WebLog 3

Lived experiences:

During my years at Twinsburg High School, I have been fortunate enough to experience numerous professional development opportunities regarding educational technology. I will briefly discuss two instances of professional technology development.

Currently, Twinsburg City Schools uses School Center design to design and create websites for teachers, administrators, clubs, athletics and various other organizations. The professional development and instruction used to help integrate SchoolCenter has been thorough and continuing. Multiple workshops directed by technology coordinators and professionals were administered to ensure successful understanding and implementation. Additionally, the administrative team established teacher led subcommittees that could be used as quick references and informal assistants for staff members in need. The experience has been supportive, ongoing and exceeding expectations, especially in terms of increasing student learning and support.

            Contrastingly, the professional development associated with Turningpoint Technologies could be understood as somewhere between slumping and achieving. Much of the development has been self-taught, with only limited support. Although the implementation of the technology has been successful, many fellow teachers are unaware of the technology and few instructional opportunities and time for development and exploration exist.

Mouza and Szymanski/Morrell Readings:

(A) Discuss criteria which define successful Educational Technology Professional Development

(B) Discuss criteria which define the effective school administrator and/or technology coordinator in the context of successful Educational Technology Professional Development.

 Mouza discusses the need for teachers to understand technology professional development as an ongoing career-long initiative. Successful teachers will develop skills that will enable them to explore and new and unfamiliar tools. Addiitonally, successful educational technology development will focus on (similar to TPCK) Content Knowldege, Pedagogical Knowledge, and Pedagogical Content Knowledge. Additionally, teachers and administrators who had limited access to resources and technical support was a major obstacle to successfully incorporating technology. Research-based professional development, focusing on how teachers learn, can foster teacher sustained teacher development. Importantly, reflection on how technology and technology development has impacted student learning and achievement is equally important for teachers and administrators.

Szymanski and Morrell suggest that “the theoretical construct of situated cognition as the basis for increasing the development of technology integration skills for K-12 teachers.” Situated Cognition, according to Szymanski and Morrell, is learning that normally happens during an activity which occurs in a context and a culture; “that is, people build knowledge structures and learn skill sets in specific physical and social contexts…Situated cognition is a characterization of how learning takes place not just where it takes place.” According to this model, designing professional development that is context specific and firmly based in the theoretical framework of situated cognition is a very effective way to assist teachers in integrating technology into their instruction.