The current IT PD program in my school

(Multimedia presentation and Written reflection)

The current IT PD program at Leysin American School is called ATLAS.

The choice of the word ATLAS to name this program was, from the point of view of marketing a success, as this word is used very frequently in English. I am going to use the common meanings of ATLAS in this presentation to explain its meaning within my school. Wikipedias' definitions of ATLAS are:

1.     In Greek mythology, ATLAS was the God who carried the world in his back. He was commonly identified with the Atlas Mountains in northwest Africa (Modern-day Morocco and Algeria)

2.    King Atlas, a mythical King of Mauretania, was according to legend a wise philosopher, mathematician and astronomer who supposedly made the first celestial globe. It was this Atlas to whom Gerardus Mercator was referring when he first used the name "atlas”.

3.    An atlas is a collection of maps.

4.    Atlas, son of Poseidon and Cleito, the daughter of Evenor, king of Atlantis.

At Leysin American School the term ATLAS is also quite ambiguous. ATLAS stands for Advanced Technology at LAS, but there are 3 different concepts associated to this:

1. The ATLAS program.

Upon arrival at LAS, students are issued a MacBook and iPhone as part of this ATLAS program. Very much like the Greek God, our students carry these technological gadgets in their backs as if their life depended on them.

LAS teachers encourage students to use their MacBooks for educational purposes, but students also find many others (facebook, games, etc).

Being a boarding school students have the necessity of keeping in touch with their families and friends in their home countries and the use of social networks and VOIP connections such as Skype are quite important.

This ATLAS program has enhanced the school’s virtual presence and this has also been a success, especially from the marketing point of view. For more information on this see my article (Serra,A., 2013)

2. ATLAS IT PD Meetings.

It was very wisely decided that teachers would need professional development in order to enhance the educational use of technology at LAS. If we look at a recent study by the National Center for Educational Statistics (Gray, Thomas & Lewis, 2010), we can see that less than half of the three thousand surveyed teachers reported using technology often during instructional time. Most teachers seem to use technology only for administrative tasks and to communicate with peers and parents (grades and attendance mainly).

This idea was very successfully put into action and as a result a slot in teachers’ very busy schedule was found. A weekly one-hour meeting was arranged during the first and last term of the school (it was not possible to arrange for these meetings in winter term due to a change of schedule in winter to accommodate an activity which attracts students and teachers alike: skiing in Leysin ski resort.

Sadly our ATLAS IT PD program is missing something very important: a strong leadership. Just like we would need a guide to ski around the North African ATLAS Mountains, we need a guide for such a complex, ambitious and yet very necessary project.

This serious gap in the structure of the project has been filled by adding other content to the meetings originally allocated to the IT Professional Development of LAS teachers.

3. ATLAS is also a word that is often associated with Curriculum mapping. Just like the mythical King of Mauretania seems to have introduced his name in the world as a definition for a collection of maps, another collection of maps changed the concept of our ATLAS meetings.

Many ATLAS IT PD meetings were replaced for the creation of curriculum maps. The name in the school’s weekly schedule did not have to be changed, but many teachers felt that they were mislead when the concept changed.

The creation of curriculum maps can be a very slow process. It was understood by most that it was a requirement form different accreditation boards, but it was not quite understood why it had to be done by all teachers during that time and a lack of organization in the creation of this maps added to a lack of motivation from teachers resulted in the process slowing down even more. For many teachers it was the worst working hour of the week.

For a long period of time not-very-well structured IT PD ATLAS sessions were alternated with not-very-well organized Curriculum Design ATLAS sessions. As a result teacher’s motivation towards IT PD development declined.

I think the key to the solution of the problem is the creation of a Director of Educational Technology / Use of Technology Coordinator in the school.

As we can se in this document, the role of the Director of Educational Technology is very important. The importance of this job has been underestimated in the school, and the tasks have been filled by people who do not have had the skills required (leadership / IT skills / Educational Background), or the time, or the incentive, or the motivation necessary. School administrators’ IT skills are often not strong enough to help others. The traditional IT director in most schools has a strong IT background but very limited experience in the applications of technology in the classroom and this limits the success of their PD sessions. Research shows that PD training can reduce technology integration when it lacks connection to actual classroom practice or focuses solely on technical skills (Bradshaw, 2002). Finally most teachers simply do not have the time or the incentive to prepare a good workshop for other teachers. Many teachers think that technology increases their workload (Inan & Lowther, 2010).

Most ATLAS IT PD sessions were in groups which were very big (often the whole faculty group together), and with teachers with very different IT skills levels (no differentiation made). If we had tried to teach Mathematics to all our students in assembly for one hour the result would not have been much different.

The solution to this problem is to split faculty in different groups regarding their ability, interests and needs.

In order to discover Atlantis, our ATLAS Island we need to go back to do what we know how to do very well: TEACH. Teaching teachers is not much different to teaching students. Like students, teachers need motivation, relevant practice and time. LAS teachers are required and given time to prepare lessons for their students. In the same way anyone involved in the coordination of such ATLAS IT PD meetings should be prepared for the position. Underestimating the cost of this has resulted in loosing precious time and motivation from the faculty group.

Most teachers rely on PD programs offered from third parties. LAS teachers have a PD budget of 750CHF per year, which they can use to sign if for courses offered. This does not include the possibility of doing an MEd by Endicott College (which can include the new MEd in International Education with an Emphasis in Educational Technology.

 Another PD development program has been put in place at the school. In this program professional development is promoted from within. Teachers share their knowledge and skills in small groups in which trainers and trainees are all mixed. This PD program is very successful and I have personally benefited from it. “Months after transitioning from mentoring to teacher-led communities of practice, teachers continued to report positive perceptions of several barriers and were observed engaging in desirable instructional practices. “ (Kopcha, 2012, p 1109)

References

·      Al-Senaidi, S., Ln, L., & Poirot, J. (2009). Barriers to adopting technology for teaching and learning in Oman. Computers & Education, 53(3), 575-590.

·      Bradshaw, L.K. (2002). Technology for teaching and learning: strategies for staff development and follow-up support. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 10(1), 131-150.

·      Gray, L., Thomas, N., & Lewis, L. (2010). Teachers’ use of educational technology in US public schools: 2009 (NCES 2010-040). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics, Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education.

·      Inan, F.A., & Lowther, D.L. (2010). Laptops in the K-12 classrooms: exploring factors impacting instructional use. Computers & Education, 55(3), 937-944.

·      Kopcha, T. J. (2012). Teachers’ perceptions of the barriers to technology integration and practices with technology under situated professional development. Computers & Education, 59, 1109-1121

·      LAS. ATLAS. Advanced Technology at LAS. Retrieved from http://www.las.ch/academics/atlas

·      Magnuson, P., & Motta, R. Promoting Professional Learning from Within. The International Educator. Vol. 24. No. 23, February 2010.

·      School Computing. Director of Educational Technology Job Description. Retrieved from http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Director_of_Educational_Technology

·      Serra, A. What are some key areas to focus on in an effort to enhance your school schools’ virtual presence? Retrieved from http://leadership-technology.blogspot.ch/2013/01/what-are-some-key-areas-to-focus-on-in.html

·      Wikipedia, Atlantis, Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis.