Bobby Macheel

EDTC 640
Summer 2015
Reflection Essay

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Professional developments are attended by most teachers in the United States several
times throughout each year, and these often include sessions related to new technologies
available in the classroom. Some of these sessions are very worthwhile and practical, while
others are attended by teachers but the content is never implemented in the classroom. This
reflection will address my personal experiences and ideas on professional development.
As a teacher, I have had the opportunity to work in three different school systems in two
different states, Maryland and New York, over 9 years. I have also been a student in two
different states, Maryland and Minnesota. Therefore, from both the perspective of a student and
a teacher, I have seen many different ways of using technology in the classroom. Changes in
technology have spanned from my earliest memories of Apple II computers in elementary school
to my current classes that incorporate web 2.0 technologies. My first two years as a teacher, I
was using the overhead projector every day, something that has now become obsolete. My point
is that as a teacher in todays ever-changing climate, I know that I take the roll-out of any new
technology with a grain of salt, and I am a fairly young teacher who is getting a degree in
instructional technology, but why learn something that will just be obsolete or not used in a year.
This has to be even more of a prevalent feeling among veteran teachers who have seen even
more changes in technology, and I think this leads to them having attitudes of sticking with
traditional forms of teaching rather than a feeling of experimentation. I do think that, based on
my personal experiences, there can be progress made in getting this sense of experimentation
across to all teachers through effective professional development.
Throughout my 9 years of teaching, I have seen how different school systems conduct
professional development, some much more effective than others. In Montgomery County, the
biggest technology professional development came in my second year when my school

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conducted a pilot program that featured the installation of Promethean Boards. Several
classrooms throughout the school would have them installed and then teachers would have the
opportunity to float into these classrooms and use them. Teachers were not required to use them,
but everyone had to attend professional development that demonstrated their use in the
classroom. The professional development was conducted by someone from the Promethean
Company as well as by teachers within the school who had attended trainings. While these
trainings featured the main functionality of the boards, there was not much in the way of
practical use within content areas.
In New York City, there was not much formal professional development for the use of
technology within the school. The school budget could not afford professional development for
outside experts to come in, so once a month, teachers were required to stay after school for inhouse trainings. Much of this did not have to do with technology, but those that did were just
teachers who had tried out the different technologies available, such as mobile smartboards or
mobile computer labs, and gave their ideas to teachers. While the outside experts I had seen in
Montgomery County could show more of the functionality of the technologies, the professional
development in New York City actually gave more practical advice about use in the classroom.
In Howard County, the professional development offered in terms of technology has been
similar to Montgomery County. My school participated in a Bring Your Own Device Pilot, and
teachers were again, similar to Montgomery County, given the option to participate in the pilot or
not. One difference was that the training sessions did offer suggestions to teachers for
implementing the BYOD program through both face-to-face trainings and online modules that
could be completed by teachers at their own pace. Also, an Edmodo page was created for the
teachers participating in the program so that they could share ideas with each other. The modules

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and Edmodo page were most useful to me because these were more likely to offer practical
suggestions for instruction. A more recent professional development during a teacher day
featured training on Canvas that was taught by two Math teachers at the school who had attended
training on this Learning Management System. These teachers demonstrated the functionality of
the software and allowed teachers some time to play around with the software while they gave
individual help. This did allow teachers to explore the practicality of this new system as well as
its functionality within the classroom, but there could have been more examples to show how
this could be used in individual content areas.
From my experiences with professional development described above, I do have some
ideas about when it is most effective in helping teachers implement new technologies. In order
for these types of trainings to be most effective, I think there needs to be a combination of
software or technology experts describing and demonstrating functionality of the system, content
experts demonstrating specific examples of how to use this software or hardware in the actual
classroom, and individual time to try out the technology with supervision and check-ins on
progress throughout a specific time period.
The need for the hardware or software technology experts is there because they are able
to answer teacher technology specific questions that teachers who have a one-day training will
often not be able to answer. If teachers cant even access some of the basic functions of a
technology, they are much less likely to use it. For example, this was the best part of the
Promethean training I attended, because actual Promethean experts were able to answer even the
most detailed questions about the hardware and software included with this device.
The next step for effective professional development then needs to be training by teachers
within each content area of a school. The reason that I think this is necessary is that when

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teachers are not given actual concrete examples of how this technology could be used to enhance
their curriculum, they are much less likely to experiment on their own because they dont see
how it can help them. For example, some teachers in my Social Studies department may have
been turned off by the Canvas training we recently had because we were being trained and given
examples by Math teachers. While they did show us the basic functionality of the LMS, the
examples of how it could be used were mostly relevant to math content, and thus many of the
teachers in my session were not engaged and did not see how it necessarily connected to them.
Finally, a chance to have guided practice with new technology would help teachers
experiment in a safe environment. Then, follow-up sessions once teachers have had some time
to experiment in their own classrooms would be helpful to share ideas and answer questions once
this technology has become real. I say real because in trainings there is often a disconnect
between the technology and how it will actually be used in the classroom. For example, the
BYOD experiment was discussed a year ago, but there has not been much follow through to help
teachers within individual content areas. In my own Social Studies Department, most teachers
do not use this technology option at all. The last step, which may be the most important, is often
left out, making these professional developments ineffective.
In this course, I hope to see what the literature and research studies have shown about the
effectiveness of technology professional development in terms of actual implementation of the
technology within the classroom. As I have said above, I have seen many technologies come and
go in only nine years teaching, and see only a small percentage of each of these technologies
actually being used by teachers in the classroom. I would also like to see how professional
development experts plan out their sessions with teachers as I have never been a presenter at a
professional development session, but may have the opportunity in the near future.

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Overall, I believe that professional development can be quite effective in implementing

new technologies in the classroom, but there needs to be much more follow-through. If there are
follow-up sessions weeks or months after an introductory training, teachers will be less likely to
think that this will just be another passing technology that they should not spend their time on,
and will actually experiment with it in their classrooms.

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