Making Movies

Well, I've been working on creating podcasts as a primer for the Protocol visit in November. In the flurry to meet my deadline the first podcast was finished in three days. Once I reached the finish line it was a chance for me to receive some coaching from Caroline. Caroline is always busy working on a variety of projects, but if you have the opportunity for her to coach you in the art of editing your podcasts - take it. I benefitted greatly from that and I can't thank her enough. Caroline rocks!

Data Collection Plan

My data collection plan includes the following:(1) SBBC Professional Development Support Unit's Logic Model, (2) This blog will serve as my weekly journal documenting the progress of this experiment, (3) Interviews and surveys of participants who are a part of training events in which podcasts are used will provide a rich source of data which can be later used to fine tune podcast based trainings.

I plan on triangulating the data by analyzing my blog, surveys, and interviews against the Logic Model once a month and posting my analysis into my blog.

Eureka! We are all investigating the concept of Social Software and it's use in K-12 education.

I finally found the research to substantiate what we are all doing with our wikis, blogs, podcasts (RSS feed), elluminate, CAB conferences, and email. We are all a part of an internet revolution called Social Software. All information and communication technologies (ICTs) can be used as a springboard into new forms of study and research, preparing participants to work in groups where knowledge is collectively constructed and shared. Educators find this type of learning beneficial since it has ties to problem-based learning (Watson 2002; De Vry and Watson 2003). First, participants engaging in social software take on the responsibility of maintaining and learning from what they are doing. Second, by working cooperatively with interative software tools, students still have to demonstrate their individuality through their own research and comprehension of the knowledge. They then share their new knowledge with the collective (constructivist theory). Third, it engages participants in online research skills that they will increasingly need to develop and facilitate in a 21st century environment. In short, social software builds schools and district departments without walls. Allows children and adults to build extended research communities, and takes technology beyond the tools and resources available at one particular location and temporarily creates learning communities on the web.

www.pewinternet.org/PDF/r/148/report_display.asp
www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=260&action=article

How Did Your Literature Search Contribute To Your Study?

The premise of using discussion as an evaluative tool stems from a podcast that was shared at George Lucas's digital magazine called "Edutopia." The study I was drawn to explained why the University of Virginia's Curry School of Education is ranked as the number one school in the nation because of their use of podcasts as an evaluative tool for training their student teachers. Upon further investigation into exactly how the University of Virginia is using podcasts as a measurement revealed that their study is a part of a $10 million grant focusing on high-quality teaching using video and the latest technology. (www.virginia.edu/uvatoday/newsRelease.php?print=1&id=367)

How are podcasts used for education and training purposes? What statistics are available which show a direct correlation between the use of podcasts and increased adult productivity? Hopefully, I will be able to locate research that will substantiate my hypothesis that adult discussions can be used as a type of measurement for professional development purposes.

www.westga.edu/~distance/ojdla/articles/fall2006/donnelly93.htm
edmarketing.apple.com/adcinstitute/ wp-content/Missouri_Podcasting_White_Paper.pdf
www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/edutopia/1006/
www.techlearning.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=189500866
www.thepan.org
www.podcastalley.com
www.edukast.com

How is the study aligned to one of your APPAS goals?

This study is a direct result of the 2002 Florida Department of Education Professional Development System Evaluation Protocol results. In these results, Broward Public Schools's professional development events received high marks in regards to planning, delivery, and follow-up of training. The district's challenge is to improve how we evaluate our professional development programs. District level Standard 3.4 (Evaluation) is the basis of why this study exists and is the focus of one of my APPAS goals.

What documents exist today to demonstrate specific events or programs actually worked to boost students scores on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test? How does quality professional development impact administrators and instructional staff within schools that are implementing specific professional development protocols? How can these improvements show direct correlation to specific professional development intiatives and not a smattering of non specific offerings? According to University of Virginia professor Robert Pianta, tests in all likelihood will not measure real teaching or learning. Pianta's research shows that neither their years of training nor passing content tests predicts the quality of k-12 teachers' classrooms or the performance of their students. According to his findings only about 25 percent of first through fifth graders are exposed to classrooms offering high levels of instructional and emotional support, even though the vast majority of those teachers fulfills the NCLB definition of "highly qualified": having full state certification, a bachelor's degree, and demonstrated competence in subject area and teaching.

In Pianta's work it is the large scale objective measurement of thousands of classrooms and the ways observation is linked to support for teachers that is unique. But a clear finding from this study is also that for all children, a high-quality classroom experience is mostly a matter of luck - for 1,000 children observed across 1st, 3rd and 5th grades, fewer than 200 are in a moderately high quality classroom on all three occasions. The University of Virginia study proves that teaching can indeed be assessed, but not by testing teachers and administrators. Once effective, high-quality teaching and administering can be observed and identified, it is possible to use those observations as a target for training and supporting educators anywhere. I believe that this concept can be adjusted to use with BCPS professional development. Ultimately creating a measurement through a collective understanding and conversation about the challenges we, as educators, face.