Renee A.

Peterson 24 November 2012 Professional Development In Educational Technology LTLE 622 Professional Development Plan For Williamsport High School For the integration and diffusion of My Big Campus Phase I Background The State of Maryland requires that all teachers meet a proficient standard in 21st Century Skills that include but are not limited to multi-media classroom tools, computerized grading programs, word processing programs for documents and records, and on-line programs for data collection and evaluation. All of those activities are beneficial to the running of an educational organization and the management of paperwork, but they do not transform the methods of teaching or learning in the classroom. Until technological tools are used for learning rather than for presentation of material, teachers are simply adding bells and whistles to their lecture by using document cameras instead of over-head projectors and Power Point presentations rather than a chalkboard. Williamsport High Schools School Achievement Plan developed by the School Improvement Team includes four beliefs for students and four for teachers. o For Students o o o We believe all WHS students can learn rigorous and relevant curriculum. We believe all WHS students should graduate career and/or college ready We believe all WHS students need to be literate in all content areas

2 o We believe all WHS students need STEM skills to be productive in the 21st century (emphasis added) o For Teachers o o o We believe every WHS student deserves a highly effective teacher We believe great teaching improves student achievement We believe all teachers at WHS are also learners, and we value professional development o We believe all teachers need to facilitate the effective use of technology for teaching and learning (emphasis added) The beliefs drive the mission and vision of the school. VISION: To empower all learners by emphasizing the application of knowledge and skills, the importance of critical thinking, and the efficacy of problem solving MISSION: To prepare graduates who are literate, prepared for college and career, and able to succeed in developing a culture of positive relationships and high expectations in the 21st century

Current State In order for the teachers of Williamsport High School (WHS) to prepare the students for the 21st century, they must have appropriate skills of technology. According to the Partnership for the 21st century, students need to be prepared for the global community they will join in the 21st century workforce. One of the aspects of the 21st Century Framework includes Information and Communication Technologies (ITC) (P21,

3 2011). ITC Literacy is essential for teachers and students to be able to access and utilize the abundance of information available and to communicate digitally. One of those skills in digital communication is the appropriate and effective use of social networking sites. In the past five years, the social networking world has exploded. Users have connected with friends from all over the world from all parts of their lives. People who may never have seen each other again have now rekindled friendships on Facebook. Forward thinking teachers saw the potential of using Facebook to connect with their students outside of the classroom. Unfortunately, since Facebook was not monitored or protected, the interaction between teacher and student on a personal network suddenly seemed inappropriate. The benefits of the on-line medium were severely outweighed by the problems it could cause. Those teachers who avoided Facebook but still wanted the ability to communicate with students outside the classroom found their own ways to accomplish the task. Some teachers found Edmodo or Moodle; others used Thinkport, Weebly or other web site creation platforms for an on-line presence. Therefore, students and parents needed to learn how to access each teachers information. The rest of the faculty simply continued to contact students and parents outside the building on an as-needed basis by email or phone; consequently, once the students walked out of those classrooms, they had no way of accessing class information beyond their own class notes. Therefore, the only students and parents who heard from the teacher were the ones whose behavior or academic achievement was lacking in some way. The rest of the world was able to communicate constantly, but good students had no access to their own teachers. The educational processes at WHS needed to join the rest of the world.

4 Lightspeed provides computer networks to entire school systems, and with Lightspeed comes a protected, monitored social network for teachers and students: My Big Campus (MBC). MBC provides a way for students, teachers, and even parents to communicate beyond the school day. MBC can provide a way for teachers to remind their students about assignments due, to create on-line assignments and tests for their students, to provide enrichment materials to the work completed in class, and to give the students a safe place to learn digital communication skills. The challenge is to convince very busy teachers that learning and utilizing MBC can benefit their teaching in the classroom, their students learning beyond the classroom, and their communication with students outside of the classroom.

Professional Development Rationale Having the available technological tools is one thing, getting teachers to use them is quite another. Appropriate and well-planned professional development needs to be a priority if the goal is for teachers to utilize technology. Students today need to be using the tools for learning that they will need to use in their college experiences and careers. According the Vygotsky, teachers need to be aware of sociocultural influences on their students to maximize each students understanding of the curriculum and the world around them (Borthwick & Pierson, 2008). If the primary purpose of professional development is to improve the learning outcomes of students, then the first goal of any professional development model should be to change the way each teacher teaches (Borthwick & Pierson, 2008). When choosing a model for professional development, designers need to be aware that the desired change is a process that will take time,

5 support, and effort in order for the change to take place. The days of sit and get professional development are in the past. For the integration and diffusion of My Big Campus into Williamsport High School, the KASAB model of planning for professional development developed by J. Killion would be most appropriate (Killion, 2003). KASAB represents the following stages of professional development: Knowledge, Attitude, Skill, Aspiration, and Behavior. This model reminds professional developers of the stages of growth teachers will need to experience before full integration will take place. In this model, professional developers focus on having teachers learn more about a topic (Knowledge). Once the teachers experience the possibilities, they are motivated (Attitude) to learn more about the topic. After taking time to build their skills (Skills), the teachers are further motivated to develop lessons themselves using their newly acquired skills (Aspiration). The resulting behavior is that teachers will change how they teach (Behavior) (Borthwick & Pierson, 2008). As Melissa Pierson explains in her text Transforming Classroom Practice (2008), motivation is the key to a teacher moving from one step to another. Each teacher will have the motivation to grow at a different rate in a different time, so the professional development needs to be differentiated for each individual teacher.

Professional Development Plan Washington County Public Schools has not as of the date of this PD plan (fall 2012) made the use of My Big Campus compulsory for all teachers. At this point it is merely a suggestion although a strong suggestion to utilize the availability of this

6 social network not only for communication with the central office but also as a collaborative tool with other teachers and as a communication platform for students. It is the responsibility of the Educational Technology staff at the Central Office and facilitators within in the individual school buildings to train the teachers and increase the use of MBC. Phase I for Williamsport High School will take place during the Fall 2012 Semester of the 2012-2013 school year with Phase II continuing into the Spring semester. Phase I Goals to be completed by January 2013 50% of the WHS faculty logged in and posted to MBC on the Wildcat Teachers group at least once 25% of the WHS faculty created a group for at least one class and used at least one feature of MBC with students (announcements, discussion, blog, quiz) In order to accomplish the goals the teachers will attend at least three PD sessions focusing on MBC exclusively. participate in a collaborative activity with another faculty member that will be posted on the Wildcat Teachers group discussion board on MBC. have access to building trainers for assistance when needed.

KASAB Model in practice Knowledge (K) To introduce the entire faculty to My Big Campus, a trainer will show the teachers what MBC looks like using a Power Point presentation and a demonstration of logging in, editing the profile, downloading a video, and setting up a group using an

7 active MBC account. An MBC booklet will be needed for each teacher so that they each will have hard copies of directions with color pictures of basic usage with step-by-step keystroke instructions. This presentation will take place on the very first day back for the faculty, and the presentation will be given repeatedly to small groups. The small groups can be created by department or by planning periods. The smaller groups will make teachers more comfortable in asking questions in this knowledge stage of professional development. They should be curious, and curiosity creates questions. Professional developers understand that some teachers will leave the session wanting to know more and diving right into MBC to try it themselves, and others will leave the session, put the booklet in a drawer, and not think about MBC again until they are forced to. Therefore, as laggards read the knowledge stage later, leaders need to be ready to provide the knowledge when they are ready.

Attitude (A) Attitude is everything. Leaving the initial presentation with a positive attitude will increase the likelihood that the teachers will seek more information from the building facilitators. If the attitude is poor, their professional development will stall at this point in the process. Professional developers will need to continue to demonstrate the usage and benefits of MBC so that eventually the laggards will see the benefits of using MBC, have an attitude change, and be ready to learn. Students and fellow teachers are keys to changing the attitude of laggards. The early adapters will become the opinion leaders of the building. The professional development designers will use the opinion leaders as presenters and facilitators in future PD sessions. As the opinion leaders use MBC and see

8 its benefits, and as students encourage teachers to post lessons, discussions, and assignments, the laggards may finally change their attitudes and seek knowledge. Motivation is the key. They need to want to learn. Teachers are very busy people, and they need to see the relative advantage of using My Big Campus. They need to be convinced that spending the time to learn a new program will benefit them and their students in some way to justify the effort. According to Surry and Ely in Adoption, Diffusion, Implementation, and Institutionalization of Educational Technology, potential adopters will proceed according to the perceived attributes of the innovation. Perceived attributes refers to the opinions of potential adopters who base their feelings about of an innovation on how they perceive that innovation in regard to five key attributes: Relative Advantage; Compatibility; Complexity; Trialability, and; Observability. In short, this construct states that people are more likely to adopt an innovation if the innovation offers them a better way to do something, is compatible with their values, beliefs and needs, is not too complex, can be tried out before adoption, and has observable benefits. Perceived attributes are important because they show that potential adopters base their opinions of an innovation on a variety of attributes, not just relative advantage. Educational technologists, therefore, should try to think about how potential adopters will perceive their innovations in terms of all of the five attributes, and not focus exclusively on technical superiority (Surry & Ely, n.d.). The teachers will ask themselves, Whats in it for me? How will using MBC make my job better or easier? To effect an attitude change toward technology in WHS, we will create a technology committee. The committee will consist of the opinion

9 leaders from each of the content departments who are willing to learn the multiple features of MBC and serve as facilitators for the building. Having opinion leaders actively using MBC with their students can encourage others to do the same. From the committee training sessions, the members will take their newfound knowledge, skills, and enthusiasm back to their content departments and share their experiences. A buildingwide attitude adjustment will happen one teacher at a time, and the members of the committee are key to spreading the positive vibe that the diffusion of this innovation needs. This committee will meet once a month.

Skill (S) How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice. Practice. Practice! An old joke, but true... To learn anything, to incorporate a new habit into your day, to utilize new tools, to modify the teaching practices youve used for years practice is essential. During this stage, professional developers need to become personal trainers. In the gym a personal trainer doesnt do the work and doesnt expect you to do things beyond your capability. He just encourages you where you are to do your bestagain, and again and again. Hopefully, personal training on MBC wont leave the teacher sweaty and then sore the next day, but it should have the same effect: moving the trainee one step closer to the goal. Our goal is full diffusion of utilization of MBC throughout the WHS one teacher at a time. Professional development to encourage the development of new skills will include using MBC to deliver materials to the teachers as well as having the teachers participate in a group on MBC together. The teachers will learn how the students will be able to see

10 announcements, respond to discussions, upload documents, and participate in polls by doing so themselves. One poll will have the teachers assess their own level of skill with MBC and request training in the area they would like to learn next. Learning nothing will not be an option on the poll question. Each teacher will need to choose one. Each teacher is required by the administration to attend the PD session; the teacher will have the ability to choose which skill or aspect of MBC to focus on during the session. The next professional development session will focus on the different skills in different locations so that each teacher can learn at his or her own pace in the order of his or her own choosing. If a teacher does not respond to the poll, he or she should be assigned to a basic session in which the skill to be learned is logging on and joining Wildcat Teachers on MBC. The diffusion of technology and acquiring of skills must be individual.

Aspiration (A) The aspiration stage, like the skill stage, occurs at different times within each individual teacher. The aspiration to use MBC for communication, assignments, discussions, collaborative documents, blogs, video lessons, and the like will grow from the desire to demonstrate mastery of a new skill based on a teachers own commitment to lifelong learning and the mission of the school. The teachers who reach the aspiration stage in any area will become peer opinion leaders using the tools with their own students then sharing their experiences with others. At this point in professional development, the learners should be leading and guiding their peers. It needs to be conveyed that faculty members who were newly introduced to MBC in August are now becoming proficient in many of the tools functions. Excitement is contagious, and if teachers share successes

11 with their colleagues, those colleagues will be encouraged to change their attitudes, increase their skills, and then aspire to develop ways to use the tools with their own students. One method to increase awareness of the teachers who are using MBC and to encourage others to do the same is to identify those MBC teachers in a public way. First, we will place the MBC logo next to each participating teachers name on the school website. Second, we will place a laminated MBC logo next to each teachers name placard next to the classroom door. When students and parents encounter these teachers, they will know that the use of MBC is expected. These participating teachers will become leaders and facilitators for PD in Phase II.

Behavior (B) Douglas Reeves (2006) confirms that teachers will most often rely on trusted colleagues for assistance with new instructional programs and technologies, rather than the help desk or technology department (Borthwick & Pierson, 2008). When a woman has car trouble, she is used to taking it to a garage, letting the experts handle it, and allowing said experts to treat her like shes an idiot. She may not like it, but it has to be done. Men typically will try to determine the problem and repair it themselves, and if that doesnt work the next step is a buddy or two. Before you know it, three or four men have gathered just to poke around under the hood of the car. Men are supposed to know about cars, generally, so, they take it to the garage as a last resort. Teachers with teaching tools are more like men. They are experts in their fields and prefer not to admit that they do not know how to do something. They would rather ask a fellow teacher who

12 would diagnose and fix a problem or guide and direct through a new procedure in the privacy of their own classrooms than a public technology request. The professional development in this stage can become simultaneously larger and smaller by scale. Those teachers whose daily behavior has changed as a result of continued utilization of MBC can continue to work one-on-one in a buddy system with the late adopters, and they also can present their own usage artifacts in full faculty professional development sessions or open their classrooms for demonstrations.

Assessment (A) The KASAB model needs another A for Assessment. Once through the model, the professional developers need to take a step back and assess the progress made and areas for improvement. This process cannot be allowed to lull throughout an entire school year. For change to be made, MBC needs to be a tool used in a visible way by the leaders of the school on a regular basis. It needs to become part of the school community. When committees discuss how to get information out to the faculty, the first option needs to be MBC rather than email. To make the new social networking platform a true, active tool for the faculty in communication with each other and their students, it needs to be visited daily. In order to assess how many teachers are actually accessing MBC on a regular basis, the teachers will be asked to click YES! on each Wildcat Teachers announcement viewed. MBC gives the creators and users of the group access to a list of participants who YES! an announcement or comment. At the end of Phase I, the building administrators will access each teachers account to verify which ones have created groups for their students, have utilized various tools on the site, and participated in Wildcat Teachers discussions. The MBC facilitator

13 will then survey the students. This survey will ask which instructors they have who use MBC and in which ways. This survey will not be used for evaluative purposes but only for informational purposes. This information will provide the administrators and building technology leaders the data needed to proceed with Phase II. Teachers will be grouped this time according to current usage and the next logical step for growth and application. From this assessment the KASAB model needs to begin again, but not with the entire faculty, but only those teachers who did not follow through with the model the first time around making effective use of the new MBC experts in the building. By the end of the school year after the completion of Phases I and II of the professional development - WHS should have completed the following Phase II goals: 75% of the WHS faculty logged in and posted to MBC on the Wildcat Teachers group at least once. 50% of the WHS faculty created a group for at least one class and used at least one feature of MBC with students 10% of WHS faculty using MBC on a regular basis with at least one class using multiple features of MBC with confidence. The 10% of teachers who are becoming expert MBC users will become the leaders for the 2013-2014 school year.

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K A S A B A

August Introductory Presentation What is My Big Campus? Key personnel - Media specialist and MBC coordinator

September Teachers MBC Group What can I do on MBC? Key personnel - lead teacher and MBC coordinator

October Poll and PD Session What aspect of MBC do I want to learn? Key personnel - Central Office trainer, lead teacher, and MBC coordinator

November Awareness Who is using MBC? Key personnel - Technology committee

December The Buddy System Who will help make it work for me? Key personnel - Technology committee

January Assessment How can leaders meet the learners where they are? Key personnel - Technology committee and Administration

15 Notes on current implementation Knowledge The introductory presentation went very well. The teachers were pleased with the booklets printed in color for each of them; they actually seemed rather impressed. Comments I heard during my presentation were positive. Teachers were talking amongst themselves noticing how much MBC looks like Facebook and talking about the possibilities of usage. Attitude The technology committee was formed and meetings begun. But we were seeing that some teachers were reluctant to try MBC. Even on the committee one teacher said, I think I will wait to jump on the My Big Campus bandwagon because it may change next year anyway. With that teacher we needed to convince him that since MBC was a part of Lightspeed, it wasnt going anywhere at least for the foreseeable future. He needed to see that it was worth his time to learn. The committee decided that on our school website faculty list, those teachers who are utilizing MBC will have the MBC logo next to each name. This idea would put some positive peer pressure on those faculty members who have decided against learning MBC. Skill During the personal trainer phase, I, as the primary MBC trainer of the building have become a popular person. From the random MBC question in the hallway to teachers showing up at my door with their MBC booklets in hand, I have been providing personal, on-the-spot, just-in-time learning for those teachers seeking to increase their skills. The faculty of WHS has been participating in Thursday PD Days. Each teacher goes to PD session/meeting during the planning time. One Thursday MBC was the topic. In order to prepare for this session, I created a survey on MBC about MBC. The results of the survey showed that more teachers wanted more training on Schoolwork than any other feature of MBC. So, during the session, I put all teachers on computers and instructed those who needed it on the logging in process. I then demonstrated how to create an assignment or quiz on MBC for a group. Those teachers who needed more instruction watched while following on their own accounts. Once they were working, I asked how I could help the others. A few teachers needed instruction on creating a group, so I announced that I would demonstrate how to do that for those who needed it. I saw seven teachers turn to watch me intently; the rest were helping each other on different aspects of MBC. The leaders in the session, those who had been growing in knowledge, attitude, and skill since that first session in August were now helping others. Peer leaders are so important to diffusion. They can provide not only skill assistance but also attitude adjustments for reluctant adopters. I have planned a brief after-school session on using the Pages feature of MBC and have five teachers signed up so far we are on our way.

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References

Borthwick, A., & Pierson, M. (2008). Transforming classroom practice: Professional development strategies in educational technology. Eugene, OR: International Society for Technology in Education. Killion, J. (2003). 8 Smooth Steps: Solid Footwork Makes Evaluation of Staff Development Programs A Song. Journal of Staff Development, 24(4), fall. P21. (2011). The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills. Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http://www.p21.org/ Surry, D. W., & Ely, D. P. (n.d.). Variables in the Setting and the Innovation Itself. Adoption, Diffusion, Implementation, and Institutionalization OfEducational Technology. Retrieved November 25, 2012, from http://www.southalabama.edu/coe/bset/surry/papers/adoption/chap.htm