Well, I’m proud to say I’m an innovative thinker! I submitted a proposal to present at the “Kentucky Innovations 2013” Conference being held at University of Kentucky, May 16 and 17th. The presentation will be highly interactive, demonstrate tech integration, and give a tutorial on it’s replication in learning environments.
Here is what I submitted to the selection committee:
Kentucky Adult Education (KYAE) and Kentucky Educational Television (KET) are taking bold steps to prepare students for 21st Century jobs and education. With more than 80% of Fortune 500 companies requiring applications be submitted online we see the modern workforce is based in a digital world. This session will feature replicable projects for use in classrooms, engaging professional development, and scalability of both by including technology.
Project Based Learning is not only applicable in the classroom but is also equally valid as a tool in professional development. Using Web 2.0 tools, like Google Drive, students readily access their documents. Beyond this, the tool is used for editing and workshopping live in class, giving students an editor’s voice. Programs find taking notes as a team with Google Docs allows them to more fully engage with the topic at hand and maintain focus.
More and more there is a saturation of technology in our student population. Looking to math it is possible to use apps that are readily available on the internet like Penultimate which allows one to write notes by hand, and include photographs with the note. Instructors use the app to assign image quests to students, and present a student’s or group’s work in class! In so doing the facilitator shifts the classroom from people receiving information to a space where students are interacting with math concepts.
The 2014 GED® test is unlike any test seen to date. Adult Education is experiencing a paradigm shift and professional development offerings are evolving with that shift. The overarching goal of adult education professional development is to be of value to the educator, while being immediately replicable in the classroom. Because of these two influences, professional development is being delivered using digital content and utilizing resources like e-surveys, digital worksheets, and making training hands-on for the professional. Trainings are being offered Face-2-Face and via video conferencing options that are supported across platforms, work in Kentucky’s 120 counties, and include more than 55 fiscal agents.
Professional Development in adult education is being offered across the state of Kentucky. Because of geographical, fiscal, and personnel constraints the initiative is using online tools to help scale up trainings, thereby allowing live trainings to be broadcast using free software to multiple geographical regions. From these regional vignettes participants are later brought into group settings wherein the common training is brought to closure and new topics are addressed. From this participation we see that much as instructors are flipping classrooms, professional development is being flipped allowing these skilled professionals to work out issues specific to their craft with peers from other locales, and build learning communities.
Over the course of the session attendees will participate in the instructional model, do projects, make live responses, and have a Q&A with a virtual guest. Just as adult education is finding a shift due to the 2014 GED® test, so too we are seeing industry accept the new technological evolution. It’s time to prepare a workspace for now.
I look forward to sharing this with those of you who will attend, as well as bringing this model to programs in the future.
Huzzah!