Will My Professional Development Plans Help Students?

As a district level educational technologist (ET), I primarily work with educators. My first professional development GAME plan (Goals, Actions, Monitor, Evaluation / Extend) involves filming collaborations between school level ET’s and educators as a means for me to learn and then be able to share, effective examples of technology integration that improve student learning. In my second plan, I am learning new instructional strategies and technologies through the process of creating a district technology intranet website. This resource will ultimately contain technology integration ideas in conjunction with effective instructional methods in order to promote effective learning throughout the district.

While my professional development plans are primarily directed towards educators, the ultimate goals is to improve student learning as educators incorporate purposeful technology integration and utilize teaching strategies that promote 21st century skills. These 21st century skills correlate directly with the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) for Students and as educators increase their own skills in and application of the NETS Teacher Standards, the result will be increased achievement for all students. I believe eventually both of my plans will directly support all of the NETS standards for both teachers and students.

I shared my technology intranet website with my district leadership this week and they were very enthusiastic about it. I am now scheduled to present it at the next administrator conference in January. This will be an excellent opportunity for me to get administrator support throughout my district for effective technology integration and the use of teaching strategies such as problem based learning.

The websites and other resources that have been shared with me through this blog have been extremely helpful. This week I decided to change the ‘Video Production’ portion of my intranet site to read ‘digital storytelling’ because I think sometimes educators see the word “video” and they immediately think that it is too far from their comfort zone to attempt. The term ‘digital storytelling’ will be much less threatening. I am still gathering websites that educators have found particularly supportive in the areas of webquests, concept mapping, electronic portfolios, Internet literacy, educational networking, digital storytelling, online tutorials, problem based learning, and assessment with technology. I am sure there will be additional sections but right now these are keeping me plenty busy and, as ever, I am open to any suggestions.