich building after years of planning and construction. School leaders knew that the staff would be transitioning from a 30-year-old, low-tech environment, so the training needs became paramount. They realized that the success of implementing reform in education is based on a well thought out training plan and continuous support. This is the story of how they avoided some common pitfalls.
Knowledge Managers for Collaborative Learning Communities
By Barbara Bray
To understand how to use new resources as part of the curriculum, a major focus for professional development will be on information literacy skills. This is where the user accesses the information, uses it, evaluates it, and then synthesizes it into his/her own words. Knowledge management goes a step further, not only personalizing the student program, but also increasing understanding.
Excel Spreadsheets: An Excel Shortcourse for Teachers
By Wesley A. Fryer
After becoming comfortable using other teaching and administrative software, a logical "next step" for educators is to begin using spreadsheets. Educators can use spreadsheets to improve administrative tasks and communication and this article describes ways to use spreadsheet software - specifically Microsoft Excel - to manage lists within an educational context. Steps for Excel in this article apply to the following versions: Excel 2000 for Windows, and Excel 2001 for Macintosh.
Support and Train Teachers for Success with Classroom Technology
By Janice Friesen
Enhancing Missouri's Instructional Networked Teaching Strategies (eMINTS ) classrooms are providing great stories these days - success stories. eMINTS helps eliminate the barriers to technology use in classroom by providing a high level of support for teachers as they integrate multimedia technology into inquiry-based, student-centered, interdisciplinary, collaborative teaching practices. It addresses the barriers of isolation, lack of training, and lack of time and it gives teachers the chance to become learners and to experience their students' motivation. Find out why teachers find it so invigorating.
Turning Your Projects Into Recruiting Tools
By C. Michael Sturgeon
As a Systems/Multimedia Librarian, Michael helps faculty to use technology for teaching purposes. In this example, a faculty member wanted help with including video for presentations for teachers who were learning to help special education students. He helped to create CDs for training in the Developmental Inclusion Center, and his ultimate goal is to create teaching materials that use technology that will give the students the desire to learn.
Building a Useful School Web Site
By Ken Royal
Not everyone has to be a Webmaster in order to create a useful school Web site. Everyone can offer what he or she can toward a team effort. To do this well, the school community has to create and build the site together. Ken provides steps to make it happen that include seeking out staff who are already sharing Web pages on the Internet, getting people involved; making the information useful, keeping it safe, and staying in control. Find out the details and the strategies that Ken's school used successfully.
Copyright in the Classroom: A Workshop for Educators
By Karen Work Richardson
When Karen was asked to develop a copyright workshop, she did so somewhat reluctantly. Copyright seemed like a dull subject. As she worked on the presentation, however, she found the opposite to be true: copyright was fascinating, controversial, and, with Napster just coming online, very much in the news. Copyright, which had barely been mentioned as part of her teacher education program just 15 years before, was suddenly showing up as part of newly adopted teacher technology competencies. Computers, the Internet, and the proliferation of VCRs have made copyright education a priority. Read how Karen developed and revised her workshop and what she focuses on today.
Media Workshop: Changing the Paradigm of Staff Development
By Donna Schnupp
This past year, Media Workshop, an educational technology professional development organization, experimented with new models and approaches to staff development: teachers learning along with their students. Read about Donna's approach and the results.
Using Technology to Develop a Dropout Prevention Program
By Pam Moore LPC
Facing an ever-increasing dropout rate for teenagers in Texas high schools, Plainview Independent School District decided to create an option that might be attractive enough to lure disengaged students back to the classroom. School staff members decided to develop an in-house program. They wrote a grant proposal to fund several programs. To meet the needs of such a diverse group, the staff decided on a computer-generated learning model.
Staff Development Models
By Barbara Bray
Staff development comes in many forms, but what works is when a team of people really believe in making something work and fighting for it. If you are part of the curriculum or technology team at your school or district, you probably find yourself in the role of advocate for quality staff development. Every situation is different, but Barbara presents several models that exemplify high-quality staff development.
Integration of IT into Teaching and Learning: An IT Planning Guide
By Larissa Brenner
Teaching styles are varied and it's up to each individual teacher to find a way of integrating instructional technology (IT) into teaching and learning that compliments his or her teaching style. The templates and examples Larissa provides are a demonstration of how IT can further engage students in their studies and extend them by providing them with different contexts and perspectives to analyze information, reason and present their own ideas. Use the templates as they are or modify them to suit your needs. The most important thing to remember is that IT is enjoyable and exciting. The more you use it the more you will see the benefits, and you and your students can experience the joy and excitement of learning together.
Tailoring Professional Development
By Joanne Tate
Successful professional development is like a good suit of clothes. It has to fit. Joanne Tate presents a wardrobe of professional development activities being tried on by educators in Victoria, Australia.
I'm Afraid I'll Break It
By Linda L. Johnson
Technofear! It's not a new Hollywood thriller but it does play in the minds of many of our colleagues, those who for whatever reasons, still refuse to touch a computer. Linda understands their fears, and, as someone who teaches in-service computer courses, offers a host of suggestions on how to help technophobic teachers enter the computer age.
A New Model of District Technology Use
By Jeffrey Branzburg
Putting computers in the classrooms is only part of the answer. Unless someone can teach the teachers, all that new hardware may never fulfill its potential. Jeff describes one school district that created a cadre of highly motivated and dedicated teacher trainers. It believed enough in teachers to actually give them computers for home use. These "peer-practitioners" share their knowledge with colleagues, becoming grass-roots evangelists for practical ways to integrate technology into the curriculum.
Implementing Technology Training: Five Key Ingredients to Success
By Linda Kennedy
Picture a school with 50 new workstations with Internet access, cable access, laser discs, and even video technology equipment. It sounds like a teacher's dream, doesn't it? But Linda wonders how all this high-tech gadgetry can be well-used by the teachers whose task it is to prepare students for jobs in the 21st century. She offers five key steps that a school district should follow if its teachers are to be the technology leaders of tomorrow.
Hooking Teachers on Technology: Finding the Right Bait
By Karen Ferrell
As her district's technology coordinator, Karen has netted many people in her computer workshops and watched them as they took the bait. Learn how she helps participants she calls coral reefs, guppies, octopuses, salmon, and sharks, and read her concern about the issues of training and one-shot workshops and some solutions.
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