Lessons from conducting Professional Development.
Posted by shanetechteach on August 26, 2009
Today I had the joy of running a professional development day at Ormeau Woods SHS. It was a treat to work in a well thought out library, and with a great group of enthusiastic teachers. The title of the session was I’m mobile, and in the clouds! The day was split into three general time blocks, each one dedicated to one of mobile learning, cloud technologies or portable applications. If I’ve learnt anything its that I tried to cram too much into one day. Realistically I could have dropped the portable applications and devoted more time to the cloud technologies. If you are interested in the content of the session, click here.
It was also interesting to observe them when given time to practice. A range of actions were observed, with a wide ranging variety of questions being asked and answered around the room. I had never specifically planned time to allow free practice before in a PD session, but wanted to dedicate the time following feedback from previous full day events. This allowed the participants time to think, try and question. I particularly found it comforting when they questioned whether the application of technologies I demonstrated were relevant to their context. This comforted me because I believe by doing this they are demonstrating digital pedagogy, where the learning is important and tools are simply tools. If the tools I choose to use are not relevant, they should not bother with them. This is the first PD I have conducted where this has happened.
It is that simple shift of thinking beyond the tool to purposeful application that is exciting. The change is happening.
