6.1 Continuous Learning
Candidates demonstrate continual growth in knowledge and skills of current and emerging technologies and apply them to improve personal productivity and professional practice. (PSC 6.1/ISTE 6a, 6b)
Gwinnett County Public Schools eCLASS Lead Innovator Course
District eCLASS Innovator Training and Redelivery
Gwinnett County Public Schools uses the D2L LMS platform; eCLASS, as it’s called in the county, is our main digital tool for online and face to face learning. The county has a professional development opportunity for teachers who want to become leaders for innovating their teams’ and departments’ performances using digital tools. I participated in the year-long course and received training on the platform as well as hours toward my professional development requirement. I developed several lessons on eCLASS that involved programmed content and newly discovered apps to suit the learning needs of our school.
During the training, the Lead Innovator is supposed to take her education back to her faculty. During the sessions, we develop or knowledge of emerging technologies we can use in conjunction with the eCLASS platform. Then, we decide how best to fit those in with our county’s Quality Plus Teaching Strategies and recommend how our peers can improve their personal practice. In doing so, we ourselves become more aware of the possibilities of our practice with the digital learning platform. Thus, we are better able to lead our departments in seeking out appropriate tools to help them teach and engage students.
Upon redelivery, we complete a cycle of feedback to the county offices who direct the training. This step improves our personal practice and allows us to reflect on the ways the new digital tools have helped our departments. In fact, one of the greatest perks of becoming a Lead Innovator is that I get training up front, and my personal productivity is enhanced first. I like being able to play around with the digital tool suggestions using different curriculums since that lets me imagine the digital tools differently.
Completing the training course has taught me two things. First, when one is a student and uses the digital platform herself, she is aware of the ways it engages students in the classroom. She is also more aware of how motivating each kind of activity is and what types of interactivity are suited to the platform and which should be left to human engagement. Then, as I created my own modules when I traveled back to my department, I discovered that the platform was not intuitive to use and required more than basic technical skills that the average teacher became frustrated with right away. This was a great lesson to learn. Teachers expressed frustration and even a little fear about using the platform, so actually completing the training myself helped me to see where those scary points were first hand. If I had the training to do again, I’d suggest that the county offices incorporate one “build” per unit so that we could get feedback from teachers instead of just expecting that we Lead Innovators would redeliver the content. I’d accept the challenge of building a themed module or one that took advantage of a set number of tools in it. That would help develop our skills better.
Some of the training I went through is still in effect after I redelivered the content to my department. Further, I’ve begun to use Google Classroom more, but I still advocate learning material with the LMS. So, the faculty has become more aware of the differences in these popular platforms, and they are more aware of each can do. I’m hoping that participation in eCLASS continues to grow. I have also seen more willingness to participate in building modules from individual content levels. They are starting to see that the LMS can deliver content, while Google Classroom can help to display material, collect and grade assignments.
District eCLASS Innovator Training and Redelivery
Gwinnett County Public Schools uses the D2L LMS platform; eCLASS, as it’s called in the county, is our main digital tool for online and face to face learning. The county has a professional development opportunity for teachers who want to become leaders for innovating their teams’ and departments’ performances using digital tools. I participated in the year-long course and received training on the platform as well as hours toward my professional development requirement. I developed several lessons on eCLASS that involved programmed content and newly discovered apps to suit the learning needs of our school.
During the training, the Lead Innovator is supposed to take her education back to her faculty. During the sessions, we develop or knowledge of emerging technologies we can use in conjunction with the eCLASS platform. Then, we decide how best to fit those in with our county’s Quality Plus Teaching Strategies and recommend how our peers can improve their personal practice. In doing so, we ourselves become more aware of the possibilities of our practice with the digital learning platform. Thus, we are better able to lead our departments in seeking out appropriate tools to help them teach and engage students.
Upon redelivery, we complete a cycle of feedback to the county offices who direct the training. This step improves our personal practice and allows us to reflect on the ways the new digital tools have helped our departments. In fact, one of the greatest perks of becoming a Lead Innovator is that I get training up front, and my personal productivity is enhanced first. I like being able to play around with the digital tool suggestions using different curriculums since that lets me imagine the digital tools differently.
Completing the training course has taught me two things. First, when one is a student and uses the digital platform herself, she is aware of the ways it engages students in the classroom. She is also more aware of how motivating each kind of activity is and what types of interactivity are suited to the platform and which should be left to human engagement. Then, as I created my own modules when I traveled back to my department, I discovered that the platform was not intuitive to use and required more than basic technical skills that the average teacher became frustrated with right away. This was a great lesson to learn. Teachers expressed frustration and even a little fear about using the platform, so actually completing the training myself helped me to see where those scary points were first hand. If I had the training to do again, I’d suggest that the county offices incorporate one “build” per unit so that we could get feedback from teachers instead of just expecting that we Lead Innovators would redeliver the content. I’d accept the challenge of building a themed module or one that took advantage of a set number of tools in it. That would help develop our skills better.
Some of the training I went through is still in effect after I redelivered the content to my department. Further, I’ve begun to use Google Classroom more, but I still advocate learning material with the LMS. So, the faculty has become more aware of the differences in these popular platforms, and they are more aware of each can do. I’m hoping that participation in eCLASS continues to grow. I have also seen more willingness to participate in building modules from individual content levels. They are starting to see that the LMS can deliver content, while Google Classroom can help to display material, collect and grade assignments.