Enhancing Professional Development for Teachers Potential Uses of Information Technology: Report of a Workshop (2007) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
Introduction
Introduction
Pages 1-9
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 1... ...
The Committee on Enhancing Professional Development for Teachers operates under the aegis of the National Academies Teacher Advisory Council (TAC) ,1 a standing board in the National Research Council's Center for Education,2 and the California TAC,3 which is part 1Additional information about the National Academies Teacher Advisory Council is avail able at http://www7.nationalacademies.org/tac.
|
From page 2... ...
Why we continue not to do that as we should in the field of education is beyond me." Both the National Academies and the California TACs were founded and operate on the premise that teachers must have a voice in shaping what they do in their classrooms, the resources that are available to them, the policies that enhance student learning, and the future of the teaching profession itself. Presenters at the workshop reviewed the relevant research undertaken to date and outlined future research that needs to be pursued.
|
From page 3... ...
Access to all PowerPoint presentations is available on the website of the National Academies Teacher Advisory Council at http://www7. nationalacademies.org/tac/Potential_Uses_Presentations.html.
|
From page 4... ...
With courses taken in person, said National Academies TAC member Valdine McLean, who teaches science at Pershing County High School in Lovelock, Nevada, "often you are just a name or a number, with very little interaction with the professor or classmates. Only the loud extroverts are heard in any discussion-type settings.
|
From page 5... ...
We had student colleagues from Colombia, Japan, Afghanistan, Sara jevo, Pakistan, and all across the U.S." At the capstone event, at which the online students finally met each other in person, "it was like trying to find your lost brother or sister." Since receiving her degree in 2005, McLean has been a steadfast proponent of online professional development in her work in Nevada and as a member of the National Academies Teacher Advisory Council. "This can be a valid and rigorous form of learning," she said.
|
From page 6... ...
"If we are not increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of teachers in the classroom, managing curriculum and managing information, I think we are missing the point," said Thalacker. As Dede said, "Maybe the real thing about online professional development is not whatever content we put into it, but the process of experiencing it, and experiencing something that is like what kids experience." Unless teachers can experience this world themselves, they may be unaware of the influence and power these technologies have on students' lives.
|
From page 7... ...
For example, William Thomas of the Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) ,5 a policy organization that works with 16 state governments to improve student performance, noted that "every one of the SREB states is doing some level of online professional development." But departments, schools, and districts "are picking and choosing where it makes sense for them." One of the ways in which OTPD is flexible is that it occurs on different scales, according to Raymond Rose of the consulting group Rose & Smith Associates.
|
From page 8... ...
These blended or hybrid models provide an additional dimension along which online programs can vary. "There are a lot of pieces that you can pull together from some of the face-to-face channels and some of the online channels to craft professional development that meets the needs of individual teachers," said Leah O'Donnell of the consulting firm Eduventures.6 This flexibility has led many schools to take at least some initial steps to provide their teachers with online professional development.
|
From page 9... ...
MODELS OF ONLINE TEACHER PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT At various points during the workshop, participants described online programs of professional development with which they have been involved. The workshop planning committee decided to include both for-profit and not-for-profit programs so long as the organization offering a program had an ongoing research program to evaluate its efficiency and planned to share those data with the research community.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.