AlePDOnline
From LiteracyTentWiki
Online Professional Development Opportunities for Instructors of Adult Education and Literacy (including English Language Learning and Numeracy)
David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
October 22, 2005, revised April 21, 2007
Assessing Whether or Not Online Learning is Right For You
Virginia Tech's Self-Assessment Survey, Is eLearning Right for You? A quick, online assessment of technology/distance learning skills and attitudes, with immediate feedback. http://www.vto.vt.edu/survey.php
New Teacher Orientations online
Several states offer new teacher orientations online, among them: Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Minnesota, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington State.
Washington State “This course helps instructors new to the system understand more about relationships - with the state office, their individual campus, and with other instructors at their site. There is some philosophy of adult education, lesson planning, etc. as some folks come to our system without the benefit of prior teaching experience.
The course has been offered three quarters now and each quarter the instructors revised it to more completely meet the needs of the students. There is a waiting list each quarter and instructors who have been in the system for several years are asking to be admitted. When this course was offered, there was no intent to move farther into the realm of online staff development. However, with the success of the course, able network is exploring additional offerings online.”
Beth Wheeler
program administrator, distance learning
sbctc
Olympia, Washington
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/OnlinePDFullDiscussion
Professional Development Courses Online
Several states – and other national organizations offer adult education professional development online, including:
A. Florida
Florida started offering online professional development in 2001 because teachers found it difficult to attend face-to-face regional or statewide workshops. Some teachers wanted/needed inservice points. The first web-based training was a 5-hour training on improving retention. They discovered some teachers wanted the information but not the service points, and that it is important to know what participants’ goals are when they sign up for a course. They now have an online facilitator, who keeps track of participants, emails and welcome letters. S/he looks at what participants are submitting and responds via email or phone to questions or comments. They have moved toward a blended learning model – some face-to-face and some online.
B. Illinois
“We tried one online workshop, The Brain, Memory, and Learning. It was offered three times. Each time, the workshop ran for six weeks. We found that, though there was a fair amount of interest in signing up for the workshop, the participants' ability and interest in keeping up with the tasks waned after about the third week. We are now in process of developing some shorter online trainings that would be combined with at least one on-site meeting.
More successfully, we have just completed a video and an accompanying text for ESL teachers called: A Framework Comes Alive: Experience an ESOL Classroom. It is an exciting, fun video featuring a great ESOL teacher and his class along with a panel of experienced ESOL instructors commenting on various aspects of teaching. The guide contains specific suggestions elaborating on the video and includes both activities for teachers to bring into the classroom and a Trainer's Guide for programs who want to use the video on-site. We are very excited about this whole project. It has received an enthusiastic welcome from teachers and programs. We will be showing the video and demonstrating training possibilities at COABE this year.”
Judith Diamond
Adult Learning Resource Center
Des Plaines, Illinois
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/OnlinePDFullDiscussion
C. Pennsylvania State University Online M.Ed. program in Adult Education
“Penn State's Adult Education Program has been doing credit-based distance education (M.Ed.) for at least 15 years, starting with audioconferencing, then videoconferencing, and now online through Penn State's World Campus <www.worldcampus.psu.edu>. We now offer the M.Ed. in Adult Ed. <www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/adted/> as well as the Certificate in Family Literacy <www.worldcampus.psu.edu/pub/famlt/>, both completely online. In this unique kind of professional development, because many people want the courses to apply to a master's or bachelor's degree, retention has not been a problem. In other words, they have a clear purpose in registering for the courses. Our discussion boards are lively, centered around the issues in the courses. About half of our assignments are done as group projects so that online "learning communities" truly do develop. As an instructor, it has been very rewarding for me to have been teaching online since January 2000. I feel that I know my online students just as well (if not better) than my face-to-face students.”
Eunice N. Askov
Distinguished Professor of Education
Penn State University
http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/OnlinePDFullDiscussion
D. Pennsylvania State University Family Literacy Certificate Online http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/wc/FamilyLiteracyCertificate.shtml
E. ESL Civics Link http://civicslink.ket.org/login.xml An online professional development program for adult education ESL/ESOL teachers. $90.00 per teacher for six months.
F. Project IDEAL/Massachusetts/DL 101
“I'm the director of the Project IDEAL Support Center at the University of Michigan. IDEAL stands for Improving Distance Education for Adult Learners. Project IDEAL is a consortium of 14 states working together to develop (and evaluate) distance education as an option to reach adult learners for whom time or distance make classroom learning an unworkable option (http://projectideal.org).
First, please tell us more about your work: Why did you/your organization become involved in online professional development? What need(s) were you addressing? How did you decide to address those needs?
Offering a new program in distance education for adult learners is different than adding a new course to a literacy center's classroom offerings; it's akin to re-inventing the school. There is no way that teachers and administrators can attend a 1 to 2 day workshop and digest all the things they need to know, and then develop an effective plan for offering instruction at a distance. They need to spread their learning over many weeks, developing and refining the various elements of their plan (recruitment, orientation, teaching, and assessment). Online PD was the only way we could see to accomplish this goal.
Describe the online PD you/your organization offer. How is the online PD you offer (or have offered) similar or different from more familiar forms of online delivery (i.e. course platforms)?
The Support Center provides each member state with everything they need to offer online professional development to their teachers: a PD website, a curriculum, a "textbook", a study guide, and a guide for those who will facilitate the PD. The Center provides ongoing support to each state's trainer, ranging from training in the use of the website to mentoring each trainer while they facilitate the course. Every summer there is a workshop for trainers from all the member states where they can refine their techniques for building a virtual community of distance teachers.
DISTANCE LEARNING 101 is a 6-8 week "course" in planning to teach at a distance. Participants spend about two hours per week working on exercises designed to guide their planning for this new activity. The state's trainer/facilitator reads and reacts to each exercise and facilitates an asynchronous discussion of each week's topic among all the participants.
Example: one exercise asks each participant to develop a curriculum for a face-to-face orientation for prospective distance learners. After viewing all the exercises the trainer might post a discussion topic like this: "will you accept anyone that applies for your distance program or will you be selective and take only those students with the highest likelihood of succeeding? What indicators would you use to identify those most likely to succeed?" Staff from the same literacy center are encouraged to work on the exercises together.
The website looks different from Blackboard or WebCT which are built on an expert-novice model of instruction. The Project IDEAL PD model is one of community-building. We want teachers to feel they are professionals exploring a new area of skill development and getting assistance from fellow professionals, not guidance from a "sage on the stage." All the exercises ask participants to develop a plan--for recruitment, orientation, teaching and assessment of distance learners. The trainer's role is to get all of the participants in the course to provide constructive criticism of each other's plan. The textbook (Handbook of Distance Education for Adult Learners) is a handbook with the collected wisdom of teachers in many states on these very topics. The handbook is revised each year with new tips from participating teachers.
DISTANCE LEARNING 102: STUDY GROUPS. This second PD course is for teachers with one year experience teaching at a distance. Having mastered the mechanics of distance, teachers are ready to think in a more focused way about pedagogy. Each participant develops a case study of a difficult pedagogical problem. The essence of the study group is having the study group members examine the cases one at a time, practicing the art of asking questions that further probe the nature of the problem and developing strategies to deal with the learner's difficulties. Essence of a sample case study: "I have a student who is having a difficult time in ratios and wants to practice at home, and I'm having a hard time "talking" to him online to explain the procedures."
What have you found to be particularly important for making online PD successful for teachers?
Facilitation, facilitation, facilitation. The trainer needs to "work the group" intervening in the ongoing electronic discussion in ways that question contributors about their meaning and redirects discussion as needed to keep the discussion alive.
What changes have you/your organization experienced in the development and delivery of online PD, perhaps even as a result of this?
Facilitating discussions with Socratic dialogue is hard work, and a skill that facilitators frequently need to practice. We have changed our support strategy to provide more opportunities for facilitators to practice these skills.
Online is fine, but there is a need to balance virtual activities with telephone and face-to-face to keep the sense of community alive.
Jerome Johnston
Institute for Social Research - University of Michigan
Program on Teaching, Learning and Technology
734/763-3079
(734) 615-6638 (fax)
jerej_at_umich.edu
G. Verizon Literacy Network
http://literacynetwork.verizon.org/Verizon-Literacy-Network-Home.10.0.html
Free, short online professional development courses for literacy volunteers, program staff, and community members
H. AE Pro Online Professional Development
http://midwestlincs.org/aepro
This site is sponsored by the Center for Literacy Studies at the University of Tennessee and the Ohio Literacy Resource Center at Kent State University, and is specifically for adult education professional development. Courses include:
- Adult Education - Teaching Tools.Course Outline (a PDF document). 6 week course ($950).Does NOT include a Facilitator
- Adult Education - Teacher and Student.(a PDF document) 6 week course ($950). Does NOT include a Facilitator
- Introduction to Learning Disabilities in Adults. Course Outline (a PDF document). 6 week course ($950) Does NOT include a Facilitator
- Integrating Technology in the Classroom ~ A LINCS course. 5-6 weeks (cost to be arranged)
- Using LINCS Online ~ A LINCS Course 5-6 weeks (cost to be arranged)
EFF Courses NOTE: The following courses are arranged through the EFF Center for Training and Technical Assistance.
- Teaching Adults to Use Mathematics to Solve Problems and Communicate
- Equipped for the Future: Reading with Understanding
- Equipped for the Future: A Standards Based Approach to Education Improvement and Accountability. In pilot phase
There are detailed course outlines available online for each course linked from http://midwestlincs.org/aepro/courses.htm
For more information, visit: http://www.aeprofessional.com/ For a listing of current course offerings and to register online, visit: http://utk-cls.ra.utk.edu/register/AEPro/event2.asp
I. GED 2002 Online
http://www.ket.org/ged2002
GED 2002 Online provides a thorough online course on the GED 2002 Series Tests for GED instructors. The course also includes strategies that can be implemented in the GED classroom.
J. PBS TeacherLine
http://teacherline.pbs.org/teacherline/
Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, PBS TeacherLine provides online professional development in mathematics and technology integration. In collaboration with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) and leading educational producers, TeacherLine has developed online facilitated modules and self-paced learning opportunities that teachers can access anytime, anywhere. There are charges for these course.
K. PBS ESL Civics Link
http://civicslink.ket.org/
ESL/CivicsLink is a flexible new online professional development system for adult education ESL teachers. Developed by adult educators for adult educators and tested in the field, this innovative web-based product is managed by KET and prepares teachers to do the following:
- teach English to speakers of other languages
- enhance cross-cultural awareness, and
- integrate English literacy instruction and civics education
L. TESOL Online Education Programs
http://www.tesol.org/
M. CoLEARN ESL
http://www.ncte.org/store/learning/116665.htm
This is the website of the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English). Its menu includes the on-line program called CoLEARN ESL. This online inquiry model is designed to promote professional development for ESL teachers. Through a structured yet flexible series of readings and writings, teachers are expected to reflect on their own beliefs about ESL/ELL instruction, learn new strategies, and investigate how students respond best to various approaches.
ESL CoLEARN provides teachers with a number of options for their professional development:
- Professional Readings with over 2,000 full-text articles from NCTE and TESOL's many journals and books, searchable by title, author, or topic of inquiry.
- Reading Invitations and Writing Engagements invite teachers to read and respond to a specific prompt about some aspect of ESL pedagogy.
- Online Communities provide teachers with the opportunity to discuss their readings, writings, and reflections on teaching with interested teachers in their own school or across the country.
- Conversations With prominent writers, composition scholars, and teachers offer participants an opportunity to ask questions and learn from some of the most exciting professionals in the field.
N. PDK -- Professional Development Kit
http://literacy.org/pdk/
"a multimedia resource for adult educators who want to explore and develop their teaching practices. PDK consists of a CD-ROM and a website.
- The CD-ROM contains video clips, featuring five adult educators and their students. These videos enable users to observe real classes, get to know real teachers, and consider the decisions that these teachers make everyday in their unique instructional settings.
- The complementary website encourages users to explore themes and issues that appear in the videos. It contains structured activities for teachers; a forum for public and private discussions; and a collection of articles, professional development resources, and lesson plans."
Discussion Lists (Listservs) as PD: NIFL Lists, TESL Lists, AAACE-NLA
http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo
Wikis
The Adult Literacy Education (ALE) Wiki http://wiki.literacytent.org
The Adult Literacy Tutor Wiki, http://adult-literacy.wikispaces.com/
Online Articles and Books about Distance Learning for Adult literacy/basic/secondary education, including English Language Learning
Expanding Access to Adult Literacy with Online Distance Education http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/research/op_askov.pdf
Online Professional Development for Adult ESL Educators. by Wil Hawk http://www.cal.org/caela/esl%5Fresources/digests/pdQA.html
Web-based resources for Online Educators
Multimedia Educational Resource for Learning and Online Teaching (MERLOT) is a free resource designed primarily for post-secondary education faculty and students. It includes links to online learning materials.
