That’s one small step for tech, one giant leap for #GGUSD. First online district PD. pic.twitter.com/dEeet9SFpe
— Chris Housepian (@mrhousepian) June 11, 2015
This post is a bit late, but that’s what happens when the end of the year is fast approaching and there’s still so much still to cover from the pacing chart. So I apologize for the delayed post.
I totally concur with the tweet from @mrhousepian. We were taking one giant leap for #GGUSD…both feet in…wheels up…whatever you want to call it. And I loved every minute of it.
Here’s the backstory…
One of the TOSAs in our district (@teacherlucero) and I have talked quite frequently about online PD and what that might look like. He was able to convince our director to give it a shot. So instead of our Blended Learning group meeting F2F for our last session in June, he scheduled two GHOs and had us sign up via a GoogleForm.
I chose to attend the first online PD. I was joined by five other colleagues, in addition to @teacherlucero. As soon as we logged in, we “signed in” using our GAFE accounts via a Google Form as proof that we were in attendance (our district is big on accountability). The GHO started at 4PM with the intent that we might end up spending the first 20 or so minutes getting everyone online, setting up their lower thirds, playing around with the various Google effects, etc. We took the entire 30 minutes to play around. =D
We were patching in from all over…some of us were at home in our office, at the kitchen table, or even outside. Several teachers joined us from their classroom/office. I will start off by saying that it was nice to be at home, sitting in my comfy chair…talking tech and reflecting on our year.
At 4:30 @teacherlucero started recording our session. He had prearranged questions for us to discuss. The most engaging one being the technology tool that made the biggest impact on our teaching this year. Everyone shared a different tool…and we started keeping a list of tech tools and websites in the chat window for future reference. The intent was that this session would be recorded, edited, and posted for other teachers to view if they liked. Where the view is currently being hosted, I don’t know…probably on @teacherlucero’s YouTube channel.
Will other teachers view our GHO? Not sure. But if they do, I’m sure that they’ll find it beneficial. We all shared our favorite technology tool and how we used it with our students. We talked about troubleshooting, lessons learned, best practices. Everyone chimed in on the discussion. We left links to websites and apps for future reference. This type of curating of information is not something that happens in a F2F PD. I mean, I know that people take notes during workshops, but it’s not collaborative and people who are not in attendance do not know what actually happened.
But with our GHO, it was recorded and there’s notes included. So the impact of this PD has the potential to go beyond just the seven of us. It’s basically saved for posterity. 😉
I was excited to participate in our first online PD for our district. What makes this GHO different than others is that because it was recorded and because we signed in, we’ll receive the stipend that is normally only reserved for teachers who physically attend a PD.
Is this the new way to conduct PD? I think so. I can totally see this type of PD working in a similar way to EdCamps or an unconference. We’re all so busy right after school…and most of the time I find myself rushing to the PD. But when it’s scheduled at 4PM (or even later)…I have time to breathe. I can relax a bit, eat a snack…and then engage in what I find most exciting…talking tech with like-minded educators.
I hope that our Director likes what she sees and hears about our sessions. If we can move forward with this type of PD, I think it has the potential to have a larger impact beyond just the teachers in attendance. Huge leap. I’m ready for more.
#goodstuff #futureready
Living the Learning Curve 