PD Videos: Questions and Opportunities for You

PD Colleagues,

Several years ago I was designing online professional development courses for adult educators in California, converting face-to-face workshops to online options. I realized that the online versions would be more interesting if they included good, ideally short, professional development videos. Unfortunately I found very few. This was one of the needs that led to our creating the Media Library of Teaching Skills. For those who may not yet be familiar with this free online library of short, authentic adult education classroom PD videos, take a look, at http://mlots.org

I have several questions that I hope you might be able to help me with:

1.     Have you used the Media Library of Teaching Skills videos, or videos that MLoTS links to? If so, how? In face-to-face PD? In online PD courses?  Which videos have you found particularly helpful?

2.     At the bottom of the front page of MLoTS is a link to free adult education PD videos made by others. I believe – and certainly hope – that with these links the MLoTS web site is the “go to” site for adult education professional development videos.  However, we may have missed some. If you are aware of good adult education-oriented PD videos that we have not listed, please let me know so we can review and possibly list them.

3.     I am not aware of any current adult education PD projects that are making PD videos that might be available online for free. Are you aware of any? If so, please let us know.

4.     I would be especially interested to know about other adult education PD projects that are creating or making authentic classroom videos (not talking heads but videos in which there is an authentic classroom, at least as part of the video.) If you know of any, please let us know.

5.     What else is happening with adult education instructional videos? If you are involved in a project, I would be interested in knowing about it, and what it is doing.

I ‘ve been working with a dozen or so adult education writing teachers from around the country to review adult secondary education and transition to college writing instructional videos. We’ve found lots of them, and have reviewed some. We have also found a few writing instruction professional development videos, not authentic classroom videos, not necessarily focused on adult pre-college learners, but interesting PD nonetheless. If anyone is interested I could list these here.

I’ll be doing a free webinar for the Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers (AALPD) next week, Wednesday November 13, from 2:00 – 3:00 EST. We will look at short, free online writing instructional videos that can supplement classroom instruction, as well as videos that may help with writing professional development, and we will discuss them. Participants will receive links to a list and reviews by ASE and ASE writing instructors. To register, go to: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/aalpd11-13-13

If you are attending the NCTN conference next week in Rhode Island, I’ll be doing a workshop on writing instructional videos there on Friday morning.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Comments

I use the Wendy Quinones videos on vocabulary and fluency as part of the reading/writing portion of an online adult education overview. I always get favorable comments from the participants about the videos and how helpful they are.