Creating professional learning communities

by | Aug 15, 2011 | Team Projects | 0 comments

Innisfail Junior Senior High School

Team Members: Dave Dale, Kaitlin Eyestone, Allan Whitehead, Narsh Ramrattan and Rhonda Jessen
Community: Canadian Year 1, 2010-2011

The goal of our project was to introduce the idea of professional learning community to the staff at our school as well encourage them to learn web 2.0 tools that they can use in their classrooms. Before we started we had them complete an on-line survey that asked about their knowledge of Digital Literacy and how much they use web 2.0 tools. This gave us an idea of the type of tools and training that staff were interested in. We started an Edmoto site to foster collaboration & sharing. We introduced Edmodo, walked them through joining it and taught them how to use it in small groups. And then we did a tools jig-saw session where each team member introduced a different web 2.0 tool.

– Finding a time to meet that would work for everyone in our group.

– Trying to narrow down a question for our action research – we had a bunch of ideas but we had a really difficult time coming up with a question that would encompass everything we wanted to do.

– Fluffy criteria for action research project.

– Trying to find a way to encourage other people/ reluctant people in our building to try to be more open minded in using web 2.0 tools without being perscriptive.

With our project we want to build a learning network the includes, but also extends beyond the people in our building. We want to encourage our staff to develop their own PLNs and to start using Web 2.0 tools to increase student engagement. At the start of our project we asked staff to complete an on-line Digital Literacy survey that asked about their knowledge of Digital Literacy and how much they use web 2.0 tools. In order to assess the success of our project we will measure the use of the Edmodo site, and resurvey the staff to see what tools they are using with their classes or personally and determine the amount of change from the first survey in February.

– February 28 – Staff survey on technology/digital literacy.

– Thursday’s (4-5) – Group meetings to discuss ideas/concerns/progress for our action research project.

– April 26 & 27 – Small group introductions to Edmodo and jig-saw groups (twitter, google docs, effective internet search, wikis, and glogster)

– Beginning of May – Staff survey on their use of Edmodo or tools learnt in our group sessions.

– Middle of September – Re-survey the staff.

Our project is one that will continue to develop further after our culminating session but we have been able to attain some short term results. In the future we will follow up with our long term results which we are hoping to gain in September of next school year.
Staff Survey Results

Edmodo Site

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Powerful Learning Practice

CEO at Powerful Learning Practice
Sheryl is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Powerful Learning Practice. She works with schools and districts from around the world helping them to infuse technology into their curriculums and by leading other digital conversion efforts. Sheryl also consults with governments, educational organizations and non-profits in development of their various professional learning initiatives. Sheryl is a sought-after presenter at national and international events, speaking on topics related to digital and online learning, teacher and educational leadership, online community building, and other educational issues impacting children of poverty. Sheryl served on the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) Board of Directors for six years. She co-authored The Connected Educator: Learning and Leading in a Digital Age with Lani Ritter Hall. Sheryl has four children and four grandsons, Luke, Logan, Levi and Tanner and a trio of dachshunds. You can find out more on her blog and on Twitter @snbeach.
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