Category: The Educator’s Companion to PD

Click. Learn. Create.

Click. Learn. Create.

I live in a world of curiosity, surrounded by buoyant imaginations and inquisitive minds. I forget what it’s like in the “real world”. But this past week my sister had her birthday and what I thought was a simple project of curating loving videos was an absolutely enlightening experience of how others perceive technology and use it. A continuum of fear, with arrogant ignorance at one level: “Don’t know, don’t care to know”-ness and vain helplessness at the other with “I don’t want to look stupid so I won’t try”-ness.  I made how-to videos for making a video using Facebook Messenger (the very app we were communicating in!), and yet the willingness to do it wasn’t there.  It was fascinating to bear witness to this.  No one was willing to simply click on a button and give it a go.

Now you could say that this is a generational issue–“It’s those Baby Boomers!” Maybe…but I think it’s a mindset issue. It’s a lack of interest and desire to move beyond our comfort level. It’s a fear of failure. And all of us “Digital Immigrants” suffer from it.

I feel strongly that all of us, young or old, must embrace David Higginson’s motto: Click. Learn. Create. We have to be open to exploring different technologies and apps. Not because we have to be experts in everything, but we have to be more playful and less rigid in our beliefs about ourselves and what we can do. We need to get comfortable with making mistakes.

Personally, I like to challenge myself with technology, creating a podcast was just “for fun”. This website was created just “for fun”. I wanted to learn more about these things and researched and played around. For the past few months, I’ve been teaching myself about how to create online courses and all those things that are entailed in it. It’s been a journey of exploring all the learning management systems and the ways content can be created for it. I’m loving the challenge. But moving from a curiosity into creation seems like the longest journey ever. And it isn’t because of what’s possible with tech. It’s because of my mindset.

In my head, I hear of a litany of “What If” worst-case scenarios: What if it’s crap? What if I pick the wrong platform? What if I could design this better? ….etc….it’s all the same self-berating message that boils down to “I’m not good enough.” I think, this culturally programmed message of perfection paralyzes me at times, and I have to will myself to overcome my anxiety. But as awful as I feel sometimes, it is absolutely joyful when I encounter someone who has another piece of the puzzle and this gives me the courage to continue. I may move slowly, but I still move forward.

learningBut this IS learning. Learning isn’t just about acquiring knowledge and skills. It’s about becoming a better version of ourselves. Me 2.0 It’s about surprising ourselves with what we can do. It’s about connecting and collaborating with others with purpose and passion. And most importantly, it’s about growing ourselves emotionally so we can be mature, sensitive and happy human beings. One of my friends, Graham Baines, would call this #SeriousFun.

 

Even the smallest efforts can lead to transformational gains in our personal and professional development. I wish for all of us to Click. Learn. Create. so that we may Discover. Inspire. Empower.

 

 

Season 1, Episode 4 of The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast : Teachers First

Season 1, Episode 4 of The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast : Teachers First

I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in June 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.

On February 16th, 2013, I signed up for a free membership at Teachers First and my life hasn’t been the same since. This is probably one of my favorite website for teachers. You can really get lost here in the generous amount of fabulous resources here, which has everything from Edtech reviewed resources to BYOD tools and tips, and tons upon tons of curriculum ideas to integrate subjects. It has other useful and timely resources for special education and But that’s really the tip of the iceberg, you have got to go check it out.

The best part of all of this is that it is completely free, including ads and politics. This site is interesting because it self-funds through its non-profit parent company, The Source for learning.   The Source for Learning (SFL), holds licenses for some special broadcast frequencies that date back to the 1970s that are now used by wireless communication companies. The royalties from these arrangements let SFL maintain Teachers First’s main operations as a free service for teachers. They see this website as their charitable way to help teachers enrich their practice with their online community for teachers by teachers. With thousands of lessons, units, and reviewed web resources for K-12 classroom teachers, you will be grateful that you have found this website, as it supports you in becoming a 21st-century educator.

There are literally thousands of resources here for classrooms K-12, but I’m going to focus mainly on the free professional development that they offer through their OK2Ask program. The OK2Ask program conducts virtual workshops that are designed to be interactive and practical. Since they are based in America, they offer these online workshops in the evening, eastern standard time, so it’s convenient as well. Even for me, who lives in China, I can catch these workshops before I go to school. These webinars are about 90-minutes long and you can ask all sorts of questions. The first 60-70 minutes is all about the topic, and then the rest of it is just answering a question.  That is what I love about these workshops is that you never have to feel idiotic. Sometimes you feel like you should know more about a topic but you don’t and are afraid to ask so you don’t look stupid. So I really appreciate how they create this context of authenticity, and they patiently and thoroughly answer questions. And, even though this is free, you can still get continuing education credits that you can use towards your licensing.  And those credits are not given with a fee attached–they are completely free.

Listen to the offerings for last month’s OK2Ask Program:
  • 3 Cool Tools for Student Response
  • Explore, compare, and contrast 3 free online student response tools for formative assessment in the classroom. 4/11
  • Digital Storytelling In the Classroom Pt. 3: Adding Tech Tools Join us to explore free options for creating digital storytelling projects with your students.
  • 4/25 Differentiating the K-8 Classroom Learn to use instructional technology strategies that invite differentiation and provide opportunities to tailor your teaching to reach all students.
  • 5/2 Meet Google Classroom Join us for a “Meet and Greet” with Google Classroom, an online tool that incorporates G-Suite apps into a dynamic classroom environment.
  • 5/9 Make the Most of Your TeachersFirst Membership Discover the benefits of the free membership offered by TeachersFirst.
  • 5/16 Microsoft Tools to Ignite Student Engagement and Increase Productivity! Enhance classroom instruction and connect your students to authentic classroom experiences with free tools from Microsoft
  • 5/23 Getting Started with Google Draw Explore the hidden treasure that is Google Draw. Don’t let its simplicity fool you; there are many things hidden in this versatile tool.
  • 5/30 Tech Integration Made Easy with Adobe Spark Engage your students with Adobe Spark, an integrated suite of FREE storytelling applications. Learn to use Adobe Spark, Post, and Page for classroom projects and personal productivity.
Personally, I have taken courses on everything from Daily 5 with a Technology Twist, to Digital Storytelling, to Tools for Flipped Learning, Student-friendly Search Engines.

3 Pros of the Resource

  1. The teachers who present these topics are really well versed and helpful, so you are getting quality PD. Oftentimes, there are multiple hosts so you are getting more than one perspective or advice from an expert in the area of interest.  I personally love that, and since they use Abode Connect, not only are there are little to none technical glitches, but it’s a great platform to interact and engage.
  2.  And they archive workshops so if you miss it, you watch it later. However, they do repeat certain popular workshops so there is a likelihood that you can catch it live another time.
  3. If you have a BYOD or 1:1 initiative at your school, they have a multitude of ideas and solutions to your challenges. You can use their archived workshops in your own school’s PD meetings, so your team can discuss and troubleshoot these challenges.

2 Cons of the Resource

I actually had to think hard about this since the Webinars are incredibly organized and are a well-oiled machine. but here are my 2 cons.
  1. You have to be live on the webinar in order to receive PD credit.
  2. They have almost too many resources. I know that sounds funny but sometimes you can get overwhelmed by it all. However, I do have to say that they have webinars on how to use the website and if you take it. And if all you ever do is engage in the OK2ASk offerings, the presenters do an amazing job with creating wikis on the content they share.

1 Idea for Success

Get a membership. It is free and be sure that you sign up for their newsletter. They don’t bombard you with a bunch of ads or annoying emails, it’s just straight up resources. I just want to share one more resource that you can avail yourself that is nestled in their professional resources area:

TeachersFirst’s Grant Sources and Contests

There they have over 30 listings of contests that educators can have their classroom compete in that award money as well as resources for educational grants. The only thing I love more than Free PD is free money for my classroom, so I highly recommend you avail yourself of these opportunities.
Season 1, Episode 2: Getting a Harvard Education with MOOCs on The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast (Show Notes)

Season 1, Episode 2: Getting a Harvard Education with MOOCs on The Educator’s Companion to PD Podcast (Show Notes)

I know that a lot of people enjoying reading and skimming through podcast show notes to get a gist of the highlights of the episode. This podcast was originally recorded back in May 2017. To listen to the podcast, please go here.
Today we are going to talk about one of my favorite free learning resources: MOOCs. Spelled M. O. O. C.  Perhaps you have heard of them. But otherwise, you might be thinking, Huh what’s a MOOC? Yep, it’s a real word and it stands for Massive Open Online Course.
Massive means there’s a ton of choice of courses and the opportunity for many people to sign up. In a typical course, maybe 30 students sign up, but here you could literally have hundreds, if not thousands.
Open means that anyone can sign up and take the course, anytime and from anywhere. Its content is unlicensed and is free if you choose to audit it. Otherwise, certification can cost you upwards to 100 USD. In some cases, there are micro-credentials programs, which would cost beyond that, but today we are just focusing on one-off courses.
Online means that all of the learning content happens via the internet. Most of the interaction happens on one platform and in the online forums. Participants sign up and work through the modules, which can be done at any time of the day. The learning is asynchronized and so you needn’t complete work on specific time deadlines and can be very much self-paced.
Course means that it is structured with the intent to develop knowledge and skills. There is a curriculum to work through, complete with class outlines or syllabi that  a participant works through during the class. Oftentimes you can get college credit or certification by completing the course and paying a fee.
Sounds pretty good, right! Yes, it is! And MOOCs are really making it possible for people to be lifelong learners because there is no shortage of courses or programs that one can explore. In fact, they are poised to really disrupt higher education with the focus on competency-based education that emphasizes what students know and are able to do, rather than on how long it takes them to do it. Although I don’t want to really go into how MOOCs are challenging the status quo when it comes to getting degrees, let’s just say that  MOOCs are evolving and creating “micro Masters” programs so that one can really uplevel their knowledge and skills. So this is really a fantastic time to get on board the MOOC train because you have some fabulous professional development from high-quality universities.

So although there are many MOOC providers, I want to explore a few of them that have relevant courses for educators.
1. EdX: Courses are offered by well-known universities like MIT, Harvard University, Boston University, UC Berkeley, Kyoto University, Australian National University, University of Adelaide, University of Queensland, IIT Bombay, IIM Bangalore, Dartmouth College, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Curtin University.  You can learn anything from Design thinking to strategies for inquiry-based learning to Big Data and education. There’s no shortage of interesting and relevant courses that you can take so that you can become more informed and innovative in your classroom.
2. The next one is Cousera. Courses here are offered by universities such as Stanford University, Princeton University, Arizona State University, University of Maryland College Park, Yale and Duke Universities. Here you can learn about topics such as emerging trends and technology for virtual classrooms, music in the 21st-century classroom, autism spectrum disorder, digital storytelling, copyright for teachers and librarians. The list goes on.
3. My 3rd favorite MOOC provider is FutureLearn and most of these universities hail from the UK such as the University of Birmingham, University of Edinburgh, King’s College London, University of Leicester, University of Reading, Open University, University of Southampton.  There you can explore topics such as Assessment for Learning in STEM teaching, Mindfulness, Dyslexia and foreign language teaching, science writing, Getting a grip on mathematical symbolism, learning how to code, and social well-being. Again, a plethora of choices.
4. Another great MOOC provider is Open2Study which offers courses from a mulititude of Australian universities such as James Cook University, Griffith University, University of Wollongong, Flinders University, RMIT University, Central Institute of Technology, Sydney Institute, University of Western Sydney, Polytechnic West, Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Swinburne University of Technology, University of Newcastle, Jordan University of Science and Technology, University of Tasmania, International College of Management, Sydney, Massey University. There you can explore topics such as Early Childhood teaching, Sports and recreation management, the Human Body as a Machine, Education in a Changing World, Foundations in Psychology, the Art of Photography, and World Music. Again, a multitude of topics to pique your interest.
5. Lastly, I want to speak about the Canvas Network whose courses are made from a network of American universities based in Utah. You can take courses about digital tools for K-12 educators, art appreciation, chemistry, grammar, educating girls, digital citizenship. and economics. One of my favorite courses I’ve ever taken, and probably the one that hooked me into taking MOOCs was offered by then. It was about becoming more creative.
There are more MOOC providers but these are my top picks for educators. Since you have figured out your learning goal already and know what topics you want to explore, you can easily browse on any of these sites to find courses that would match your professional interest. Complete one course at a time. It’s tempting to sign up for 10, but stay focused. Most courses will tell you how long it will take to complete, with roughly 2-4 hours a week being an average.
 Now I’d like to do a segment that I am calling the 3/2/1. 3 pros of this of the resource. 2 Cons and 1 idea to help you succeed.
3 pros of this resource:
  1. These are high-quality courses, nearly the equivalent of a college class.
  2. You can participate at any time or as much or as little as you want, so your level of engagement is defined by you.
  3. You can explore a variety of perspectives on an educational topic, or gain timely content knowledge that you can use in your lesson plans.
2 Cons
  1. Since these classes aren’t going toward a degree, courses aren’t usually offered over and over again as they might in a traditional college with its semesters. If you missed the sign-up date, there’s a chance you can still access an archived version of the course, but it just depends on how it was set up.
  2. On some MOOC sites, they are really pushing that you pay for the courses. For example, on Cousera, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the sign-up page before you see an “audit this class for free” button.  If you need continuing education credits for your teaching license certification, then you have to pay for it. So that’s the caveat on this, however, if you want to enroll in the class for free, you can always upgrade and pay for it later to get credits towards your certification and the price is rarely more than 50 USD. So I might suggest that you sign up and see your willing to see this class to the end before I make the investment in it if you need professional development certification credits.
1-Idea for success
  1. There are a ton of interesting subjects being explored via MOOCs. Before signing up for a MOOC, look back at your goal–is this course really in alignment with what you’re trying to accomplish? Read through the syllabi to ensure that it’s covering topics that will move you towards accomplishing your goal. Looking through the syllabus carefully will also help you to make sure that you have the prerequisite skills for completing it. For example, I signed up for a Robotics MOOC and then later I found out that I had to take a pre-test that tested my knowledge of Linear Algebra. Since it’s been ages since I took higher math, I went over to Khan Academy to reteach myself. When I did that, I realized that I would really need to invest more time in getting the prerequisite skills to do the MOOC. So I re-examined why I wanted to take the course and decided that my time invested in this course wouldn’t really help me become a better teacher, hence I dropped the course.

Hopefully, this overview was helpful and got you thinking about how you can deepen your knowledge of current and important pedagogy without spending loads of money. If you have any other MOOC providers that you also feel are worthy of notice, then comment below. Thanks!

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