Abstract. Several successful informal professional development networks
currently exist on the WWW. We propose to mine those resources and
existing communities to identify the modes of access and usage of
the community members. This information will be used to propose a
model for providing online staff development including preservice
and inservice teachers in a cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Group Contact: Jody Underwood.
VivianLee Ward
Susan Hardman
Chin-Tang Liu
What are we proposing?
-to develop cross curricular models of professional development
-to identify usage patterns of existing content-focused web sites
-to collaborate with school districts and schools of education to
develop a discussion about the emerging findings and models
-to create web site with connections to multidisciplinary resources
selected and annotated by the users
Why?
-to infuse technology into teaching at all levels
-to introduce teachers to action research
-to provide a means for teachers to direct their own professional
development
The group resources include the established science and math
professional development websites: Math Forum and Access Excellence.
The group's members include K-adult interdisciplinary subject matter
specialists; in-service and pre-service development experts;
educational technology experts. Ideas and perspectives include:
special needs (special ed, multicultural, technophobe), multiple
models of incorporating web-based resources into professional
development, action research as a primary tool for teachers to
engage in self-reflective practices.
We will:
-analyze the professional development facets/components that
exist on our web sites: Math Forum and Access Excellence
-align with state/district/national standards and curriculum models
-collaborate with school districts and schools of education formal
professional development models
Identify access methods:
-technophobes
-pre-service
-in-service
In addition, we would like to develop:
-bridge between novice and veteran teachers
-bridge between pre-service and in-service
We will conduct a survey on Access Excellence and Math Forum to collect:
-users' interest in participation
-how the users become aware of the site
-how the users use it
-what did the users come for (content, resources, connect with colleagues, pedagogical strategies)
-how often do the users visit the site (e.g.,daily, weekly, monthly)
-did the users contribute to the site? How?
-have the users introduced anyone else to this web site?
-profile of users(discipline, grade, specialty, teaching experience in years, gender, ethnicity, geographic location)
We will also create a web site that disseminates the results of the survey. It will form the basis for ongoing discussion of professional needs and support.
We would like to collaborate with institutions of higher education,
schools of education, and school districts. The resources and
expertises we need are addressed above.
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