T & L CoP Colleagues,
In the Professional Development CoP I posted a message today, in a thread on using coaching for professional development in adult basic education, in which I describe two uses of technology that may be of interest to T&L community members. In the post that I responded to, Becky Shiring (also a member of this CoP) mentions her adult charter school's innovative uses of technology (e.g. Skype) to enable online meetings between coaches and part-time teachers.
Below are excerpts from my post:
Coaching and Just-in-time PD at the School or Program level
Teachers' video-recording their classes
There is a time-honored teacher training practice, originally known as micro-teaching, in which teachers prepare a short lesson, usually for under a half-hour, including creating a lesson plan that has student learning objectives. The coach or mentor meets with the teacher before the lesson to go over the lesson plan, and to find out what the teacher would especially like the mentor or coach to observe and comment on. The lesson is video-recorded, often by the teacher herself, using a smartphone or inexpensive digital camera. The teacher and mentor or coach watch the video together if possible, but separately if not. Then they meet, in-person or real-time online, for example using Google Hangout, Join.me or Skype, to discuss the lesson.
Library of just-in-time professional development resources to use with coaching
Create a smartphone app professional development library tailored to the needs of new -- and other -- teachers at your school. Despite best efforts to prepare new teachers or tutors face-to-face upfront, often the tough or persistent challenges emerge once their teaching or tutoring has begun. Some of these challenges may, especially over time, be predictable, and the app could include separate sections for each major identified kind of challenge. It could include a short description of the challenge (for example, addressing English language learners' needs in a multi-level classroom), and then links to good professional development resources: articles, videos, websites, LINCS resources, LINCS archived CoP discussions, archived webinars or free courses (such as those on LINCS) that the coaches believe would be helpful. Some of the PD resources might be videos that your coaches make of their own teaching, that are uploaded to a private or public YouTube channel. Think of this as a just-in-time professional development library that is focused on predictable teaching challenges, and that is best "delivered" when the teacher or tutor is facing the actual need. One example of this, designed for volunteer tutors, is the Literacy Mid-South app, available free for iPhones, androids, iPads and other tablets. Although the app has other features, such as a tutor management system and links to relevant social media pages, the video links library provides just-in-time tutor professional development. http://www.literacymidsouth.org/resources/practice-forms/ Perhaps the Carlos Rosario adult school could create such an app -- the underlying software for the Literacy Mid-South app is either free or inexpensive -- that is tailored to the needs that you and other coaches have identified. Or perhaps you already do something like this, perhaps with a webpage or with a mobile app? If so, please let me know. I wonder if other programs are using program-made apps and web pages for just-in-time PD, and if they are linking it to coaching.
Becky, and others, I wonder if you find either of these ideas intriguing. If you have questions about them I'll try to answer them, or to put you in touch with those who can.
Thanks.
David J. Rosen
Technology and Learning CoP Moderator