Professional_Development

=Professional Development | EngagingWinter10= ... is a group project by students enrolled in the Engaging Students with Social Media course.

Robert Brasko-Red
 * < ​Professional Development

Professional development is the first step in incorporating social media tools into the classroom. This should be an on-going process that provides staff flexible opportunities to achieve. The Allegheny Intermediate Unit (AIU) is a good example of how school districts can begin do this. If you go to their web site, __http://www.aiu3.net/__ you will find an excellent selection of courses that contain the latest in technology and social media tools available today. It is not the entire answer, but it is a start. Once a district has provided the teachers the opportunity to complete a course, it can then incorporate the new knowledge into in-service days during the school year and phase it in for the next school year. Establishing attainable goals is a must when using new technology. During the in-service, techno savvy staff members can provide their assistance in helping the rest of the teachers to learn how to incorporate the technology into their classrooms.

Take a look at this video I found on YouTube that is very similar to the one we watched but on a K-12 level. In fact it is called, "A Vision of K-12 Students Today," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_A-ZVCjfWf8 It is just as profound as the one we watched for class and clearly shows that professional development is a necessity.

The concept of students being digital natives really made sense to me. We teachers have to become like the natives or they will get restless (pun intended). Finding a comfort zone to work with today's techno students is what we must attain. Professional development is how to attain it. The old ways are done, we must be a guide on the side for the student of today. In order to do that we must have on-going development it the use of social media that is best suited for our content area.

Just look at all this electronic equipment: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidneysm/2188973900/ That was two years ago and just from Apple. I have seen college students pack for school and it looks like an electronic seminar. the amount of devise and cords, cables, chargers, PCs, etc. It blows me away at how the student of today prepares for class. We teachers must be prepared as well. We need to have on-going professional development that is course based, in-serviced monthly, instructed by techno experts available for us. If we can do this, we can teach the techno student of today.

Professional Development.. Krista Tozier--blue

The first thing that people generally think of as being important when dealing with professional development is the physical resource element. Though this is obviously critical, it is not the most important thing when you are trying to encourage people to use technology. The most important element to any successful program is helping the staff to understand WHY the topic (in this case Social Media) should be instrumental to the learning process and WHAT it actually means. Teachers frequently believe that they can skim the surface of a topic because it is just the fad of the day and it will pass. In this case, teachers need to see what the students are doing outside of the class. They need to understand that these students actually are different from former students because their access to information and the way in which they learn/process information is not the same as it was as little as ten years ago. []

Teachers and administrators will also need thorough training that is accessible, relevant, and timely. I have read the phrase (as used by Marc Prensky 2001 in his article "Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants" [|http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.pdf)] "digital immigrants" used to describe those people who were not born in the computer age. Those people who were born after the time when computers were in common use are described as "digital natives." The "natives" don't even consider technology as something that must be learned. They have always used it; it is simply part of their reality. On this topic, teachers and administrators are not the ones who are comfortable and in the most knowledgeable position. They are not used to knowing the least about a topic, and most educators are unwilling to learn things from the students. When you are used to being the giver of all knowledge, it can be difficult to give up that position. Teachers must feel secure and as though they are able to direct the students' learning and use of the technology. Without this feeling of security, educators will not be willing to participate fully with the social media.

Educators must be provided with the information on the forms of social media ([]) They also must be given the time to practice the things that the students use all of the time. The following video shows a group of teachers who have just been to a training seminar on Web 2.0. Their views are interesting, as is the difference in their beginning levels. [] As shown in the video, training is key. Appropriate support (and ideally training) within the district is necessary to give teachers the help that they need as the integrate the media into their classes. They also need the appropriate equipment, but without the training they will be unable to use the equipment effectively. ||
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