Team+McGehee+PLP+PD+Proposal

PLP DRAFT- Action Research Project - PLP Team McGehee 1-22-10 (initial) Most recent edit= 2-9-10 Project Focus: Professional Development //Problem or Question: “What do you wonder?” or// //perhaps ”////Which applications will you recognize as adaptable to and useful for your teaching?”// //Objectives & Assessment:// //Objectives:// · Encourage faculty to embrace 21st century technologies on par with our students · Urge evaluation of areas of teaching that can be integrated effectively and productively into the types of collaborative social applications already being utilized by students · Persuade faculty that web 2.0 world will require a flexible attitude toward change //Assessment:// · Prior to modeling presentations faculty will complete survey about familiarity/use of applications · Survey will be repeated 2 months later (ongoing, probably updated) · Monthly technology workshop lunches will demonstrate continued interest //Networked Design// Decisions on which applications will be showcased will be made after return from Mardi Gras. This will allow all team members to begin working on all applications collaboratively on line. //Set the Context// “When teachers stop growing, so do their students” Roland Barth The reality of the classroom is that while passion-inspired learning is ideal, impelling that enthusiasm and curiosity can be difficult. A teacher who brings passion for her subject is essential, but the addition of information and social technologies can help weave teaching and learning into a seamless garment. The qualities necessary for teachers to possess to stay abreast of their students are the same qualities we ask students to bring to the classroom. These include enthusiasm, flexibility, and a willingness to learn something new. This project is asking all of us to not only accept change, but actively seek change by adopting an attitude of probing questions and “wonderings”. Can we require our students to accept the change of becoming “educated” if teachers cling to the old “uneducated” pre-technology status? We are asked to pursue this course of “action research” in a connected, collaborative pathway. Online social technologies are active participants in global change. Students travel these terrains already. Becoming fluent in these new languages and adept with these new tools gives teachers a common currency with students. Use of 21st century information technologies will goad learners to pursue their own questions, prompting conversations and collaborative processes. These technologies will also make cross-curricular projects more accessible. Social technologies have the potential to be harnessed for increased and more effective engagement for learners skilled in their use. Learning effectively is a non-linear endeavor which today should mirror the world we live in: a world suffused with technology and information snippets bouncing around. This is our student’s world and if it remains foreign to teachers, then contributing to a productive learning exchange will be increasingly formidable. Becoming technologically literate in the 21st century is an integral part of being educated. That knowledge is a good investment since technology skills enable the teacher to easily become a life-long learner. “Moving to participatory, collaborative, connected learning within a private virtual community of practice” (to quote the PLP Handbook) is a goal worthy of the effort change requires. //Proposal// //Challenges// //Assets// //Evaluation (Follow-up Assessment)// Surveys will be repeated at least once following faculty presentations- DETAILS??? //Timeline Projections-// //(Year 1 PLP):// //(Year 2 PLP):// //(Year 3 PLP):// //Learning Showcase --> ? presentation//
 * Remind faculty that education is a process of continual growth and that the best teachers learn along with students
 * Year 3 will expand to include education outreach to parents to encourage them to gain familiarity and skills to effectively monitor student's technology use
 * 1) Survey, study, and select 21st century technological applications likely to enhance teacher/student interactions
 * 2) Emphasize social technologies as a pathway to collaborative learning
 * 3) Each team member will become an expert in their chosen application
 * 4) Each team member will become functionally literate in all other chosen applications
 * 5) Applications will be modeled for full faculty during pre-school orientation days for 2010-2011 school year
 * 6) Technology lunch workshop days once a month (Tech-Nic) will encourage faculty to adapt new technologies and stay abreast of innovations
 * 7) PLP years #2 and #3 will continue with ongoing surveys of new applications and introduction to staff
 * 8) Year #3 will include outreach to parents
 * Change is always resisted
 * Diversity of needs according to level and division
 * Faculty who currently use only required technologies for school may have a steep learning curve
 * Keeping current with students will probably require a steady quest for change (? a little utopian)
 * Reluctance of those faculty with mid-century sensibilities to engage in social technologies
 * McGehee School is already technology friendly with all faculty, students above 5th grade having personal laptops
 * Tech Dept offers superb assistance and guidance (This is for you Maureen- to see if you are actually reading)
 * Faculty has a firm, functional community already established (Enhanced and supported by administration and parent organizations)
 * Faculty is dedicated to teaching and already pursues tools to further that effort
 * Recently completed Self Study, ongoing Curriculum mapping, ISAS assessment all add to realistic appraisal
 * Demonstrated utility of new applications will help overcome resistance
 * Professional Development project designed & produced
 * Pre-presentaion Survey created and administered to create baseline for assessment (spring 2010)
 * Survey analysis utilized to help choice of applications to be showcased
 * August 2010--> Teaching work-shop will showcase chosen applications to McGehee faculty in pre-school orientation period
 * Content (& applicable tools) will be focus
 * Team members will be available to assist and to encourage faculty in adopting new technology/applications
 * Monthly tech workshop lunches (Tec-Nics) will offer opportunities for continuing technology growth
 * Post-presentaion survey (at least one)
 * Team members will work to stay abreast of new applications
 * Perhaps pre-school work-shop for technology/applications will become an annual event
 * Tec-Nic lunches will continue
 * Out-reach to parents to help them attain knowledge of technologies used by students and competence in effectively monitoring
 * Collaborative work to produce videos, graphics to illustrate project DETAILS ???
 * Faculty will collaborate with students to illustrate relevant aspects of collating continually emerging technologies with sound teaching/learning methods
 * These collaborative efforts will utilize technologies to creatively present challenges and possibilities inherent in the process of integrating non-traditional with mainstream pedagogy:
 * 1) Maureen- (Sulley?) Prezi about creating prezis
 * 2) Lee White- cartoons about "Three Cups of Tea"- students writing in dirt- teacher rejecting new technologies of paper/pencil
 * 3) Harrie- Biology II students will create video skits (hunter-gatherers rejecting agriculture)
 * 4) Biology I- Flannery B- adapting Chicago lyrics about Darwin (also other Darwin skits)
 * 5) OTHERS ?????


 * Team will use this same Kiosk-presentation video stream to open our August 2010 faculty workshop