{"id":3247,"date":"2024-09-23T16:15:42","date_gmt":"2024-09-23T20:15:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/?p=3247"},"modified":"2024-09-23T16:15:42","modified_gmt":"2024-09-23T20:15:42","slug":"the-traveling-teacher-blog-edtech-professional-learning-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/2024\/09\/23\/the-traveling-teacher-blog-edtech-professional-learning-the-good-the-bad-and-the-ugly\/","title":{"rendered":"The Traveling Teacher Blog!  EdTech Professional Learning &#8211; the Good, the Bad and the Ugly"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The positive impact that professional development (PD) can have on teachers is well documented as <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">PD is \u2018arguably the <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">single most important thing <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">that teachers and school leaders can focus on to make a <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">difference in children&#8217;s learning.\u2019 (Rauch and Coe, 2019, p.3).\u00a0 Teachers can be improved, and they can be improved via effective professional learning.\u00a0 In a report on PD, researchers confirm that effective professional learning has the following positive impact on students:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Increase in student grades<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Student lifetime earnings can be increased by $6000<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Collin and Smith, 2024, p. 6).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over the past 16 years, I have had the opportunity to participate in a variety of different PD activities offered both in the school communities that I have served and also with external course providers.\u00a0 The use of technology in schools has changed a great deal over the last 16 years in school and as a result, so have approaches to PD courses.\u00a0 PD courses are now available face-to-face, hybrid or 100% online.\u00a0 I prefer in-person PD courses as the opportunity to learn from the good practice of others is of most value to me.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I have also had the privilege of working in schools in the UK, Dubai, Thailand and Italy. \u00a0As a result, the PD offered has differed according to the priorities of the part of the world I was based in.\u00a0 Dubai, for example, is a futuristic Emirate and world leading with technological advancements.\u00a0 A stand out EdTech PD course that I undertook in Dubai was delivered by Lighthouse Arabia which is an organization that focuses on helping individuals with their mental health.\u00a0 More information about Lighthouse Arabia can be found here: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lighthousearabia.com\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">https:\/\/www.lighthousearabia.com\/<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> \u00a0 The course I undertook focused on creating a 24 hour online counseling service to provide first level guidance to the school community that I served.\u00a0 This course was most impactful as the learning was not only relevant but the workshop was practical and interactive in nature allowing participants to experience what students and parents\/carers would, meaning that resources could be tailored to the needs of our school community.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The least impactful PD is when the content is not relevant.\u00a0 Last academic year, I attended a PD event which focused on the use of Virtual Reality (VR) headsets in schools.\u00a0 This PD was problematic for a few different reasons.\u00a0 Firstly, the course delivery was 100% online making it challenging for me to learn about the ways in which VR headsets could be used in a school setting without seeing a practical demonstration.\u00a0 My age demographic means that I am classified as a millennial and I wondered if this impacts my views on online learning.\u00a0 However, I don\u2019t seem to be alone with my thoughts as research findings on learning during lockdown reveal that a majority of U.S. teens prefer <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">in-person over virtual or hybrid learning:<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/files\/2024\/09\/0.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3249 alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/files\/2024\/09\/0-300x165.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"360\" height=\"204\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">(Anderson et al., 2022, p.1).\u00a0 Coupled with this, funding required to use software promoted throughout this PD course would mean that my school group would have to significantly alter their budget allocation for school technology.\u00a0 Unfortunately, in the current financial climate, this is not possible making this course inaccessible and therefore irrelevant to the school community.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In summary, teachers need meaningful PD to help their students succeed.\u00a0 Researchers Sam Sims and Harry Fletcher-Wood (2021) contend that \u2018The more mechanisms professional development includes and effectively implements, the larger its likely impact on student attainment.\u2019 (Sims and Fletcher-Wood, 2021, p.10)\u00a0 confirming that well-designed PD benefits the most important stakeholders in schools: our students.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Bibliography\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Anderson, Monica, Faverio, Michelle and McClain, Colleen. (2022). How Teens Navigate Schools During COVID 19. Retrieved from: https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/internet\/2022\/06\/02\/how-teens-navigate-school-during-covid-19\/<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Collin, Joe and Smith, Ellen. (2024). Effective Professional Development Guidance Report. Retrieved from: https:\/\/d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net\/production\/eef-guidance-reports\/effective-professional-development\/EEF-Effective-Professional-Development-Guidance-Report.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rauch, CJ and Coe, Rob. (2019). Evaluating and Measuring Teaching Quality, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Teacher CPD: International Trends, Opportunities and Challenges<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, Chartered College of Teaching. Retrieved from: https:\/\/my.chartered.college\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Chartered-College-International- Teacher-CPD-report.pdf<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Sims, Sam and Fletcher-Wood, Harry. (2021). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Identifying the Characteristics of Effective Teacher Professional Development: A Critical Review<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, School Effectiveness and Improvement, vol. 32. (pp. 10).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><br \/>\n<br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><\/p>\n<p><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><br style=\"font-weight: 400\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The positive impact that professional development (PD) can have on teachers is well documented as PD is \u2018arguably the single most important thing that teachers and school leaders can focus on to make a difference in children&#8217;s learning.\u2019 (Rauch and Coe, 2019, p.3).\u00a0 Teachers can be improved, and they can &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6519,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69439],"tags":[69465],"class_list":["post-3247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall-2024","tag-edtech-pl-lifelonglearning-teachergrowth","column","twocol"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7MRuH-Qn","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6519"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3247"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3250,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3247\/revisions\/3250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/schooltechnology\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}