EDTC: Blog Post #5

ISTE Standard 5: Engage in Professional Growth and Leadership 

Teachers continuously improve their professional practice, model lifelong learning, and exhibit leadership in their school and professional community by promoting and demonstrating the effective use of digital tools and resources.

Question: How can I utilize technology to participate in digital learning communities and development so I can emulate what I learn into my Professional Learning Communities. 

Teachers are powerful people because they are ones that create the future of the world. For them to be the way that they are, teachers often collaborate with others to create a professional learning community  (PLC). They allow teachers to construct curriculum, design formative and summative assessments, as well as support each other. Teachers working together in PLCs make it easier to obtain the ultimate goal which is for student achievement. However, PLCs can only go so far. With the use of professional development (PD) it lets the teachers go outside of what they know by learning from professionals who would be able to help them gain more knowledge then bring it back to their fellow colleagues.

Now with the use of technology it makes it easier for the teachers to expand their knowledge in order to help their PLCs.  It is important for teachers to have that space to work with others. Nicholson et al. (2016) found that by creating a protected space where burdens could be castout to the group is beneficial so they can help them feel supported in navigating the hardships of their chosen profession. Although the PLCs can only go so far. Teachers have a limited amount of information to share with others in the group. Now it comes to the use of PDs. An SPU student, Michaela Clark found in her article that, PDs aimed to develop teachers’ capabilities by using instructional technologies in  order for a plethora of ways to benefit the teachers and students (Twining, P. et al., 2016 ). In these PDs it would allow teachers to practice different strategies and utilize them in hopes to demonstrate with other teachers.

A way to have productive virtual PDs is through The Mode Dimension Within the Computer Practice Framework. Twining, P. et al. (2016) found that teachers should be involved with finding ways to alter their pedagogy by ways to support learning objectives, extend the curriculum outside the textbook, and transform the content using technology. PDs that are focused on those areas lets the teacher expand their current knowledge of teaching so they can help students achieve.

From what I have learned from virtual PDs I found issues with bringing them to my PLC. The biggest issues are at with content blockers on district wifi. Some districts, including mine, have blocked access to wordpress, edmodo, and blogger like the ones in the hyperlinks provided. This can cause issues because if some strategies have videos to demonstrate its practice then it could not be shown during normal PLC locations which would be at school. Other issues are with time. My PLC can be a bit sporadic with some teachers not able to come to the PLC meeting times and others refusing. One solution is to send them the virtual PDs that I find and have them look at them at home prior to the PLC then come to the meeting with the information provided and use it to further our goal.

Another method to construct more solutions to bring to the PLCS is through the use of digital learning communities. In it there are places for teachers to post topics, communicate with one another, and find solutions to problems that other teachers may have asked. These can be located in different websites like edmodo.com and blog sites like wordpress.com as well as Blogger.com. Specifically blog sites like wordpress or blogger have a high benefits to newer teachers like myself. Anderson, J. et al. (n.d.) found, It is a place where teachers can blog about experiences and engages in practices that work in formation to form the new teacher’s identity. It has benefits for veteran teachers by giving ideas to  revamp their curriculum, look at different teaching strategies and creative formative assessments that can be used in the classroom. These types of uses have been especially beneficial to new teachers. In a study by Luik, P., & Taimalu, M. (2016).with new teachers found that in the group there were 85 participants who found that they grew immensely utilizing the blog capabilities. After looking through different blogs and other education type social medias I came across, ISTE’s post, “19 Education Twitter Chats Worth Your Time”. In it there were links to different education Twitter accounts that dealt with, general education, content specific, organization sponsored, and others like it. After looking through them I will now get a Twitter account so I can take advantage of all of the potential for me, and my PLC.

Works Cited

Anderson, J., Justice, J., Gorham, J. J., Wall, S., Boyd, A., Nichols, K., & Alheieser, L. (n.d.). The Affordance Of Blogging On Establishing Communities Of Practice In A Pre-Service Elementary Teacher Education Program. Journal of Technology and Teacher Education, 21(1), 49-88.

Luik, P., & Taimalu, M. (2016). Factors of Participants and Blogs that Predict Blogging Activeness During Teaching Practice and Induction Year. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 17(1). doi:10.19173/irrodl.v17i1.2169

Nicholson, J., Capitelli, S., Richert, A. E., Bauer, A., & Bonetti, S. (2016, Winter). The Affordances of Using a Teacher Leadership Network to Support Leadership Development. Teacher Education Quarterly, 29-50.

Twining, P., Raffaghelli, J., Albion, P., & Knezek, D. (2013). Moving education into the digital age: The contribution of teachers' professional development. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(5), 426-437. doi:10.1111/jcal.12031