Issues and Experiences in Staff Development

Dear PD Colleagues,

Many of us face issues in planning and implementing professional development in adult education. These issues are unique to our work and may be something as simple as “How do I engage very part-time teachers in PD” or “Is distance PD bridging the miles in your area?”  Since many of us are here because we want to learn from one another, what are some issues you’ve faced in staff development lately?

For example, you may have an issue you face in PD and you would like feedback or recommendations from your colleagues across the country.  Or maybe you’d like to share a recent experience participating in, planning, or providing staff development and tell us how you handled it.  Or maybe you’ve faced a recent “fact or fiction” issue in your practice or professional study that you’d like to share.

What’s the issue in PD that you’ve faced lately? Tell us about it.

Looking forward to hearing from you,

Jackie

Jackie Taylor

EBPD SME

jackie@jataylor.net

Comments

Ok, here's my basic question: "How can we get more AE instructor participation in online webinars?"

And this question includes these facets:

1) Getting MORE instructors to ATTEND webinars.
Recent data from 2012-2013 LINCS PD event evaluation indicates that the majority of participants in the LINCS community as a whole are administrators- not instructors. IN addition, Due to costs, and time lmitations of instructors, increased use of online learning tools for PD is a priority for LINCS. How do we make webinars more accessible and interesting to AE instructors? How do we hook them in? 

2) Once we have them in a session, how do we get more interactive *participation* by AE instructors in webinars? 
My personal experience is that the majority of webinar participants are silent - neither chatting nor speaking, or doing so only very minimally. In my mind, this questions has several facets:

  • How do we design and conduct good, interactive *learning* webinars? How do we support other experts/ PD facilitators to do so as well?
  • How do we encourage webinar participants (espeically AE instructors) to "talk" - to use textchat or use audio? How do we work to overcome the "facelessness", technological intimidation, and/or reduced accountability aspects of a webinar?
  • How do we address the technological barriers to interaction in a webinar?  Participants who attend without a microphone ( no access to voice), or who type very slowly (making chats an uncomfortable chore)?

In a face to face setting I would make eye contact, call on several folks and/or put folks into groups.  I've often used long silences to get folks to volunteer. In webinars, these tactics aren't avaialble or aren't effective due to the tech barriers, reduced accountability, etc.

Don't get me wrong - I've facilitated and participated in sa few GREAT interactive webinars. But they are the exception, not the rule, and I'm feeling challenged with how to address this. If this was happening in a face to face venue, I would SERIOUSLY work to overhaul my approach.  I'm happy to do so for webinars - but am not sure WHAT to do! [And to top it off, we're getting good, positive feedback on webinars...in which almost no-one interacted, depsite our efforts to create an interactive design.  AHHHg!]

 

Duren Thompson

Center for Literacy, Education and Employment

This is a GREAT question Duren. 

Our project facilitates webinars on a weekly basis and all of your comments are areas that we have struggled with. I think there are multiple issues that create the barriers. 

  • In my experinece, many AE instructors have little experience with Webinars. Often, the first several minutes are spent with trouble shooting the technical isses related to actually launching the meeting. 
  • Many AE instructors are part time, often working more than one job so their availability for webinars is limited. 

I have come to believe that before we can create engaging webinars, we must first help AE instructors be comfortable with this delivery method. They need to learn how to use the features and tools that are available to ask questions, participate in polls, chat with other participants in small groups, and share their expertise. I think that it is often the unfamiliarity with how to use the technology is their barrier. Even when they have 'listened' to many webinars, they have not learned how to use the tools - and have become accustomed to the webinar experience as being passive. In order to overcome this, we are starting to send out tutorials for using the feautures prior to the webinar. Starting in December, we will extend the webinars by about 20 minutes and begin with a brief conversation about how to fully engage in the experience. I am hoping that will increase active participation during the remaining part of the webinar. 

Our next dilema is finding common times for AE instrutors to participate. We have often been asked to facilitate evening and / or weekend times -which we attempt to do, but our registration is for these alternative times are very low as well. I am interested in learning what others think is an 'optimal' time to facilitate these webinars. 

My additonal question is that we often have requests for people to view archieved webniars. I am not sure how I feel about that. Primarily, it allows people to access quality information at their own time. But - I wonder if by viewing the archieved versions, they missing the interation and opportunity to share their ideas and insight as well as ask pertinent questions. I would love to hear your thoughts about archieving past webinars as a PD experience. 

Kathy Tracey
Curriculum Director

OK, great!  Your reply builds on Bob's - and addresses the question I asked him: "[Do] teachers TAKING PD at a distance need support in learning to function and benefit in an online environment?"  - to which you say YES! 

I also asked Bob, "From where should they get that support? Locally/face to face or at a distance? What has been effective...?"  Sounds like you are going the "at a distance" route through e-mailed tutorials on how to use the software and using a section of the webinar reserved solely for how to fully engage...PLEASE let us know how this works! 

Your ideas got me thinking about participant expectations for a webinar. Do we as PD professionals always make the format and expectations of a webinar clear ahead of time?  "This webinar will contain pair or small group activities during which participants are expected to speak to each other via phone or microphone."  or "All participants will be expected to type answers into a chat tool at least 5 times during this hour-long webinar."  A statement about why this is important "andragogically" might be good too....

Also, do you/we require any sort of accountability in webinars?  In face-to-face PD settings there is a 'peer pressure' element that forms a sort of accountabiilty...everyone can see if you leave the room, read a newspaper or fail to respond to a question.  If someone in a webinar fails to respond, however, we say "oh, must be a tech problem," or "oh, she must have stepped away," - because we can't see what is going on - reduced accountability. In a face to face setting a good facilitator can make eye contact that often "compels" a response, or leave a long silence until someone fills it. In webinars, those long silences tend to imply technical difficulties, and folks can just go check their e-mail until the facilitator gives up - reduced accountability.

I've heard of/seen two strategies that attempt to address this accountability issue in webinars:

1) Offer some sort of participation certificate that can be used towards credentialing, or local PD requirments - that requires you to meet certain accountability points - "participate" in the webinar [defined as respond to questions asked, share thoughts in the chat, etc.] and/or complete a form with info about what you drew from the webinar and/or what you plan to do with the webinar information, and/or participate in an online discussion afterwards and make at least one meaningful post [and Jackie Taylor has a GREAT description of 'meaningful posts']...etc.  Oops!  Now we have drifted off into blended online learning again, Alson! :)

2) Plan on several questions early on in the webinar that participants are very likely to respond to. "Please type a hello to the facilitator in the chat."  immediately allows the moderators to see who is not participating and ask if there is a technical issue.  So does "type your state/town/program in the chat" or "state ONE thing you hope to take away from this session."  I've also seen requests to raise your hand if you are an "instructor/administrator/etc." and give me a checkmark if you use X in the classroom, etc.  These things at the front help to familiarize folks with the tools, get them used to interacting in some way, and let the moderators know who is not participating. I've even see moderators "call on" those they have not heard from and wait to see if they respond (long pauses with some peer pressure - THEY all responded, why not you?)  You know, it is harsh, but perhaps a policy/expectation of "If you don't respond to the intro questions in some way, we will assume you have a poor technological connection and will thus will remove you from the webinar to prevent a poor PD experience." [Reconnect and participate, or keep getting tossed out...]  This would be hard to do, I think, with large numbers or without support moderators to help monitor this stuff...again because it is harder to "see" things on line.

Which brings up another, related question - numbers. How many is too many for an interactive, participatory webinar? 20? 30? 50?  I was in a webinar yesterday with 80 folks, of whom maybe 20-25 actively participated in the chat - and oh MAN the chat text just FLEW by too fast for me to read it! [I asked the facilitator for a copy so I could read it later.]  There is a phrase - Webcast* - which means, roughly "information out to a large group of people with maybe some Q&A at the end."  These I think are appropriate for large #s - but are very, very passive. [To address your last question, Kathy, these are, I think, perfectly appropriate for recording and viewing later.]  I think a good, interactive webinar really needs no more folks than you'd want to manage in a 1-hour face to face interactive training, really. for us that is about 20-30. 

And, in truth, I think there is value in publishing recordings of even these, because - as you point out - scheduling is a problem for AE instructors.  But perhaps the idea of these extra "accountability pieces" - a survey or follow-up online chat - would help to engage those who were only able to view the recording...flipping the learning indeed.

Whew - you, and the webinar I attended yesterday, triggered a LOT of thoughts. Hope this spurs more discussion!

*Here's a good discussion of the words web conferencing, webcast, webinar, web event... http://wsuccess.typepad.com/webinarblog/2007/03/webinar_or_webc.html 

Kathy, you have raised an important barrier to active participation: participants -- including teachers -- who are not comfortable with the webinar environment or with a particular webinar platform.

Having a tutorial video (or screen capture video) is a good idea.

Another idea is to extend the length of the webinar by 30 minutes, letting people know that the first part is intended to help people become comfortable with the webinar technology features. In that half hour, the moderator could introduce -- and have people practice using -- the features before the actual webinar begins. Those who are familiar with the platform could log in after the introduction, but until the great majority of teachers are comfortable in using several platforms, having these intro and practice sessions as a regular option might help the field to get more comfortable with the webinar technology features, some of which are generalizable across platforms and some of which are not.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Hi Duren,

Let's look at particular webinars and the features or strategies that engage teachers and get them to actively participate. Yesterday I presented -- and you attended -- an AALPD webinar on using writing instructional videos with adult learners and for professional development. (The archive will soon be on the AALPD web site http://aalpd.org  for those who missed it, and for those who want to watch it again.) There were lots of teachers  -- I think at least 40, and about an equal number of administrators. Although few participants asked questions by phone (I'll suggest some strategies for improving that later) many asked questions and made comments in the chat. Inspired by your thoughts, Duren, in the discussion here, I asked participants what the follow-up to this introductory webinar should be. One participant, Deborah Schwartz, I think,  had a terrific idea. Since this was an introduction to using free, web-based writing instructional videos, and since there is now a public list of some of these writing instruction videos, and a document of reviews of eleven videos, choose two or three, ask teachers to watch and then discuss them.

Duren -- or others who attended this webinar --  did you think there was good teacher participation in yesterday's webinar? How could teacher participation have been improved?

Regarding getting teachers to use the phone for comments, many teachers can be shy in public forums. For some reason, perhaps because we believe we have more control in writing, using the phone seems riskier than writing in the chat window. Also, it's hard for many people to "break the ice." Webinar presenters, in advance, could ask teachers who they know have registered for a webinar to ask a question or make a comment -- early in the webinar -- by voice (phone or VOIP). If there are two or three of those early on and then again after a few minutes, it may be easier for participants to see themselves using the voice option. Also, once someone does ask a question, a moderator or presenter could, if appropriate, answer and then ask others to "chime in" to talk about how they handle the issue, address the problem, answer the question. They could encourage others to answer by the voice option.

There may be other (archived, present or future) PD webinars that we could discuss here. If you are a presenter of an adult ed PD webinar, perhaps you could post an announcement of it to this CoP; you could also ask participants to look at the webinar from the point of view of "what worked and what didn't" in encouraging teacher engagement, and we could discuss that here after the webinar. I believe that focusing on specific examples, analysing what strategies did and didn't work for engaging teachers, will be helpful to those of us who organize and present in webinars, but may also get participants thinking about how they might engage differently in webinars. Perhaps someone reading this, for example, in future webinars will decide to use the voice option for a question or comment.

Again, anyone who participated in yesterday's webinar, or who watches the archive of it: it would be great to have your comments here on what strategies you think worked or didn't work, or could be tried next time, to increase teacher participation.

 

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

David,

Your webinar yesterday had both more attendees and more participation than, I'd say, the majority of the webinars I've attended/supported/facilitated. You had about 80 attendees, of which roughly 30 initially self-identified as instructors (although some folks later responded via text to your "other roles?" question who I would have labeled as instructors).  I would ask - how many of these had worked with you on the research in evaluating videos for teaching college-prep writing skills?  Does a vested interest in the topic - prior participation in PD relating  to this topic - aid in attendance and participation?

Almost all that participation was in the textchat. I think there were 2-3 folks who we comfortable speaking aloud. Of the 80 attendees, it looks like 53 posted at least one text during the session.  Which means around 25 stayed "silent."  [I'll note that all of the folks willing to talk by phone ALSO posted text in the chat.]  Below is a simple analysis of the # of text posts per person who posted (excluding Deb Hargrove and David) - looks like roughly 25 folks out of 80 made 5 text chat posts or more (this is a quick and dirty analysis - all tech problems, hello, goodbye and yes/no responses are included in the counts, so I dropped the 1st 4 levels as a quick compensation.)

Thnking about it, if I was in a face-to face session of 80, these numbers would be about right for a session with no small groups built in.  So YES David, I think your webinar showed a good level of interaction compared to a face to face session and VERY good compared to many webinars. I think this is, in part, due to how you-all designed and facilitated the webinar.

That said - a couple of "data cautions."  I don't have the info I need to determine how many of these posters were the instructors - so we don't know how much of this interaction came from administrators and professional developers [I know Irene and I were 2 of the high # posters]. Also, I note that this was a nation-wide audience...and reached only 80 AE folks - roughly 40 instructors - out of ALL AE instructors who might teach this level of writing.  Thinking about it this way, that actually seems a pretty small # of attendees, really. 


1 Chat post  - 9 people
2 Chat posts  - 6 people
3 Chat posts - 6 people
4 Chat posts - 7  people
5 Chat posts - 5  people
6 Chat posts - 2  people
7 Chat posts - 3  people
8 Chat posts - 1  people
9 Chat posts - 2  people
10 Chat posts - 2  people
12 Chat posts - 1  person
13 Chat posts - 1 person
14 Chat posts - 1 person
15 Chat posts - 1 person
17 Chat posts - 2 people
20 Chat posts - 2 people
23 Chat posts - 1 person
26 Chat posts - 1 person
Total people posting 53

 

Hi Duren,

Thanks for checking the webinar data. Based on these, and also on my feeeling about this webinar compared to many others I have presented or participated in, I would agree that there was a lot of engagement. As far as I know, none of the teachers who are in the project to evaluate videos participated in this webinar, and I only knew perhaps a half dozen of the participants. I was glad to see so many people I didn't know, because that indicated that using free, online instruction writing videos in the ASE classroom and/or for professional development is -- as I suspected -- a hot topic. It is now my major topic as a PD presenter. I will be doing a face-to-face session tomorrow at the NCTN conference in Warwick, R.I. , a webinar next Wednesday for the New Jersey Association for Lifelong Learning (NJALL), and I hope to do a presentation in March at COABE. I am passionate about this, and hope to engage many more adult education teachers in using free online videos, and also in making their own classroom videos for their students, and for others. I am interested in doing presentations at state conferences, and doing other webinars on this topic.

Perhaps, a little off topic, a word or two on why I am passionate about this. Earlier this year I visited GED(r) programs in California, Florida and Pennsylvania. I talked with adult learners preparing for the 2002 GED(r) test. I asked them how they prepare. They all said they try to go to class as often as possible. I asked if they also use the Internet. Students over 50 said they didn't, and some said they didn't plan to. Younger students, 18-30, said they did go online. I asked how they found instructional web sites. Most said their teachers recommended (text-based) sites for them, which some found helpful. A few -- all younger -- said they also found their own web sites. Naively I asked, did you just Google "GED"? They all looked at me like I was from another century (I am),  and said that their search engine of choice is not Google but YouTube. They start with YouTube to find information about how to do things, everything, including how to pass the GED(r) tests. More and more adult learners -- whether enrolled in programs or not, are doing exactly that. Didn't Google recently buy YouTube? If so, smart move!

I passionately want to help adult education teachers "catch up" to their students, to use online videos in the classroom, as supplementary "homework" or in a "flipped classroom" model. I also want to help them be critical users of video just as I would want them to critically evaluate print materials. I want to engage them in thinking about what makes an online video more useful: more engaging, relevant, with sound instructional design, with high technical quality, and tailored for adult (ESOL/ESL, basic literacy, ABE, ASE, Transition to college) learners.

Perhaps in another discussion, here or in a webinar or at a conference, we could "drill down" with those of you who may also be passionate about finding, using, and/or making good free online instructional videos. For those who are interested, one of the classroom PD videos that my videographer colleague, Owen Hartford, and I have made is of a GED(r) prep writing teacher from Clinton, Massachusetts, Brenna Kane. The video was made for professional development and is on the Media Library of Teaching Skills web site http://mlots.org. However, with the other MLoTS videos, about a year and a half ago we also posted it on YouTube. I noticed today that it has over 100,000 hits. You may wonder, are there that many adult writing teachers in the U.S.? No. I think nearly all of these hits are from students preparing for the GED(r) or other writing tests. Judging by the comments people have posted, this PD video has been helpful to them as students. They have found it, I think, by entering "GED" as a YouTube search term. Their comments on the YouTube mlotsadulteducation channel indicate that they have learned a lot from the video because Brenna is a good teacher. I think that's true, but I also think it's because the video is in a classroom context, not just Brenna talking to anonymous students, but Brenna teaching her class, and doing it such a way, and with such energy and engagement, that those watching feel like they are part of that class. That's the direction I would like to see online instructional videos take, not "talking heads", but engaging, face-to-face, authentic learning environments that other adult learners can project themselves into online. Of course, online synchronous instruction can be effective, too, but hat's another topic for our discussion here sometime.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

Taking a cue from flipped classrooms or flipped schooling, we've started doing "flipped pd".  I typically provide a suggested list of readings, videos (YouTube, etc.) and webinars (intentional variety to allow for differing comfort with technology).  Admittedly, sometimes I do not provide an option when I need everyone to get certain content at the same time.  Ideally, staff select items based on their interests and complete independently.  Then, at monthly PD coffee-clutch, we discuss what we observed, liked/disliked and how we will apply.  Part-time staff can submit personal reflections in place of attendance at coffee-clutch.  The key component is always application.  Once staff buy in to the idea that this time positively impacts their students' success (because staff is applying current best-practices and research-based models), it's easy to get them to invest the time.  And, they enjoy the conversational aspect of the coffee-clutch.

Alison,

[Check me to see if I've understood, please]  You propose one solution to assist instructors to attend webinars and actively participate during them is for local programs to put wrap around PD elements in place.  That webinars (even just "information out webinars") should be used as ONE tool in a "set" of PD activities on a topic.  That programs should individualize this set of PD activities to local needs, and, if possible, have a face-to-face component "discussion" of what is being learned, and how it can be applied to the classroom. In fact, application to the classroom, is, you feel, a key to getting instructor buy-in for any PD. Also, you feel that application of PD to the classroom really benefits from active involvement by other staff at the local level.

From this I conclude that one weakness of webinars - particularly the 1 - 1.5 hour "one shot" variety is that they do not stand alone well, and they especially aren't likely to be as effective for the lone instuctor with no local level involvement in the PD process. [Not saying NOT effective, just less likely to be...]

We could then propose that PD professionals/funders should then consider trying to plan for some supports/wrap around for webinars. For example, a LINCS community discussion before and/or after a webinar; two webinars with an emphasis on implementation between webinars and the 2nd webinar is a report-out/discussion; or readings with online (or local) discussion, webinar, and then implementation and reporting back online (or locally).

In fact, webinars should be part of an overall PD plan that likely needs a strong blend of components?

[Does that sound right?]

Yes, that's correct.  I also think when talking about staff participation/motivation, we should remember that teachers are people-centric so asking them to do a bunch of independent work isn't very engaging.  However, long PD workshops are a drag on time.  So a blended approach offers flexibility of scheduling and provides for individual interests while still giving a chance to create a learning community that can hold one another accountable for application and implementation.

Alison - I love your statement "teachers are people-centric."  I don't think I've ever really processed that idea in terms of PD...but of COURSE they are!  I'm something of a fan of Armstrong's implemention of Multiple Intelligence theory* and teachers are clearly identified as strong in interpersonal skills. DUH!

But then why do we often have so much trouble getting teachers to "talk" in face to face settings?  Ok, well, now if I ask them to talk in pairs or groups I can't get them to stop...but they are less likely to speak in front of the large group...which IS the typical majority of interaction in a webinar.

Has anyone used break-out groups or pairs successfully in a webinar?  Does this help them interact online as it does face to face?  And as Bob notes - how do you effectively "monitor" this? [Most tools I know don't record anything during breakout sessions either, sadly]

 

*Armstrong's book: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/377594.Seven_Kinds_of_Smart

We offer a few opportunities for basic skills faculty to engage in professional development at a distance.  We started with a reading methods course a few years back, expanded to math methods, and also offer a year-long series of five courses intended for new faculty.  We experimented with different delivery models that began with two-way video and now have evolved to a mixture of synchronous (using Web conferencing) and asynchronous processes that rely on a course management system.

In all of this, THE key to the success of a course has been the training and support that we've provided to the instructors.  Planning and delivering a course in a new environment is challenging.  Unlike what some of the information that I often see published suggests, teaching well at a distance is as time-demanding and requires as much skill as any other teaching or training.  And, actually, there is a whole new skill set that instructors need to have which require someone to support them as they adapt face-to-face goals to a distance environment.

The best example that I can think of is how instructors facilitate group dialogue.  In a face-to-face classroom, instructors know how to pair students, how to ask open-ended questions that will lead to explorative discussions, and how to monitor for people who are dominating.  We learn how to move among groups and answer questions and know when to just listen.  In a synchronous Web conference, you can divide a class into groups for small group discussions (usually through the software's breakout function).  But knowing how and when to monitor and insert yourself into the discussions and how to get those discussions going takes some practice and a different set of monitoring skills.  That one difference gets extended to how you provide materials, how you set up assignments, how you organize the content -- the whole range of how a course is designed and taught.  And, for most of us, that isn't an intuitive shift.  It requires that we have support in figuring out how to translate our skills as professional developers into this new environment.

So providing that support is, from my experience, the biggest positive step that any organization can take in moving to a distance environment.

Bob Hughes

Bob, sounds like you too advocate a "blended" approach to online PD [See the flipped PD post Alison started.]

In addition, however, you ALSO strongly feel that adequate support needs to be given to those planning and delivering the online PD. They need training in effective design and delivery methods, including how to foster online dialogue.  You note that this is not an intuitive shift - that you had to have support in translating those skills to a new environment. Where did that support come from for you.  And - to get more detailed, what ARE ways that you foster discussion in an online (specifically webinar) environment. How DO you effectively monitor webinar break-out groups online? And how do you address the issue of folks without microphones in break-out groups?

Did I also "hear" implied in your post  that teachers TAKING PD at a distance need support in learning to function and benefit in an online environment?  From where should they get that support? Locally/face to face or at a distance? What has been effective for you-all?

And, in general, what if no one locally HAS experience in supporting facilitators or participants in online PD?  Given limited funding, how can we best support these folks to "break in" to the online learning environment such that they have GOOD experiences (rather than negative one - fostering aversion to online pd)?

I have finally had a chance to read all of these insightful conversations /  posts as they relate to PD at a distance and webinar expectations. We often understand that teachers find barriers to participation due to technology skills and scheduling issues, but my question to lead from this is how do you then track whether the PD has an impact on teacher effectiveness and - student learning outcomes. 

As a part of our role as a distance learning curriculum, we strive to also provide supportive PD (this weeks focus was on creating effective orientationp plans for learners in order to lead to increased student retention.) At the end of ever session - I ask participants what their 'take away' idea is. But then the follow up is sometimes a difficult process. 

So - how do you use technology to measure your effectivness of PD? 

Kathy

Wow Kathy - talk about opening a can of worms!  Measuring the effectiveness of teacher pd: K-12 or Adult education is a challenge that has stumped many over the years. In a lot of cases, the issue is funding - no funding to conduct studies that consistantly deliver PD and then actually check on changes in classroom behaviors, or effects on student learning.  Or if there is funding to conduct the study, it may be difficult to engage part-time teachers in the the needed practices in a systematic way.  Also, the complaint is often heard that there are WAY too many variables to try to control for in determining the effectiveness of PD on student outcomes.

In my own experiences, except on the local program level, or the individual teacher level, I actually rarely see folks even *trying* to measure the direct effect of PD on student outcomes.  And by this I mean that the local administrator goes into calssrooms and observes teacher behavior to see if PD is being implemented, and then compares teacher outcomes before and after PD to see if it is having a positive effect.  And even then individual variables can muddy the waters.

In reality, most of the evaluation for PD is at the learner reaction level (Kirkpatrick's level 1).  I'd like to see a much more widespread use of even Level 2 evaluation (measures of participant learning gains) before worrying about Level 4 (Program/student level outcome effects)

Friends, 

Thus far we have been discussing webinars as a tool for delivering PD and the difficulties encoutnered, as well as the overall success that can happen with the distance learning delivery. I would like to ask how many of you use social media as a professional delivery tool. If so, how do you use is? If not, what are your barriers to using it? 

I use a combination of Pinterest, Wordpress, Youtube, Twitter and facebook. While I think these are effective strategies and I am curious to hear your thoughts and comments. 

Kathy,

Could you tell us a bit more, perhaps give us some examples of PD you have offered or participated in, what the PD area was, perhaps the objectives,  what social media tools you used, and how you used them, and why these particular tools? I would also be interested in how teachers liked using these tools, if for example they were familiar with them already so there was a low threshold, or if because there were several tools, that made it more difficult.

Thanks,

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

Hi, Kathy, 

I have been using pbworks.com to create wikis, or collaborative websites, for posting pre-session readings or reflection questions and then having participants respond there and also respond to others' comments upon implementation of their new practices.  They can also post pictures, lessons, links to websites, etc. 

I have found it deepens the learning and collaborative support.  Let me know if you have not tried it or have questions.

 

I have not used social media, though.  I learned about wikis and like the focus that it provides.  For some reason I have this thought that facebook might be distracting and not foster as deep sharing.  I could be wrong.  I do love Youtube videos, though.