Entry 6: A change of heart

I have been given an awesome opportunity to work with a former colleague to develop a professional development plan to implement Google Apps for Education in a local school district. We will be working with high school teachers and eventually students to implement this new technology. My former colleague, Holly, agrees that there is a massive need for change when it comes to offering professional development to teachers, especially when it comes to the ever changing and evolving face of technology integration. Based on this windfall, that I am hoping to be able to see through to the end, I am going to change my innovation project to something I can use for this endeavor. I want to start with getting to know my learners and finding out what they know, what to know, their fears, their hopes and tailor our trainings around that. I'm going to start with a needs assessment type survey for teachers to get a feel for where they are. We are also going to use this help tier our teachers and approach the trainings with leveling learners. I am going to use Google Forms for this now, but as we learn Qualitrix next semester, I will move it over to that.

Entry 5: A little lost, but that's OK.

I know that I want my innovation project to be related to my research, but I'm telling myself now that it's ok if it changes or if I create it, but don't end up using it. It's good practice and experience. I'm thinking I'd like to change what I initially created to be more of a tool to situate teachers before they ever begin a professional development class in instructional technology. I want teachers to tell me, or the trainer, their story through multiple choice question, open ended questions, and I'm not sure what else. As I'm writing this, I've definitely decided to go back to the drawing board. I'm still using Story Line, but I'm going back further than actually starting a professional development module. I'm starting at the very beginning by taking my users, or students, into account before I really design anything, or at least offer it. I want to be as un-overwhelming as possible. I realize that the work I've done so far is not useless, but I'm setting it aside to do something different. Creative Confidence definitely taught me that it's ok to change me mind and switch paths. That's exactly what I'm going to do.

Entry 4: A Story to Tell

I loved Parrish's article about design stories. It really smoke to the writer in me. When thinking about the technology integration teacher professional development experience from the two far ends of the spectrum, I was inspired to write their design stories.

A tale of two instructional technology professional development experiences:

Jane’s Story

Here we go again, Jane thinks, as she pulls up a seat in yet another tech tools class. The trainer is already going on about the usefulness of a class website. It doesn’t seem to matter that Jane has had a class website for the past two years. Not only does she have one, but she also works hard to keep it up to date with resources and assignments. She uses it to communicate with parents, students, and the community at large. She sometimes records lectures and posts them for students to review. This is just another waste of my time, Jane sighs as she tunes out the trainer and begins surreptitiously searching the web for resources to use in her next lesson.

Joe’s Story

Here we go again, Joe thinks, as he pulls up a seat in year another tech tools class. The training is already going on about the usefulness of a class website. It doesn’t seem to matter that Joe feels unsure of himself with the word processor program on his computer, much less creating a website. The trainer is using words like tag, discussion forums, and threads, and Joe is already so lost that his head is swimming. He looks around to see many of his colleague following along and setting up their own sites, but he missed some of the opening instructions trying to navigate to the right website. He’s a senior member of his department and doesn’t want to look slow or unknowledgeable by asking the trainer to start over, so he adopts a look of indifference about the whole activity and rolls his eyes when friends look his way. Joe sighs as he tunes out the trainer and begins rethinking the opening he used in class that day and taking notes about how to do it better next time.

Entry 3: Hitting refresh

As I think about my ultimate research interest of redesigning the professional development experience for incorporating technology for in-service teachers, I have come to the realization that I must think about the situation from several angles. In Creative Confidence, the authors stress looking as a well known situation with fresh eyes. I need to make sure I'm doing that with professional development. In my mind, I feel like I know the territory so well because I've interacted with it both from the learner and trainer angles. I was already thinking that I knew the problems with the existing system, but now I realize I'm only seeing it from my perspective, and that is only one of many. I need to talk to and observe teachers using technology in their classrooms. I need to know how they think about technology when they plan a lesson. Is it an innate part of the process or are they forcing it in? How does that affect their participation in the PD for this subject? I also need to talk to current trainers and look at their design process.  Whoa! This is overwhelming....

Entry 2: Which path to take?

Talk about being split in two. David and Tom Kelley's Creative Confidence made me really consider where I fall in how I see myself in terms of creativity. In some respects, I think I am creative. I love to write fiction and make up stories. On the other hand, I feel a kindred spirit with the students in d.school who immediately want to solve a problem and move on. I too dislike unanswered questions hanging around. When it comes to my design project, I don't want the latter attitude to hinder me. As soon as I heard about and started to use Storyline, I just knew it was the tool I wanted to use for my design project. But what if I'm just looking for that quick answer, and in doing so, not allowing myself to find the best answer. As I move through the course and my research, I will have to make a conscience effort to keep an open mind.

I keep thinking back to the idea that we must take the whole spectrum of users into account when designing a solution. How can I get to to know the whole spectrum? How will I know when I've found it? For this class, I may not have enough time to truly answer this question, but as I move forward with this vision, I need to keep it in the back of my mind. I need to be willing to change and expand it. As I begin, I feel like I am standing at not just a fork in the road, but a hundred different forks with unknown outcomes, challenges, and rewards. I will need to figure out how far down a path I need to go before deciding to turn back and try another. Confidence, creative and otherwise, will be needed to make these decisions.

Entry 1: Where to begin?

My research interest, at this point, is professional development. I worked in K12 education for 13 years, and I can't remember one time that I saw professional development done really well, especially when it came to integrating technology into the classroom. I feel like I can say this because I was on both sides of PD delivery as a teacher and as an instructional technology specialist facilitating the PD. As the person delivering the PD, I knew that I and the other people in my department weren't doing enough to make sure our learners were getting the most out of what we were teaching. Unlike the students in the classrooms, teachers are expected to learn under a one size fits all model. There may be some hands on training, but there is usually very little, if any follow up. The reason for these things often boils down to time and never having enough of it and having more learners that one trainer knows what to do with. Even if teachers do attend a professional development and find it interesting and useful, they don't always have the time and support to implement what they learned. And also in the interest of time, the trainer has to move onto the next thing and hope some of what they taught stuck. My research interest lies here. How can we personalize learning for teachers of all ages and experience? How can trainers and facilitators make sure teachers are getting the training that's right for them, and how can they follow up with teachers to support them through implementation?

In thinking about my design project, I'm leaning toward a type of online tutorial that somewhat models itself after the old "choose your own adventure" books. It will start out with questions that will lead the student to right point to start in the training to both save time and make sure they are comfortable. Some people need very explicit step by step training, others do not. These initial questions would allow the student to situate themselves in the training and move through it at their own pace and level. Is this too ambitious? Right now, I have no idea. I think Storyline would be a great tool to create one of these lessons, but I've yet to explore the other tools in the class, so I'll wait a bit before I make that final decision.

I know I can't wait too long. I feel that I must take what Moggridge said to heart and start creating prototypes and failing a few (several) times before I get close to the end product I have in mind. By approaching PD from this view point, I believe I am taking into account the human component and looking at learners from all parts of the spectrum, not just the "norm" in the middle. Gal mentions that any place a designer is at a particular point can affect how they approach their design project. This will be true as I move through this class and gain different perspectives, ideas, and knowledge of tools. I will not follow in Ray's footsteps and ignore a tool that could possible be useful to me.

This is just the beginning of thinking of what my project will be, and I need to be open to the fact that it might fail, forcing me in a completely different direction. I don't like to fail, so I see the challenges before me. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little afraid of them, but I'm also excited to see what I can do.