Professional Development - Whys & Why Not's
Date: 27th Sep 2018/Thursday
This blogpost is inspired from my love for training online/face to face for teachers/trainers/educators. Through out the previous two years I have had several opportunities for professional development online. This blogpost will explore answers to few important questions regarding professional development beginning from my views regarding online PD, why does it matter so much, what are the various opportunities available for online PD and what do educational institutions need to do in order to ensure equitable
Why is Online PD important for me?
Lets begin by looking at reasons for my unending love for Professional development and why it matters to me. Firstly It is because of these online professional development opportunities that help build my own skills and led to the development of my online portal titled "Online PD Initiative" details in link below. Further more, its enabled me to work on various initiatives with the kids at SOS Children's Village and Ranaa Child Welfare Foundation in Peshawar. I design different interactive activities for them using the various technology tools that help enhance numeracy, reading, writing and IT skills of these children. Without the online courses this would not have been possible.
I am working currently on an online classroom initiative with the kids at both schools, where I share online activities with kids, they can access external resources like Khan Academy (to work on their literacy and numeracy skills), access various reading, math, story building websites through their classroom online, they watch educational videos etc. Other then the professional development courses my participation in various conferences online and face to face have added a lot to my knowledge base as well as experience. It was because of attending and presenting at the International conference at iEARN in Morrocco (2017), in Cairo (2007) which has led to participation in global education projects and interaction opportunities with global educators. I was able to engage kids at both schools into various global education projects including iEARN Don't Waste- Create , Talking Kites, International Book Club Project etc, which has helped build awareness about global issues. Moreover,such conferences provide insight into some amazing resources that we can use in our classrooms like Flipgrid which helped build reading skills of the kids. Scratch which was introduced by my course instructor during an online course about Finnish Education and it as led to kids running an online show teaching coding online.
Why Professional development matters?
Lets move to exploring why professional development matters? while skimming through an article online about why professional development matters for developers I came across several reasons, the first being expansion of the knowledge base of the employees and extension in skills ( be it communication,IT, collaboration, interpersonal skills, problem solving skills etc) leads to career advancement and a reflects an ongoing love for learning. Second, companies that build skills of the employees have a competitive advantage over companies that do not, they train their employees who in return help them prepare for future trends , projects etc. Third, companies can tap into employee loyalties and ensure chances of long term commitment by providing PD opportunities and keeping them engaged.
In another article by Hayes Mizell about why professional development matters, the writer shares that it takes years for teachers, schools principals to become effective in their roles since education acquired in schools/institutions does not equip or train them with the desired skills or provides them with the learning experiences to manage their jobs. Educators who do not participate in professional development miss a great opportunity to build/enhance their skills, abilities and result in lower students learner outcomes. New teachers often struggle with lesson plans, understanding of the curriculum, looking for resources, planning and designing activities , making tests, managing administrative tasks etc. With support in the form of mentoring teachers can improve their current practices and schools can retain teachers too.
In another article the author talks about the need for teachers to go beyond the subject area knowledge , further defining that the curriculum is not only the content taught but the teaching strategies, methodologies, resources etc the teacher uses to engage learners in her class. With the advancements in technology learning is no longer confined to four walled classrooms. With tools like #Flipgrid, #Skype, #Whatsapp, #Twitter, #Edmodo, #Facebook etc teachers and students can both connect with educators all around the globe, get instant expert advice on any topic, discuss and share issues of global importance, hold conferences online, publish books online and much more. Teachers have access to professional learning communities which provides ample opportunity for sharing of ideas with peers, reviewing their current practices etc. Teachers need to be trained to use new technology, explore new technology resources, use it to create content, to design interactive, challenging learning experiences for their learners.
The skills needed to survive and thrive in the 21st century have changed. In order to survive kids need to be equipped with the 21st century skills including creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking , problem solving skills etc. For this teachers themselves need to be trained so they can use new ways of teaching, new ways of assessment, news ways of evaluation etc . Peter Drucker a famous management trainer writes that its important that we remember that learning is an lifelong process of keeping abreast with change.
What can educational institutions do?
The skills needed to survive and thrive in the 21st century have changed. In order to survive kids need to be equipped with the 21st century skills including creativity, collaboration, communication, critical thinking , problem solving skills etc. For this teachers themselves need to be trained so they can use new ways of teaching, new ways of assessment, news ways of evaluation etc . Peter Drucker a famous management trainer writes that its important that we remember that learning is an lifelong process of keeping abreast with change.
What can educational institutions do?
Just to begin by sharing my own personal experience since I have been involved with training teachers for a number of years during my previous job with a very prestigious organization of our country #Beaconhouse. Teachers are encouraged, supported and enrolled in various training courses, training is in context, teachers get to apply and practice learned concepts in their classrooms and review impact during training sessions. All of which results in enhanced student learning outcomes and very professional teachers. But mostly training had been face to face. But as per my observations in classrooms teachers who received training performed much better than teachers who were isolated and did not participate in training courses. Their classes were dull as compared to lively, joyful, interactive and engaging classrooms of teachers who were trained.
Educational Institutions need to open doors to professional development opportunities for their teachers. These can be in various forms like offering training courses both face to face and online, encouraging teachers to participate in both national and international conferences at least once a year, encouraging teacher participation in PLCs i.e professional learning communities, encouraging participation in Twitter Chats, working with global educators, engaging kids in different global education projects, running online shows on YouTube Live weekly sharing good practices, or using Flipgrid to connect with global educators, running an online podcasting channel where teachers share useful resources weekly , uploading favorite lesson videos on their YouTube channel, running a live show on Facebook where teachers and students share new initiatives and projects. The list is endless.
Professional Development Opportunities worth exploring:
While just exploring I came across a very interesting professional development opportunities, a few of them below: take a moment to explore, you will love them.
- ANU Coffee Courses, are an easy way to know and learn about new ideas for using technology in your classrooms. These are short 1 - 2hr courses offered through a blog, you can complete at own pace along with a cup of coffee :)
- Eliademy is another online portal where you can not only create and manage your own courses but even join other courses as well. I was able to build my knowledge and understanding through two courses offered by ALO Finland using Eliademy about the Finish Education System. One of the course was early learning and preschool education (which led to a lot of clarity about playful learning and use of education technology in the early years), second course was about 21st century competencies and learning (provided an insight into phenomenal learning, innovative pedagogy etc. There are free and paid courses available and you could choose to join from a huge range available. These are self paced, interactive and provide lots of opportunity for discussion with the instructor.
- The Beyond the Lectern is a very interesting podcast series online , focuses on teaching and learning in higher education. In every episode the guests and hosts discuss a research article and share their views, details about the article are cited in the description.
- DLT Professional Learning Calendar is another platform where you can find online courses to improve and enhance your teaching and learning. Learning opportunities are offered for staff , they can join by adding the date in the calendar.
- Shake Up Learning is another amazing online learning platform which offers dozens of education technology resources to aid in teaching and learning along with online courses to help enhance your teaching and learning experience using the various G-Suite for Education tools. I had the opportunity to enroll in two courses Trainer Skills Assessment and Google Certified Educator Level 1, it was a great learning experience.
- Online PD Initiative is my very own online portal offering various self paced online courses about integrating Google Tools for Education like Slides, Docs, Sites, Forms etc in your teaching and learning. Each course has a set of tasks that need to be completed to receive a certificate.
- Google Training Center offers various courses online that will teach you the best strategies to use Google tools in your classroom. These course actually prepare you for the certification exam. Each course is followed by practice exercise, you can complete the course as many time you want to before appearing for the exam.
- Global Education Conference is another online platform where you can find dozens of professional development opportunities at the same place. You can join and participate in the yearly online conference, present and interact with a global audience, you can also share projects in the global collaboration week, join online projects etc stay up to date with all the pd courses, events. I have personally participated in the last years conference and this year GCW, I was able to connect my students to the One world classroom project which provided them insight into schools in USA.
Most of these PD opportunities are online, obvious reasons include ease of access, self paced, access to resources, no assignment submission deadlines, are affordable, offered by known educators/organizations around the globe, platform independent (can be accessed on mobiles too), no administrative issues (teacher replacements, duties, lunch/tea expenses, venue arrangements etc), provide opportunity for interaction with global peers etc. though I am in favor of online professional development opportunities, institutions should look to offering both types of trainings face to face and online, look for a balanced approach that benefits the school and kids.
Your time to explore now till my next blog soon inshallah :) Enjoy Reading.
Thanks as always
Sheeba Ajmal
References:
1. Participate
Weblink: https://www.participate.com/
Accessed Online 20th Sep 2018
2.Online PD Initiative
Weblink: https://sites.google.com/view/onlinepdinitiative/home
Accessed Online
3. Eliademy
Welink: https://eliademy.com/
Accessed Online
4. Engaging E-learning Courses for K12 Educators
Weblink: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/k12/teach-elements.html
Accessed Online
5. Why professional development is essential for best developers?
Weblink: https://sigrecruiting.com/blog/professional-development-essential-best-developers/
Access online 26 Sep 2018
6 Why Professional Development matters?
Webllink: https://learningforward.org/docs/default-source/pdf/why_pd_matters_web.pdf
Accessed Online 26 Sep 2018
7. 4 Reasons Teacher Development Matters
Weblink: https://www.whitbyschool.org/passionforlearning/4-reasons-teacher-development-matters
Accessed Online 26 Sep 2018
8. ANY online Coffee Courses
Weblink: http://anuonline.weblogs.anu.edu.au/
Accessed online 27 Sep 2018
9. Beyond the Lectern
Weblink: https://soundcloud.com/melbourne-cshe
Accessed Online 27 Sep 2018
10. Shake Up Learning
Weblink: https://shakeuplearning.com/
Accessed Online 27 Sep 2018
11. Google Training Center
Weblink: https://teachercenter.withgoogle.com/training
Accessed Online 27 Sep 2018
Nice blog very useful information I will visit again to read more your post.
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