My experience with technology in K12 going way back is based on a model in which individual schools or at least associations of schools provide mentoring, coaching or some form of assistance to educators attempting to engage their students with technology. My model for how this assistance is provided was pretty much informed by the long career my wife had as a technology facilitator. She started in this type of role many years ago so I must admit I am surprised when this type of assistance is lacking. I recognize the importance of having access to someone with considerable skill with multiple technology tools and instructional strategies. The questions I am raising concern whether what I have described is atypical and whether there is a need for an additional level of mentoring/support.
BetterLesson Personalized PD believes the answers to my questions would be “yes”.
I may have already clouded the issue by failing to differentiate the various forms professional development might take. As a college professor, my courses should be considered a form of professional development. However, the issues I present and discuss and the level on which these issues are applied for individual learners in a class is very different from the type of interaction my wife provided. I am likely to offer what the research suggests about a particular practice and discuss both the pros and cons of engaging students with a type of activity. I am indifferent to a learner’s commitment to using a specific strategy and feel they should understand that some with good intentions question that strategy. I pick examples from categories of technology tools and may not pick the specific tool from a category you have available in your classroom.
My wife would have been more responsive to individual teachers in her work. I would also describe what she did as starting from what the teacher wanted to do. It would follow that she would not feel a background of strengths and weaknesses of a given strategy was necessary and that suggestions would focus on the tool the teacher wanted or had to use.
Is there another level? Sure. My wife would have had varying degrees of familiarity with the content area the teacher wanted to implement. She had greater experience with elementary and middle school learners, but worked across grade levels. Because her role was full time she was also more of an observer of teacher practice rather than working from personal experience with the application of a specific strategy within a specific grade and content level. As I understand the proposal explained in the link provided above, some feel there is a need for this greater depth. I can see the argument, I just wonder about the feasibility of the business model.
Strategies for involving teachers in lesson analysis have always made sense to me. Some would likely make more meaningful contributions to such activities than others, but the question is whether compensation should be required or can be provided. One thing about new ventures based on a new model is that someone is willing to take the risk to see how it goes.
