Fix the Professional Development...Fix Many Education Problems!

 

Transform PD with Video

Professional development with a focus on integrating technology into the classroom provides the greatest opportunity to address many of the issues faced in the world of K-12 education. Considering the issues of teacher shortages being filled by untrained individuals, and some experienced teachers having major discomfort with application of the technological tools, effective professional development that directly benefits the work can help with these issues.  

Please excuse the "commercial" of the attached video, but he is right!

If we know who the good teachers are, why aren't their practices on display to explain/teach and show others? 


No matter how large or small the district, there are individuals that stand out for their mastery of the content standards and how they use technology to present the standards to students. It is important for the content to be relevant to the teachers expected to access these videos because the more specific the access is to the individual teacher, the more benefits gained. The novice/untrained teacher gets exposure to relevant effective pedagogy and content, while the seasoned technophobe gets exposure to how the technology fits in to the content. The Alabama Learning Exchange has fantastic resources, but access to the resources without knowing how to use them correctly is fruitless. Seeing a colleague from the same school or district, teaching the same content provides a great starting point for improvements to the individual's own professional growth which will only be further enhanced by the next step. 

The consumer becomes the producer! 

Making the videos a one way street would not be as fruitful as requiring an exchange where the novice and experienced technophobe also are required to show what they have learned and receive feedback from their colleagues. This feedback can address the misuses of technology or content while opening up a line of communication that will allow the individuals taking part to collaborate on creating more success for students. A major concern for education is why the same expectations for students is not displayed first in teacher expectations? Collaborative learning would benefit teachers the same way it benefits students, which in turn further benefit the students. 

Time creates the biggest challenge for effective professional development. Effective PD must be a sustained action that is regularly revisited to continue to grow the knowledge of the teaching professional. With the ease of recording, posting, sharing, collaborating through various online means, Technology Coordinators could fix some major educational challenges by fixing how the professional development for integrating the technology is conducted. 

References:

(2020). High Quality Professional Learning [Photograph]. Https://Achievethecore.org/Peersandpedagogy/Mean-Content-Focused-Professional-Learning/.

(2026). Reverse Card Uno [Photograph]. Https://Matteluno.Fandom.com/Wiki/Reverse_Card?Action=History.

Alabama Learning Exchange- https://alabamalearningexchange.org/home

Frazier, M., & Hearrington, D. (2024). The Technology Coordinator's Handbook (4th ed.). International Society for Technology in Education. 

[Helpful Professor Explains]. (2024, May 1). Collaborative Learning (Explained in 2 Minutes) [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXwBzbb0Huc

[IRIS Connect]. (2024, November 11). Transforming Professional Development with Video [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbMtxIedvu8


Comments

  1. Ashli PolizosMarch 5, 2026 at 5:23 PM

    Stephen,
    I think you made some good points about the importance of revising how we provide teacher professional development, and this certainly applies to technology professional development. As the video points out, most of the time teachers don't use what they learn because they don't have opportunities to "transfer" or apply the new learning. Frazier and Hearrington (2024) emphasize the importance of providing effective professional development so that teachers know how to best leverage the benefits of technology, but in so many situations, we forget best teaching practices when we are leading learning with adults! I really connected with Thompson (2024) who discusses strategies that work well for technology professional development. One idea that seems both practical and effective is giving teachers a scenario and allowing them to find ways to apply the new technology tool to meet the needs of learners. Creating scenario-based situations helps teachers think about how to use new technology and gives them a chance to practice in an environment where they can also receive support and troubleshoot potential problems (Thompson, 2024). This is a great way to teach any type of content, but it seems especially practical for technology. We must start thinking about how individuals learn best and using these strategies for sharing new technology tools if we want teachers to embrace new technology and use it effectively.

    References
    Frazier, M., & Hearrington, D. (2024). The technology coordinator’s handbook (4th ed.). International Society for Technology in Education.

    Thompson, R. (2024, February 23). Integrating technology into collaborative professional learning. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/article/integrating-technology-professional-learning/

    ReplyDelete

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