Evolving Podcasts for PD: Perception is Reality

Uses for podcasts appear to be a moving target. If we perceive the iPod as a toy, then that is what it will be. If we perceive the iPod as a provider of entertainment, then that is how it will be used. As a Professional Development tool, is the podcast, itself, enough? What I mean is . . . what if the podcasts we develop also come with one or two essential questions for self-reflection, based upon the content and the topic to which they relate? If we create a district-wide learning community to support the use of Thinking Maps, then along with discussions and email and resource links, might it also benefit us to consider developing podcasts of Thinking Map end users in action, adding essential questions for self-reflection designed to take Community members to the next level of Thinking Map use?

Imagine . . . District Virtual Learning Communities

Time is the greatest challenge these days -- time to finish editing the video pieces I downloaded to iMovie, time to figure out ways to use blogs as virtual Learning Community spaces that encourage professional reflection, etc. However -- this experience is forcing me to think outside my own comfort zone as I look for applications of all this technology -- applications that will result in district-wide learning communities. This is important because many schools still appear to be struggling with learning community issues (time and topics) that act as roadblocks for the self-reflective atmosphere that characterizes TRUE learning communities. So, after we (at Effective Schools) deliver a workshop at a school, we relinquish the L.C. follow-up over to the schools. This results in questionable follow-up experiences. If we move toward Application and Accomplished levels in online community atmospheres -- (offering points, of course), then we can build district-wide learning communities that target each of our newly-developed High Yield Strategy (HYS) Focus Modules, for example (Nonlinguistic Representations applied to Context Clues; Summarizing & Note Taking applied to Reference & Research; and HYS applied to the Research Process). Imagine . . . being able to formally connect and collaborate with groups of like-minded educators across the district in order to further pursue what was learned in a school-based workshop, without having to rely solely on whether an individual school (or workshop participant) can fit a formal L.C. follow-up meeting into an already cramped schedule! The virtual self-reflective L.C. related to any given focus module is ALWAYS available -- at a time convenient to all willing participants across schools all over the district. Imagine!!!

My Research Question

I'm thinking that I may need to change my research question . . . but I'm going to hold off on this until after I see what happens when I attend the SREB Curriculum Mapping module and the 2-day ASCD Curriculum Mapping pre-convention workshop. Perhaps I will see more connections and possibilities after I return in mid-March. In the meantime, I'm getting more familiar with the technology.

Walkthrough DVD Completed!

I was able to create an iMovie of the Walkthrough training and transfer it to a DVD (using iDVD) to share with other trainers who need to review a complex part of this training: the Instructional Analysis Tool. I also sent my iMovie to my iPod, so I can now review this walkthrough procedure as a movie on my iPod. I'm now working on a few other iMovies. But one thing I'm finding out -- is that editing movies is quite time consuming! There's that old "time" factor showing up again. :-)

New Year, New Challenges

Vacation proved to be shorter than I expected, and I did not get to spend the time I though I'd have to work on iMovie. I still need to finish the iMovies for directly teaching high-yield strategies and writing FCAT-like questions; participants in the last workshop requested these (a surprise, since I had only thought about these videos in terms of helping to train the trainers). I also still need to transfer the video from the Classroom Walkthrough Training workshop and save it to a DVD. Perhaps the upcoming three-day weekend will provide the time I need; I'm not sure I will get a "free" moment at work because of our new workshop development challenges. Time is the biggest factor!

Train-the-Trainer Podcasting: Good to Go!

I've been attending the Classroom Walkthrough Train-the-Trainer, and today we became quite confused about the process of one of the activities we'll be expected to facilitate. I asked our trainer if he wouldn't mind being videotaped on Monday in a "replay" of that activity, and he said he'd be glad to repeat the process while we tape him. To make a long story short, we're going to tape the activity and turn it into a podcast all of our walkthrough trainers can access. Also, since we are attending this training with Dade County staff as well, we will then be able to share our podcast with the Dade walkthrough trainers. So, we're doing "double duty" as we not only use the podcasts to enhance our own delivery expertise, but as we also spread our podcasting vision beyond Broward County!

How Has the Literature Search Contributed to My Study?

At this point, the only "literature" I've read ABOUT iPod use has been the Wall Street Journal article (title: The Boss Puts the iPod to Work" ). But that article has proven to be quite powerful in terms of my thinking about how to apply iPod technology to staff development. One approach is to build capacity within our department when it comes to delivering the Application level trainings of our "High Yield Stategies" offereings. This is because there are a lot of modeling and metacognitive pieces to these sessions, and sometimes it takes a while to become more comfortable with articulating one's thinking (in the form of a think-aloud). Another possibility may be to offer video vignettes to participants so that they can review what they have seen. Since the Application level of High Yield Strategies (along with our soon-to-be-developed High Yield Focus Modules) zero in on processes, what better way to review a process seen at a workshop than to have access to video podcasts (from the workshop) that demonstrate these processes. Participants can then review what they want -- whenever they want it.