R/D7: What are, in your mind, two unique, interesting, different, noteworthy ways IDT has been used in business & industry that you believe could be usefully applied to your own professional work? Explain.
Prototyping is an excellent way to find out if your lesson idea is feasible or not. I always create a model/copy of a project/activity that I want students to do. I also have my own boys do it too to check out the feasibility. This way the students are able to see what it is I want them to do and I can tell ahead of time what needs to be fixed/revised. Prototyping doesn’t have students involved throughout the design and development though.
I believe enhancing training effectiveness and efficiency to be used in the form of teacher professional development would be great. I’ve sat through enough PD days that have basically been a waste of time and money. Having teachers put in time to complete a collaborative Internet-based activity, or self-work activity, where they were actually involved, instead of sitting in a large room listening to a speaker and wishing they could escape, would be a much better way to spend teachers’ time and schools’ money. Even teachers learn better through doing than passively listening. Unfortunately, I haven’t experienced any great technology-based training yet.
Foxon’s (1993) view of transfer, with regard to high-level evaluation, “as a five-stage process (not an event) that occurs over time after training” from page 180 is something that is used in schools already. It isn’t always followed through on, but it is initiated. Professional development gets teachers and administrators fired up about some new idea, it is touted as “the thing to do”, teachers try to implement it for a while, and then we fall off one by one. Support and follow up lag and everyone reverts back to the old. People are creatures of habit. Habit is hard to break. A good administration is key.
5 comments:
Your comments about PD and how most of it is a waste of time hit home for me, literally. Although, I am a new teacher, and haven't been to many PD sessions, I know someone who has. My mom has taught 4th grade for over 30 years now and has always told how much PD days are a complete waste of time and money. A better idea was to take the money they spent on the quest speaker and divide it up amongst the teachers for items they need in their classroom. I also think active development is truly the best way to go. At my school, we have 2 days of PD in the winter and there are the sessions of just lecture. Yet, there are also workshops, such as "open source" software, and how to use Adobe Photoshop. Which I thought were great, especially for teachers who did not teach a tech class and wanted to incorporate some technology into the classroom. Doing is always better than just passively listening.
I use prototyping as well, especially in classes like web design. If the design isn't sound it's better to create a smaller mock version instead of wasting your time creating an unworkable project.
I think we have all had those PD days...However, I have had some really good experiences as well. For instance, my yearbook publishing company often offers free or low cost workshops that are VERY effective. They even came to my school and taught a day of Photoshop to the yearbook and graphic design students.
Donna,
Good point about the prototyping, and that is a neat resource that you have using it on your own boys to see if it works. It does depend also on what you are looking for from your students...if it is the process of learning something, then prototyping isn't the best thing to do.
Great point about the professional development. My school district has generally gotten away from inservice days, and are down to only 1 half day per year. The school that I teach at is a part of a large Christian school association, and we have a 2 day convention each fall that we go to. They have over 200 seminars that we choose to attend (all led by current teachers, not speakers that have never been in front of students), and so I can see it as a form of enhancing training. Other than that though, I agree that the best learning is through doing.
An active administration can be good if they have good and helpful ideas and stick with what they are implementing. I am lucky that both administrators that I work with were full time teachers less than 5 years ago, and so they share the same perspective with the teachers...I have seen (in my student teaching experience) of an overbearing administration that had teachers doing things they didn't want to, or really need to. It goes both ways there.
Donna,
That is very conscious of you to have your boys work out a lesson plan you created. That is an excellent way to see if you are “making your point”. I know it can be very easy to falsely assume that everyone will understand written directions for an assigned task.
Jeff Tyler
Making a model is an excellent way of giving them something have a reference point. If a picture is worth a thousand words then a good model is alot more than that. They can see it, feel it (maybe), and even measure it. Your boys' version is a wonderful idea for comparison.
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