I was recently emailed the following question from an educator considering the move to one to one.
What have you seen as an appropriate/adequate/effective amount of PD for schools that have implemented 1-1? (Before the students received the computers and thereafter.)
Professional development is certainly one of the key factors for success or failure for one-to-one schools. My thoughts on this question are presented below.
There doesn't really seem to be an easy answer to this question. The best way to address this is really through a shift in mindset. All PD should really strive to address ways to find the best tools than can enhance whatever the PD focus is. It is pretty easy to argue that technology is one of the very most powerful tools to do this. For example...
- If your staff is focusing on project based learning, think of all of the ways that can be enhanced with technology tools. The ability to create grows exponentially with technology.
- If your staff is focusing on rigor and relevance, technology can also serve as a tool to provide a much richer experience for students.
- If your staff is focusing on student engagement, there are all kinds of technology tools that can help engage students. (If you don't know what they are, ask your students to help find them!)
These are just a few of the many ways that technology can connect to professional development. There are other features that are important to consider when designing PD. I would recommend differentiating PD. This should be differentiated by skill level, but there also needs to be a time for content alike teachers to converse with one another. The Technology, Pedagogy, and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework describes the overlap of those three areas to achieve truly high levels of technology integration. Without those content alike conversations, some teachers may have a difficult time bringing new tools into their specific classrooms. Although differentiation is key, it is also important to develop a set of tools that are applicable to all educators. One way to think of this is as building a common foundation or knowledge for all teachers. In What School Leaders Need to Know About Digital Technologies and Social Media, Pamela Livingston and Chris Lehman posed a question with that theme in their one-to-one chapter.
What are the essential technological tools that all teachers should know how to use?
A final focus I would stress for PD is to develop leaders within your building who have the capacity to help lead PD and problem solve with other teachers. Send those teachers to a conference or two each year to stay ahead of the curve. Give them some time, maybe a half-day each month, to explore and play with new technologies. Although there is a time and place for "outsiders" to come in and help, your district will be money ahead by developing their own experts.
Schools failure to invest in PD once they have moved to one-to-one is one of the most common mistakes I have witnessed at one-to-one schools. That lack of investment can certainly make the transition to one-to-one a poor investment as well.
Nick Sauers
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In our district we have found that the longer we are one to one, more professional development needs to be offered, not less. The professional development needs to be differentiated and staff driven. Play and time are critical factors to making a one to one project sustainable.
I find one of the major obstacles for teachers in 1:1 programs is the belief that teachers have to fully understand the technology before introducing it to students.
Last week, when some students finished writing pieces before others, I said to the students with completed RDs, “I’ve been reading about paperrater.com. Can you run your papers through the free application and tell me whether or not you think it is useful?”
My 5th graders found things I may have never found on my own. I listened to pairs say things like “Look! For a 9th grade paper this earns a C. Can we get a B?” and “I don’t understand why this is a grammar/spelling mistake. Can you (fellow student) help?”
Students also found errors in the program feedback. They decided they wouldn’t like computer sites to grade their papers but that the site was an okay tool for general editing.
Kids can do some great things with tech if teachers can set them free within limits (in this case, my limit was to stay only on this site for the day– other lessons have different parameters).
PD is great. Sometimes it’s more efficient to read about new tech options and allow students to rate them for usefulness. This week, I’ll give students a choice of four online publishing tools to see which they like best.
Great post Nick. I especially agree with creating/supporting experts within the building. An initial investment in PD for the in-house experts will benefit your staff with knowledge and likely save you money by not having to always send other teachers away for training since they can get it from a colleague.
In my experience opening our 1:1 iPad middle school, there are 2 truths that answer this question:
1.) You need more time than you think & then you still need a little more time on top of that
2.) You’ll never be ready, no matter how much time you put into preparing. At some point, you just have to jump in.
You make two excellent points that I agree with. I would add that the second point could refer to infrastructure as well as PD. It seems that no matter how much time is spent preparing the infrastructure, there are almost always glitches. Most schools are simply not designed for a 1:1 environment. However, preparation certainly does help minimize those glitches schools have with their infrastructure during implementation.
Nick