| PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
INFOSEARCH WORKSHOP SERIES |
| Page 1 of 4 |
| The Purpose
Giving professional development workshops is one of the most important job functions of a technology facilitator. It is not a question of whether teachers need help on technology – there are disparate needs. Unfortunately, the most popular seating one day, come and leave kind of workshops, usually scheduled by the board of ED are not really provide what teachers most wanted. To the district it is a matter of do things required by law; to the teachers it is a matter of getting the qualified PD hours. As Dr. Twomey said in one of her on line classes, this kind workshops are “anti-efficient and boring.” “The purpose of this study is not to write a PD workshop, a one-shot deal. The purpose is to spell out a PD series (Twomey, 2008, EDTC 631 message No. 451). To me, this work is not just doing my assignment; it is my action plan for next school year. It is my primary job function, as a media specialist to make sure our teachers are efficient users of information and technologies. This PD series will help me to reach that goal. The Problem Once so often, a glitch like this could bump onto any teacher: “how could I insert a screenshot in to my word document and convert it to a .pdf file?” The problem here is “We spend our PD days for things we do not need. When we really need something, we do not see them in our training portfolio.” Here is another scenario too much familiar to our teachers: “Hmmm, I do remember I saw this somewhere, but I could not recall where did I see it and how to find it again.” Then the problem here is, again, things are not there when we need them. The Solution My “InfoSearch Workshop Series” has three features: On-line, off-line and interactive. The On-line feature The ON-LINE part of the series is to solve the “When we need it, it is not there” problem, since the workshop materials are posted on line, it is always there. As of now, before my Media Center website start running, I will use school-subscribed e-board service and my personal site (a free Geocities site offered by Yahoo) to post my on line part of the series. But just be there is still not enough, it has to be user friendly and easy to use. My online workshop stresses on easy to surf and easy to use. There will be side bar links to help readers in case they need any; and the hints are in-bed linked all over to the content to provide extra helps to users of all levels. My promise is “In less than five (5) seconds you should find what you look for. If not, tell me and I will fix it.” I break the material into four blocks under one tag. The four blocks are: on-line tutors, webliographies, demos and discussion forum. All of the contents of the four blocks are labeled and sorted for the unique needs of SPHS teachers. The icons of the four blocks are displayed on the same page like a menu. The workshop files will be sorted and linked to the block they belong to accordingly. In each block there will be links displayed on the side link bar to retrieve the on-line helps in case any teacher may need extra hints. Block One, On-line Tutors This block aims on quick start, tutor style of users’ guides. Teachers are working on fixed schedules, when they need something to be done, they need it be done is a minute. All of my tutors are designed as simple as possible, usually takes less than two minutes to read through. Anything is not absolutely necessary for a quick start will not be there. If anyone wants to learn more, links for intensive tutor (or guide) are provided on the bottom of the page, with an entry of “To learn more click here”. Sample Tutor 1 – Turn-it-in Sample Tutor 2 – CJIMS Sample Tutor 3 – Media Cast |