Digital Directions - Summer 2013 - (Page 16)
ILLUSTRATION: iStockphoto_Pialhovik
FLIPPED PD:
A Minnesota
district relies
on video
and jobembedded
coaching
to improve
teachers’
tech skills
By_Robin L. Flanigan
16 >> www.digitaldirections.org
A
Building Blocks
To Success
nna Wilcek was comfortable instructing
her students on how to interview
residents of a nearby retirement
community and write biographies of
those people. How to integrate
technology into the project was another story.
The 6th grade teacher recalls asking, “What
ideas do you have for me?” during a recent
face-to-face workshop with Wayne Feller and
Kristin Daniels, the technology-integration
specialists in the 8,500-student Stillwater Area
Public Schools, in Minnesota.
The collaborative, technology-driven nature of the
relationship between teachers and the technology
coaches is the hallmark of what the Stillwater district
calls “flipped professional development.” Known as
job-embedded coaching in educational leadership
circles, flipped PD offers face-to-face support and
personalized online resources, such as how-to
videos on using interactive-whiteboard software or
the iPad’s multi-tasking bar. Teachers watch the
videos to find new or better approaches and then
discuss developing those approaches with the
technology-integration specialists.
Under that system, Wilcek, who teaches at the
347-student Andersen Elementary School, learned
how to edit student-shot movies in iMovie, export
them into iBooks Author, and post the finished
products on her website for downloading.
“I wouldn’t have had the knowledge or time to
pull all of that together,” she says. “It’s such a gift to
have the specialists sit right next to you. They give
me the confidence to move forward because I know
I can have support whenever I want it.”
Stillwater started flipped PD in 2011-12. Here’s
how it works: Feller and Daniels meet with 200
classroom teachers and specialists in small groups
each month for structured, two-hour coaching/
training and workshop sessions that focus on
individual projects, then offer additional guidance by
request. So far, the model is used in all nine of the
district’s elementary schools, with 93 percent of
classroom teachers participating.
Coaching support is essential if teachers are to use
technology effectively in the classroom, according to
a 2011 white paper released by the International
Society for Technology in Education, a Washingtonbased membership association that promotes
innovative uses of educational technology. To
support that idea, ISTE now has benchmarks for
technology coaches seeking to give effective
guidance and support to teachers in a digital age.
Attitude Shifts
Unlike in traditional professional development,
context plays a critical role in flipped PD. Content
area, grade level, technological expertise, and the
interests of each teacher and specialist affect the
type of online training offered.
“We don’t come in dictating what they’re here to
learn and work on,” Daniels says. “When they realize
they’re being given time to think about what they
want to be doing, and to grow at their own pace,
they’re absolutely relieved. And there’s been a
remarkable shift in attitude toward personal growth
because of that.”
Stillwater embraced flipped PD because “it had
the largest impact and really was the highest
return on investment,” says Michael Dronen,
the coordinator of educational innovation and
technology in the district.
The district was inspired by research from the
1980s, still cited today, that showed only 10
percent to 15 percent of teachers added a new
PAGE 18 >
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Digital Directions - Summer 2013
Digital Directions - Summer 2013
Contents
Editor’s Note
DD Site Visit
Bits & Bytes
Test-Driving the Common Core
Flipped PD: Building Blocks to Success
Virtual Learning in the Early Years
Kindergarten the Virtual Way
7 Steps to Picking Your LMS
Cracking the Code
Powering the Crowd
Digital Directions - Summer 2013
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