For module one of EDU 6106 I decided to focus on ISTE coaching standards 4.5a and 4.5b which are both about professional development. 4.5.a states: “Design Quality Professional Learning: Design professional learning based on needs assessments and frameworks for working with adults to support their cultural, social-emotional and learning needs” (ISTE, n.d.). 4.5. states: “Build Capacity: Build the capacity of educators, leaders and instructional teams to put the ISTE Standards into practice by facilitating active learning and providing meaningful feedback” (ISTE, n.d.). While reflecting on these two standards I drafted two questions that I wanted to research, and I used AI, specifically ChatGPT 4 to help refine my questions:
What digital tools are most effective for EdTech Coaches to design professional learning programs for adults, with a focus on addressing their social and emotional learning needs?
What are some effective Google or Apple tools that an EdTech Coach can utilize to build educator capacity and provide meaningful feedback during the professional learning process?
As an educator of both middle schoolers and a coach of my fellow teachers, I believe it is important to focus on the social emotional needs of all learners. As we are continuing, in the field of education, to grapple with the long-term effects of Covid-19, paying heed to the social emotional needs of our students is becoming more and more important each day. For my initial search, I utilized Copilot by Microsoft and quickly found an article that was actually meant for teachers who are learning to use SEL in their classrooms, however, I found that many of the strategies would be helpful for EdTech coaches. Yoder and Gurke (2017) provide a coaching cycle through a SEL lens. This article predates Covid-19 by 2 years, but the skills are relevant in the post-Covid climate. The cycle they develop includes preparing for the focus area, engaging in the coaching interaction, debriefing and providing feedback, and then reflecting, and reassessing for future professional development (Yoder & Gurke, 2017). One of the things that they stress is setting up a coaching/professional development environment where the teacher feels encouraged to use their voice and to take instructional risks. In other words, and environment where the teacher feels safe.
Another article was written by Koch (2023). Koch that speaks to the importance of focusing on the mental health of educators when training teachers to use digital education tools, especially teachers with three or fewer years of teaching experience (Simpson, 2023, as cited in Koch, 2023). Training needs to be consistent, and the author also suggests offering micro-credentials to teachers as they work through learning new skills. Embedding collaborative support and a PLC is also suggested (Koch, 2023). One place of concern with this article is that it was posted to the Hapara website, which is an educational software company, however, I do think that Koch makes many valid points about the welfare of new teachers.
DigitalPromise (2016) also has some recommendations for designing good professional development for adult learners that centers on 5 design principles. 1. Shorter is better; 2. Use visuals; 3. Provide many resources; 4. The more learner-teacher connections, the better (this is where the SEL comes in, more connections with the teacher increases learner confidence and can help people progress more quickly; 4. Help learners engage with one another – another SEL strategy that can lead to higher levels of confidence, and better learning outcomes. Peer-to-peer collaboration can be very powerful when done in a meaningful way (DigitalPromise, 2016). Meier et al. (2023, June 26) state that it is important to model inquiry and project-based approaches. Like the authors discussed above, they agree that critical reflection and feedback are an important part of the professional learning process, and key to the SEL component of professional development.
For my second question I wanted to look at the two digital platforms that my district works with Google and Apple. We are an Apple school district because the teachers utilize Apple computers, and we have iPads for some classes. We are also a Google school district because all of the students have Chromebooks, and we utilize the Google Education Suite. I guess we are also a Microsoft school district because do have one Microsoft lab at our high school, but it is very limited, so I decided not to focus on Microsoft for the purposes of this assignment.
What are some effective Google or Apple tools that an EdTech Coach can utilize to build educator capacity and provide meaningful feedback during the professional learning process?
As a Google certified teacher, the first place I went to for information on Google was the Google For Education website. I felt that there was no better place to get information on Google products than from Google. They gave the following recommendations: Provide feedback that meets the goals of your PD session. Make sure that your feedback is goal-referenced, timely, actionable, and ongoing. Some suggestions from Google include utilizing collaborative agendas in the form of Google Docs. This will allow the trainer and the attendees to determine the topics that need to be covered in the session. Help your teachers to become comfortable with YouTube and setting videos to unlisted, that way you can capture lessons on video and provide feedback to teachers, while also allowing them to watch their own lessons on playback (GoogleForEducation, 2021, January 21).
As a certified Apple Coach, I went to my Apple training to find information from Apple on their recommendations to answer my question above. This is part of the reflect step in the Apple coaching process – make sure that you are intentional, concise, specific, and objective (AppleInc., 2022). The apps that would be good for this would be Apple Pages for shared notetaking or even just the notes app. You could also utilize the Clips app to do video notetaking.
References
AppleInc. (2022). Coaching Journal Unit 2. Apple Inc. https://education.apple.com/en
DigitalPromise. (2016). Designing technology for adult learners: Support and scaffolding., 8. http://digitalpromise.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/designing_-technology.pdf
GoogleForEducation. (2021, January 21). Provide effective feedback. Google For Education. Retrieved January 26 from https://skillshop.exceedlms.com/student/path/61212/activity/262896#/page/6261549f047d940da9b2cd1f
ISTE. (n.d.). ISTE Standards: Coaches. International Society for Technology in Education. https://www.iste.org/standards/iste-standards-for-coaches
Koch, S. (2023). How to effectively train your teachers and faculty on utilizing a digital learning platform to its fullest. Hapara. Retrieved January 17, 2024 from https://hapara.com/blog/how-to-train-your-teachers-on-a-digital-learning-platform/
Meier, E., Mineo, C., Kirsch Page, K., & McCall, S. (2023, June 26). Transforming education or digitizing the status quo? ASCD, 80(9). https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/transforming-education-or-digitizing-the-status-quo
OpenAI. (2024a). Chat-GPT. (January 10, 2024 Version) [DALL-E model]. https://chat.openai.com/g/g-2fkFE8rbu-dall-e
OpenAI. (2024b). Chat-GPT. (January 10, 2024 Version) [DALL-E model]. https://chat.openai.com/g/g-2fkFE8rbu-dall-e
Yoder, N., & Gurke, D. (2017). Social and emotional learning coaching toolkit: Keeping SEL at the center. In A. I. f. Research (Ed.), (pp. 1-28): SEL Solutions. https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/Social-and-Emotional-Learning-SEL-Coaching-Toolkit-August-2017.pdf
