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Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1020] Introduction
From: Leecy Wise leecy at fone.net
Date: Thu May 3 12:52:48 EDT 2007

Leecy's the name; education and technology the game.

I live in the boonies overlooking a canyon outside of Pleasant View, CO, in the Four Corners region. Thank goodness, I benefit from DSL service, provided by Farmers Telephone CO, just down the road.

From my home office, I run my own business, Reconnection Company, which provides training and blended curriculum for different groups. I run the Four Corners Professional Development Resource Center for CDE/AEFLA. Teacher training is my greatest love; I teach online for PBS TeacherLine and for CCCOnline and do some interactive video training in literacy topics for Literacy grants that were funded.

I'm glad to join this group. I look forward to reading some of your posts and dialoguing on different uses of technology for education, especially adult education, and especially with hard to reach youth, and especially on and on.

Jumping in with my scuba-diving equipment and looking forward to the exploration.

Leecy ;-)

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1043] Introductions
From: Taylor, Jackie jataylor at utk.edu
Date:Wed May 9 09:57:31 EDT 2007

PD Colleagues:
I think this discussion of creativity in the classroom offers a good segue for thinking about online and blended professional development. After all, isn't that what lends itself to creativity and innovation in professional development?

This week and next, we will be encouraging you to share your creative examples of online and blended PD, to try out tools, courses, and the 'blends' for the "right fit" - as an online learner, and to learn by doing.

To prepare for next week's guest discussion, I invite our guests to join us now, as their schedules allow:

1) Please introduce yourself to the list, and feel free to share any resources that may not already be found on the resource page: http://tinyurl.com/242bpg

2) In your introduction, consider the following question:

Currently, what is the most important issue or key issues you see in online or blended PD? What issue or issues have been on your mind as of late?

Thanks! Jackie

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1046] Re: Introductions - Guest ~ Debra Hargrove Florida TechNet
From:Dlhargrove at aol.com Dlhargrove at aol.com
Date:Wed May 9 14:29:25 EDT 2007

Hi everyone,
My name is Debra Hargrove and I am the coordinator of a technology and distance learning project in Florida called Florida TechNet. Our grant is funded through State Leadership money from our Department of Education. We have been in existence for 7 years now and actually started using online learning for PD in our state 5 or 6 years ago.

We currently have over 30 web-based training's on our website that adult educators can access free of charge. In fact, many adult educators from other states have accessed our training online. These training's are developed using Dreamweaver and placed on our server. They are currently non-facilitated courses and do not use a Learning Management System. While many students complete the course and receive PD credits (inservice points needed for re certification), others simply go online, gather the needed information and then leave the course.

That being said...we are realizing the importance of a happy balance of smaller facilitated vs non-facilitated course modules and in that realization have looked into cost effective ways to migrate our content into an affordable Learning Management System. After much discussion with colleagues and friends, we have loaded the open source system, Moodle, to our server. After all, free is always a good thing! We are looking forward to updating our current training's and then will migrate them over to Moodle.

While our existing training's are all linear based (one course - 5 topics, you proceed sequentially), I'm seriously considering revamping each course and creating smaller, learning chunks, if you will... that will allow the learner to pick and choose their own course content. So what I'm interested in hearing about and what's most important to me in Florida is the effectiveness of learner -based PD. Will allowing learners to create their own "Course content" increase the number of Florida teachers who participate in online PD? I know that Wisconsin used to have something similar...learning chunks.. do you still offer these? Has anyone else experimented with this concept?

Will be traveling out of town the next few days so wanted to get my guest bio up now. Thanks to Jackie for allowing me to guest on this important issue in PD.

take care all,
Debra Hargrove
Florida TechNet
_http://www.floridatechnet.org_ (http://www.floridatechnet.org)

online training at: _http://www.floridatechnet.org/webbased.htm_
(http://www.floridatechnet.org/webbased.htm)
(http://www.floridatechnet.org)

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1047] Re: What's happening in online PD?
From:Bonnita Solberg bdsunmt at sbcglobal.net
Date:Wed May 9 15:02:29 EDT 2007

Hello Jackie from California! The Oakland Adult and Career Education department of the Oakland Unified School District provides paid, ongoing PD for both contracted and hourly teachers. We have a PD committee that is currently addressing assessment as part of best teaching practices. We offer presentations throughout the year, during required staff meetings, at retreats, and in the form of workshops offered by our teachers and by CALPRO. We do not pay for PD courses taken online; rather the staff is polled about fourtimes a year to determine what their needs are and are we meeting them. The focus of PD is part of on-going program development. We offer a variety of opportunities due to teachers assigments during mornings, afternoons, evenings, and on Saturdays. I am not able to speak to how other programs address PD; hope someone from CA can provide some insights.

Bonnita Solberg
Teacher on Special Assignment
Oakland Adult and Career Education

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1054] Re: response to Debra Hargrove's intro
From:Holly Dilatush-Guthrie Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us
Date:Wed May 9 20:40:17 EDT 2007

Hello Debra, all,
Thank you for joining the conversation. Kudos to the FL TechNet projects!

[oh, dear; I fear this will be another long post... hope I'm not overly annoying anyone]

As the lone official distance learning person on our staff, as the coordinator of the first-in-VA ESL distance learning project [funded by EL/Civics -- there are other adult ed centers trying various ESL distance learning projects now, too], as a naturally enthusiastic person, I offer these thoughts in response to the questions you posed, from the perspective of a small city adult ed site:

VA has several online courses (free to VA teachers and tutors) -- and has had for a few years now. I enthusiastically signed up for and participated in pilot endeavors and subsequent open-to-all trainings. I've offered the www.valrc.org and http://www.valrc.org/training/online/ link to other instructors and to adult learning center volunteers for some time now. I've not had many follow through and try them. Of the few who have, evaluative comments have varied.

I've been a self-proclaimed "Moodle maniac" for nearly three years now, and have tried valiantly to interest others in participating in Moodle opportunities. [I use a Moodle with students in the distance learning course I presently teach, and have used Moodles with EFL students when teaching abroad].

I've also recently completed TESOL's Principles and Practices of Online Teaching Certificate course http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=5&DID=488

I've been perplexed at my inability to "sell" either the online courses or Moodle or the PP courses via TESOL. It's truly the first time in my career as an adult educator that I have hit such an inflexible wall! A few folks have made gentle forays but quickly backed away. The three most common responses/reactions I have heard (often!) are: "I'm too new at this tech stuff; I can't do it." and "It's just not for me." and "I don't have time -- there are too many things already on my 'do when I can find the time' list."

I would be remiss if I didn't mention that many of these folks are creative, go-the-extra-mile professionals who have spearheaded and/or co-planned many a meaningful new project/idea into fruition.

Re: student responses -- with the preset infrastructure of a classroom, it's easier to lead students to and through interactive experiences on the computer. There are many relevant English lessons along the way -- meaningful, beneficial in the English-language learning process. Adult learners at our center (and at most?) are a very mixed group -- many with a high comfort level with technology, others with limited to no experience whatsoever. I've had an approx. 75 % positive response rate from students, with approx. 40 % "thriving" and contributing strongly.


>From colleagues, I'm batting near-zero. Administrative support is relatively strong, although online learning is not a favorite event for local administrators either. Colleagues smile and congratulate me on my effort, but I've failed miserably at inspiring others to join the bandwagon.


On the state level, VA has been experimenting with "Polilogue jams" -- a concept with great promise. http://polilogue.com/ev_en.php These are interactive live discussions, pre-scheduled and greatly publicized, with trainings and "promos" at regional and state level conferences. I love them, most of my colleagues do not embrace them with nearly as much enthusiasm. Valuable benefits of these polilogues are that "digests" of consolidated recaps are made available to all who register, help on how to polilogue is offered and is reasonably easy, and all prior polilogues are saved for future reviewability.

Debra, FL's idea of creating Moodles sounds wonderful to me [I've yet to be successful in getting our K12 school server to give Moodle a home -- I pay for my own Moodle host provider], but in answer to your question, "Will allowing learners to create their own "Course content" increase the number of Florida teachers who participate in online PD?"
IMHO (In my humble opinion), only if strong marketing takes place -- with hands-on inservice -- to spread the message that Moodles ARE manageable, worthwhile, and can be fun!!!
... not unless participant evaluations are encouraged and details followed up on (evaluations can easily be incorporated as an ongoing mainstay on each and every Moodle).

The photos and default smiley-faces on Moodles make a world of difference in my Moodle experiences -- makes them "feel" much more personal and 'real.' Selling the little perks and starting small, encouraging enthusiasts, ensuring that folks know where to click to get help!, and to encourage folks to ASK for help -- and then to share the answers (easy to do directly in the forums on Moodle). It's when participants jump in and help each other, and the administrator can just "cheer" and "coach" as/if needed that the magic of Moodles (of online learning) occurs for me.

synchronous vs asynchronous opportunites -- from my experiences as both participant and administrator, Moodles can feel lonely when you are (or feel as if you are) the sole contributor and/or active participant. The "fun" and the highest value is in the interactivity, the shared experiences.

Learner-based PD can be somewhat "invisible" -- "lurkers" report gleaning valued ideas and info and resources from 'reading-only' participation. I don't think this should be discounted. An administrator on a Moodle can track (in many different formats) participation -- # of logins, which links within a moodle a participant has seen/not seen, etc. This documentation and the significance of it intrigues me greatly.

Having a "social" space on each Moodle can provide fun ways to engage people and to discover commonalities. I like asking each participant to respond to at least ____ (two? ten? however many) questions and to ask one of their own. This can sometimes jumpstart the interactivity. It really really really helps to have a facilitator "on" and "checking in and responding to posts" at least twice a day during a session. This presence is key to retaining interest (or so report many students from classes I've taught, and I would agree from experiences I've had).

Starting small, deflecting the "I'm overwhelmed!" syndrome... gently nudging folks past the discomfort of something new can help.

But oh, the potential! Interacting virtually with folks for weeks/months/intermittently all through a year -- and then meeting f2f at a conference: it's awesome! It brings excitement to other PD opportunities, keeps me energized. But it can be a tough sell. And an even tougher "transference" to using the concept to reach learners. It has enriched my PD immeasurably.

enough! I hope this post is not too off-track, hope it generates further responses/discussion.
Thank you for the impetus.
Holly

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1061] Re: response to DebraHargrove's intro
From:Leecy Wise leecy at fone.net
Date:Thu May 10 15:52:26 EDT 2007

Holly, I appreaciated your comments and I hear you, indeed!

You said..

>I've been a self-proclaimed "Moodle maniac" for nearly three years >now, and have tried valiantly to interest others in participating in Moodle opportunities. [I use a Moodle with students in the distance learning course I presently teach, and have used Moodles with EFL students when teaching abroad].


I'm glad to hear good things about Moodle. I'm just getting started!


>I've been perplexed at my inability to "sell" either the online courses or Moodle or the PP courses via TESOL. It's truly the first time in my career as an adult educator that I have hit such an inflexible wall!


I hope we talk more about this issue. It's a real puzzle to me as well. As you implied, fear of the technology is high on reasons. That may be the only reason for most. Hmmm. How do we overcome that? I think very simple, illustrated tutorials help if people are willing to go there. I've used QArbon to produce some nice tutorials on different things, but it's not free. There are similar products that are probably free.


>On the state level, VA has been experimenting with "Polilogue jams" -- a concept with great promise. http://polilogue.com/ev_en.php


That's hopeful. I'll check it out, especially since you've gotten participation! Thanks, Leecy

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1058] Introduction--Crystal Hack, Illinois
From:Crystal Hack chack at cait.org
Date:Thu May 10 16:12:42 EDT 2007

Hello All,

My name is Crystal Hack. I am the GED-i Coordinator for the Center for the Application of Information Technologies (CAIT) located at Western Illinois University.

Slightly over five years ago, I was given the opportunity to coordinate GED Illinois Online (now called the GED-i Project). This was the first, and only, state-wide distance learning adult education initiative supported by the Illinois Community College Board. Over the course of five years, the project has developed a national presence, literally going from coast to coast with Maryland and Washington both partners. With the introduction of the online GED curriculum came the need for professional development for those who teach using the curriculum. So the online learning I coordinate moved into the professional development arena as well.

In addition to coordinating the GED-i Project and associated professional development, I have coordinated the development of a variety of online learning modules for the Central Illinois Adult Education Service Center, the Illinois Secretary of State Literacy Office, and the Ohio Literacy Resource Center. I have also facilitated teaching and learning experiences in the online environment, which range from independent study, direct email trainings, and fully facilitated courses.

In response to the questions Jackie posed “Currently, what is the most important issue or key issues you see in online or blended PD? What issue or issues have been on your mind as of late?” I think there are several important issues regarding online or blended professional development.

1. Quality of the distance learning training presented.
2. Effectiveness of the delivery method
3. Accountability for those who attend/participate and present at a distance.

And, I have been wondering what others are doing that might work in IL and with our national partners so I can better serve the instructors, coordinators, and administrators I work with. Another area of interest to me is exploring the question “Can self-paced professional development that is not facilitated really have the same impact as facilitated PD” The GED-i Project is about ready to launch three self-paced, semi-facilitated modules for adult education teachers, coordinators, and administrators. I would really like to hear from others that have at-a-distance self-paced, non-facilitated, or facilitated PD.

I look forward to the idea exchanges over the next few weeks. I have already forwarded the EL Civics info on to several and the Literacy Behind Bars info as well. You might be interested in some of the GED-i’s implementation tools and ideas. The ideas and tools are geared for programs using the GED-i with students but are very applicable to other online learning programs with the GED audience in mind. You might also be interested in how I work with a development team to develop the online PD modules I mentioned earlier. Feel free to throw questions and comments my way. I welcome the interaction.

Chat with you soon.

Crystal Hack
GED-i Coordinator

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1059] Re: Introductions
From:Lynda Terrill lterrill at cal.org
Date:Thu May 10 19:29:33 EDT 2007

Hello,

I am the Technical Assistance and Web Coordinator at the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA) at Center for Applied Linguistics, Washington, DC as well as the moderator of the National Institute for Literacy's Adult English Language Learners electronic discussion list. At CAELA -and in its former identity as the National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE)--our federally-funded mission has been to provide technical assistance to teachers, programs, and states serving adult learning English as a second language. We've provided technical assistance to practitioners from answering AskERIC questions when we were the adjunct ERIC clearinghouse for adult ESL literacy education, to writing and disseminating a large array of materials for adult ESL teachers to initiating and continuing to develop an adult ESL Web site that was started in 1995, to moderating the NIFL ESL discussion list since its inception, also in 1995.

I think the work we've done and continue to do at NCLE and CAELA might best be expressed as a hybrid model with the overarching goal of assisting adult ESL teachers, administrators, state staff, and others to effectively teach adult ESL and through many venues (e.g., Web, email, phone- and video-conferences, workshops with Web support and follow-up, program evaluations)

Jackie asked the panelists to mention the most important issue or key issues in online or blended professional development. In some ways that's tough because there are so many issues-from the nuts and bolts of technology, to the many stakeholders in professional development, to the persistent issues such as part-time employment, and limited funding in the field as a whole. Looking at the topic from another way-the bottom-line-lately I've been thinking about how professional developers, trainers, teachers, and others can know that a "professional development" activity or course or session has been successful. How is change or growth captured and evaluated? Is a person a better teacher because she fulfilled the requirements of an online course (or a 3-day workshop, or an internship)? If so, how do we know? Delivery doesn't automatically mean receipt, understanding, and effective and appropriate use. This is an ongoing question for me, but I look forward to talking with you next week about issues that may be somewhat easier to answer.

Best wishes,

Lynda Terrill

Technical Assistance and Web Coordinator
Center for Adult English Language Acquisition
Center for Applied Linguistics
4646 40th St, NW
Washington, DC 20016
202-362-0700 ext 543
lterrill at cal.org
www.cal.org/caela

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1068] Hello,
From:Derek Albert albertd at witcc.edu
Date:Fri May 11 17:28:36 EDT 2007

Hello,

My name is Derek Albert. I have been a part-time adult literacy coordinator for the past 18 months. The most challenging aspect of the work (which I enjoy very much) was accommodating those adult learners who demonstrated "reading" disabilities, more so than "learning" disabilities. Having recently acquired materials and resources and developed some as well, I feel better equipped to help those learners largely demonstrating reading disabilities. I am always seeking new ideas and information to help advance my work. I look forward to all this professional development opportunity has to offer.

Derek Albert
WITCC Adult Literacy Coordinator
712-274-8733 or 1-800-352-4649
ext. 1803
albertd at witcc.edu

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1072] Introductions
From:Marie Cora marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com
Date:Sat May 12 16:48:05 EDT 2007

Hi everyone,

Thanks to Jackie for organizing this discussion. I'm glad to participate and I'm eager to learn from others' experiences. I'm an ABE consultant living in Boston. I started my career in adult literacy as an ESOL classroom teacher and tutor, and have since also worked in curriculum, library, staff and program development. I spent about 10 years as a program director, and the bulk of the staff were college volunteers.

My leap to on-line work began about 4 years ago and has grown steadily since that time. Right now I'm the Moderator of the NIFL Assessment Discussion List, I manage the Assessment content of the new on-line Program Planning Resource Collection (in planning; formerly, Special Collection in Assessment), and I have facilitated on-line courses in Assessment through AE Pro (http://midwestlincs.org/aepro/index.html).

Like Lynda, my most burning question is focused on the impact of on-line learning and how to track that. How can we track learning to application? How can we best obtain follow-up and gather feedback? How can we find out if the folks we interact with on line and using what they learned? These questions become particularly sticky when the venue is a discussion list of more than 600 subscribers, 90% of whom lurk. Someone already mentioned the debacle of the lurker: they must be getting something because they stay, but it's frustrating to have next to no options for finding out who they are and why exactly they do stay. They are a valuable group that's out of reach.

I have these other questions as well:

  • The shift from classroom teacher to on-line facilitator: this was tricky for me because I was so used to being physically present. It's a learning curve - what are some tips for people who are new to this?
  • Figuring out how to set up learning environments in which all the supports possible are present. This goes with the first point: developing the content is the 'easy part'; but then preparing and organizing that content so that it can be effectively delivered without a physically present teacher is the next learning curve in the leap from classroom teacher to on-line facilitator.
  • Time-consuming for quality facilitation: in my experience, much of that "present-teacher-feedback" is replaced with written feedback and

this can be an incredible amount of work. What are some strategies for handling this type of workload?

I'm very interested to hear discussion on the questions and challenges that others have raised so far as well. I guess I have these questions for those who have posted so far: it seems like everyone has described blended PD in one form or another - does anyone do on-line PD that is not blended? Also, I read from posts that it appears that support levels for blended/on-line PD depend on the level of state involvement. In other words, the more the state believes this to be helpful, the more invested they are at the state level. Is that also a correct assumption?

Ok, thanks and looking forward to next week's discussion.

Marie Cora


Marie Cora
<mailto:marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com
NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator
http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment
Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection
http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1073] Introduction
From: clegmelo at isu.edu clegmelo at isu.edu
Date:Sat May 12 21:24:27 EDT 2007

Hi everyone,

I’m glad to be part of this group. I’ve been involved in Adult Basic Education for the last 6 years. I am part of the General Education Department at Idaho State University. My current responsibilities include ABE instructor, outreach coordinator, regional data management, regional professional development, state leadership team, and state coordinator for Project Ideal.

The questions I’ve been reading this week from all of you concerning distance and blended PD are many of the same ones I have.

Idaho is using distance PD for part of its statewide program for ABE and ESL staff and faculty. I look forward to participating in discussions concerning successful distance and blended programs for both PD and ABE/ESL students.

Melody

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1075] Re: Introductions
From:Leslie Petty lpetty at twmi.rr.com
Date:Sun May 13 08:48:43 EDT 2007

Hello,
I'm Leslie Petty, the Associate Director of Project IDEAL (www.projectideal.org). We offer online professional development about implementing distance education programs for adult learners and teaching at a distance for distance teachers and center administrators in our member states.

We offer two different types of courses. For each course, we train facilitators in each of the member states to deliver the course to adult educators in their state (although there have been several cross-state courses). Our "introductory" distance course is designed to help adult education providers plan for a distance learning program within their agency. We felt that it was important that teachers who would be teaching at a distance had some experience as a distance learning /student/. This course takes a blended approach. It begins with a face-to-face session, in which participants are introduced to the course facilitator, other course members, the course platform and to key issues in implementing distance learning. In addition, an administrator and (typically) two teachers from each agency that is planning a distance program participate as a team - and turn in only one assignment per team - so they work closely together. It's a fairly traditional course, with assigned readings and assignments, all of which are focused on helping each team develop a plan for distance education at their agency. At the end of the course, teams have an action plan they can take and begin to use to implement their distance programs.

Our second type of course is a study group; the concept is similar to the study circles conducted by NCSALL. Each study group focuses on a different topic. The first few centered on teaching and learning challenges of teaching at a distance. Teachers created case studies of challenging situations, and with the guidance of a trained facilitator, the class discussed (online) each case study, generating ways to handle the situation. Many participants in these groups reported significant changes in how they approached teaching as a result of their participation. The next iteration focused on evaluating online resources for distance teaching. Our newest study group takes more of a seminar approach (more readings, rather than developing a case study) and examines persistence among distance learning students. NCSALL was very generous in making their persistence readings and materials available to us and we adapted them to a different instructional format and narrower content focus.

Among my major concerns are the quality of facilitation, applying what's learned in online courses to professional experience and the impact of online courses on educators.

I'm looking forward to participating in discussions this week and learning from all of you.

Leslie

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1077] Intro Dafne Gonzalez
From:Dafne dygonza at yahoo.com
Date: Sun May 13 17:48:27 EDT 2007

Hi everyone,

Thanks Jackie for inviting the EVO coordination team to join this discussion :-)

I'm Dafne Gonzalez, Full professor at Universidad Simon Bolivar, in Caracas, Venezuela, where I teach blended courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels. I am the coordinator of the Graduate Programs in Education, and the Head of the Informatics and Education Specialization and I also teach courses on the use of technology for language teaching in the Applied Linguistics Masters Program. Since November 2006 I am a member of the Distance Education Policies Committee at my university, which was created because as of 2008 many of our careers will go online.

My cyberlife started in 2002 when I joined Webheads in Action, one of the sessions offered by EVO in that year. Since then, I have not taught a single hour of class without the help of web tools. Presently, I am the coordinator of the TESOL Electronic Village Online http://dafnegonzalez.com/evo-07/index1.htm and I have been co-moderating the Becoming a Webhead (BaW) session for 4 years, with an increasingly number of teachers in each round in 2007 we had 271 teachers from all over the world. In more formal manner, I have also been co-facilitating one of the TESOL Principles and Practices of Online Teaching Certificate Program courses: "Teaching vocabulary and grammar online" since 2004.

Being a webhead means being engaged in online collaborative learning and teaching while exploring the best way to use synchronous and asynchronous web tools in our daily praxis with a very warm group of international colleagues.

Well, I have been reading with interest all the posts, and I have many things to say, but this message is already longer than a post should be, so I will leave my comments for later. However, I would like to share this link to a glossary that we have created for the BaW sessions: http://dafnegonzalez.com/baw-06/content/glossary.html

I will be at Tapped In on Wednesday from 23:30 GMT, you are all welcome to keep me company ;-)

Looking forward to sharing with you,

Dafne (aka Daf)

Subject:[ProfessionalDevelopment 1079] Re: Introductions - Marian Thacher
From: Marian Thacher mthacher at otan.us
Date: Sun May 13 20:22:21 EDT 2007

Thanks for organizing this discussion, Jackie!

I'm Marian Thacher, the director of OTAN, www.otan.us, one of 4 adult ed leadership projects in California. Our focus is on technology and supporting it's use, so we've considered and piloted a variety of ways of delivering professional development, including online workshops, videoconferencing and webcasting, but not including extended online courses. Those are being delivered currently by one of our sister projects, CALPRO.

We host a 2 year PD experience for teachers who want to be the technology mentor at their site. It's called the Technology Integration Mentor Academy (TIMAC) www.otan.us/timac/. The participants receive a combination of f2f training, online meetings and workshops, email list, and videoconference. We have also tried online chat and web cams. I will be drawing on this "blended" experience for our coming discussion.

I want to respond to the second question Jackie posed, what has been on my mind re online PD? The biggest question on my mind is how do adult literacy teachers learn online? Some of you have already noted that maybe the majority don't, or don't want to, or don't have time. I think maybe they just haven't yet had the experience of finding a community of people who are thinking about the same pressing issue they are thinking about at the same time, and connecting with them. I don't think I would have discovered this without someone, a friend, leading me by the hand, explaining how a BBS worked (yes, it was a long time ago!), and telling me about all the great learning experiences she was having online. So that raises the question of a mentor, study buddy, peer coach. We have a lot of different models for it, don't we?

I believe a lot of learning takes place through interacting with others, and even through forming relationships. So, I believe that A LOT of professional development happens on this and other email lists. Someone poses a question, such as the two below, and discussion happens that leads to other issues and a lot of ideas are generated. So thank you, Jackie, for your reflection tools. I had already started an excel file to track ideas that I want to follow up on, much more primitive than your tools!

Marian
20:46, 13 May 2007 (EDT)20:46, 13 May 2007 (EDT)20:46, 13 May 2007 (EDT)~~ Marian Thacher, OTAN
P.O. Box 269003
Sacramento, CA 95826-9003
(916) 228-2597
www.otan.us

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1080] Introductions: Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
From: Katherine G Kgotthardt at comcast.net
Date:Sun May 13 21:15:27 EDT 2007

Dear Colleagues:

Thank you for the opportunity to work and learn with you through this discussion! I am interested in ways to better incorporate and coordinate the blended method in our county's ESOL distance education program. This is the first year the county has offered the distance education alternative which includes an online curriculum through Project Connect and a weekly, live skills session.

In addition to my work with the county, I have taught primarily online courses for the past five years for a variety of colleges. I have also taught live in traditional classrooms. I look forward to learning more about the educational benefits and the techniques of blending.

I also look forward to discussing blending as part of professional development. Having taken some purely online professional development courses as well as some traditional, live courses, I would like to learn how the blended model compares and contrasts with other models.

This is my first experience with a list serve like this, and I am excited t be joining you!


Best Wishes in Learning,

Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt
ESOL Distance Education Instructor
Prince William County Public Schools
Adult Education
P.O. Box 389
Manassas, VA 20108
703-791-8387
http://www.pwcs.edu/curriculum/adulted/

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1081] Introduction: Barbara Dieu
From: Barbara Dieu beeonline at gmail.com
Date: Mon May 14 06:23:36 EDT 2007

Thank you Jackie and Elizabeth for inviting me to participate as a guest in this list and it is a pleasure to meet all of you. I am a bit in a rush this week as it is the end of the trimester so we have been handing in student reports and are having teacher meetings in the evenings.

I will try to slot a time at Tappedin later today when I find out until what time the meetings at school are scheduled exactly. BTW, talking about time - Marian, here is the time converter I use when I want to hold my sessions :
http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedform.html I fix the hour in UTC or my time zone and save it, then convert the long URL into a tinyurl so it is readable <http://tinyurl.com/>

I'm Barbara Dieu. I teach EFL in the Franco-Brazilian secondary school in São Paulo, Brazil and coordinate the Foreign Language Dept. As a secondary teacher, I do not have much real time for professional development as I am preparing, correcting, giving classes, attending to parents and students, having meetings. In addition to this, my school did not offer any so whenever I wanted to keep abreast, I had to pay for a course during my free time or holidays.

However, since 1997, I have managed to continue learning by going online after my school hours and getting more and more involved in projects which would benefit my classes. For sharing, exchanging ideas, reflection and more diverse perspectives and practice, I started attending presentations at Tappedin and then presenting, meeting new people, exchanging ideas informally, experimenting with new tools and networking with educators all over the world in communities of practice like the webheads in action. I co-moderated two 6-week workshops for EVO and tutored other teachers online. The whole experience has been very rewarding.

Off to school! I will send my Tappedin office hours later today and looking forward to talking to you.
Warm regards from Brazil,
Bee
Barbara Dieu
http://beewebhead.net
http://dekita.org

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1086] Intro Aiden Yeh
From: Aiden Yeh aidenyeh at yahoo.com
Date: Mon May 14 10:56:10 EDT 2007

Like what my colleagues have said, thank you for inviting the Electronic Village Online Coordinators to join this list and participate as guests in the synchronous and asynchronous discussions about blended learning and professional development.

My name is Aiden Yeh and I teach at Wenzao Ursuline College of Languages in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I received my MSc in English Language Teaching Management from Surrey University and I¡¦m in the process of completing my PhD (Birmingham University). My research focus is on the professional development of Taiwanese teachers in English cram (supplementary) schools. As a webhead (Dafne has already defined what it is), I believe in what communities of practice can do to a teacher who is willing to learn and grow¡Xnot only for professional/career sake but to what it can do to help improve students¡¦ learning. The courses that I teach involve a blend of methodologies and technology. My school provides wireless Internet connection, and almost all of the classrooms are equipped with multimedia consoles that make blended learning possible. Having said that, it is basically up to the teachers to decide when and how they are going to make use of technology in their teaching. This is where professional development comes in. To be able to use the tools effectively, we need to learn how to use them first. I learned how to incorporate online chats in my traditional EFL classes when I joined Webheads in Action EVO (Electronic Village Online) session back in 2002¡Xthat was the same time I was also moderating another EVO session on Managing Native Speakers (NS) and Non-native Speaker Teachers of English. This was the beginning of my road to online professional development. The rest, as they say, is history. Last March, I presented at the TESOL 2007 Conference in Seattle on Strategies for NNESTs that Work: ¡§Empowering Teachers through Collaborative Professional Development¡¨. My message was simple: Learn, Act, and Inspire. These are the strategies that work--- for all teachers regardless of ethnicity. click here http://tinyurl.com/yore5l

I believe that most of us here are walking the same path to learning and professional growth.
Let me end this message by wishing everyone a lively and fruitful online discussion.
¡¥See you in TappedIn on Tuesday 14 GMT and Friday 16 GMT.
Aiden

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1100] Introduction and the EVO
From: Dr Elizabeth Hanson-Smith ehansonsmi at yahoo.com
Date: Mon May 14 17:27:00 EDT 2007

Hi all--
I've been reading and writing to the list for the past week or so, and should probably introduce myself:

I have been working with TESOL's CALL IS Electronic Village Online for the past several years. This is an all-volunteer all-online program that serves over 100 participants during our Jan-Feb sessions. The Coordination Team of 7-8 volunteers from CALL IS trains the moderators (about 25-30) in Nov-Dec, helping them learn to use several online tools (Yahoo Groups, Tapped In, Learning Times, WorldBridges, blogs, wikis, Flickr, etc.) and prepare their syllabus to make it attractive to an online audience of busy teachers. The content is pretty much wide open and depends on the moderators' choice: technology in education, specific how-to sessions on blogs, video, and PowerPoint, issues in the field of TESOL, run-ups to sessions at the spring TESOL convention, etc.

Although there is a gradual turn-over of volunteer moderators, it is interesting to observe how the moderators group has become a kind of community. They share their problems and interests, serve as "guest speakers" during each other's sessions, and eventually some join the coordination team. We found a great deal of community building seemed to take place when we offered several chat sessions (text and then voice too) during the training. Chat really adds the personal and human touch. Someone mentioned the problem of time differentials--we had a specific time and then added a couple of extra chat slots when people had conflicts. But that's the advantage of having a world-wide team--we can be everywhere at once B-) We also served as mentors during the sessions and could help moderators run live chat, build a Web or wiki site, and trouble-shoot the groups.

I enjoyed reading Wendy's description of her Moodle-based blended course. We are thinking of using that platfom eventually, and won't have the luxury of a hands-on land-based "walk-through" of how to register, etc. I look for more tips on what worked and what didn't. We definitely try to encourage group work within our sessions, but of course some teachers don't use groups in their land classes yet. So it's a stretch for them to imagine it online.

Looking forward to your questions and discussion topics.

Elizabeth Hanson-Smith
http://www.geocities.com/ehansonsmi/

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1101] Introductions - Online PD
From: Green, Catherine cgreen at air.org
Date: Mon May 14 19:31:08 EDT 2007

Hello, Everyone!

Thanks, Jackie, for putting this together. I've enjoyed reading the dicsusisons to date and am eager to share. Here is a bit more about the California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO), one of the four state Leadership Projects of the California Dept. of Education. Marian Thacher of OTAN already mentioned this one.

To provide a context, CALPRO's mission is to foster continuous program improvement through a comprehensive, statewide approach to high quality professional development for the full range of adult education and literacy providers. CALPRO began in 2001 and its first online courses were piloted in Jan. 2005.

Here's a sketch, following Jackie's guidelines:

  • Provider: California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO)
  • Website: www.calpro-online.org
  • Online PD topics (in the form of four-week asynchronous courses led by facilitators): designing programs for adults with learning disabilities; managing the ESL multilevel class; effective lesson planning; enhancing learner persistence; organizing and monitoring instruction to improve learning gains;

Additionally, CALPRO currently offers two self-directed, self-paced modules on the topics of family literacy and managing a SCANS-based classroom.

Courses, both facilitated and self-directed, on other topics are currently under development.

  • CEUs offered through California State University, Sacramento
  • Open to the public? No (see "Cost" below)
  • Cost? Free to adult ed. teachers and administrators who work in programs that receive state or federal funding (e.g, ABE, ASE, ESL, GED). If space is available, other participants may attend.
  • Are CEUs or other credits available? Yes. CALPRO applies to CSUS for CEU awards: generally 1.5 CEUs are available per four-week online course, which averages about 3-4 hours of participation per week. In addition, upon successfully completing the online course, each participant receives a certificate of completion that is eligible for 9 Professional Growth Hours; the latter may or may not be tracked by the educator's agency; California state requirements for PD have changed recently.
  • What institution issues the CEUs? California State University, Sacramento
  • When offered? Varies. Generally, these are offered on a quarterly basis (fall, winter, spring, summer).
  • Unique options or features?

CALPRO online courses are asynchronous, discussion based and they last four weeks each. Like their face-to-face workshop counterparts, they are grounded in research and are filled with interactive tasks. An advantage of running the courses over four weeks is that they provide multiple opportunities for application and reflection, especially compared to brief workshops. The disadvantage is that without grades, credits or financial incentives, these courses can be hard to sustain for some participants (e.g,. the part-time teacher/"freeway flyer" who works 2-3 jobs to make ends meet and is not paid for professional development or lesson preparation). Whenever possible, the online courses feature multimedia elements (video excerpts, audio clips, PowerPoint presentations) to vary the steady diet of text-based input and written "discussion" though asynchronous forums. Online courses have 15-20 participants enrolled, who are guided through interactive tasks and discussions by a facilitator. The facilitator is a subject- area expert trained in teaching the module both face-to-face and online.

  • Anything else you'd like to add?


My role:
As Research Analyst for the American Institutes for Research, I coordinate the alternative delivery systems initiative of CALPRO. Before coming to AIR in 2006, I created and delivered professional development courses in the area of TESOL methodology for selected universities for nine years. I've been involved as an ESOL teacher and professional developer since 1984.

My burning questions:

1. For F2F learning and online learning or any blend of these two, how can you use Guskey's five levels of evaluation to effectively measure systemic change and impact on student learning? How can you be sure that the changes you see are the direct result of PD delivered?
2. How can you promote and sustain professional development among those who need it most, e.g., a population of part-time ESL adult ed. teachers who are "freeway flyers" and have limited resources and time for PD? What are some examples of successful efforts?
3. What alternative delivery forms have been used successfully, in "smaller chunks of learning" as someone here said, to create an "a la carte" menu of PD choices for adult educators, including delicious, nutritious and affordable selections?


Catherine Green

Research Analyst, CALPRO
American Institutes for Research
2880 Gateway Oaks Dr., Ste. 220
Sacramento, CA 95833
Tel. 916-286-8827
Fax. 916-286-8840
Email: cgreen at air.org

Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 1105] Re: Introductions
From: Noreen Lopez lopezns at comcast.net
Date: Mon May 14 21:49:48 EDT 2007

Hi to everyone,
I¹m a little late getting into the discussions since I have been without a computer for the past week. (That was a challenge since I have become so dependent on using it almost constantly). But I am happy to say I now have a computer back and can join in the discussions. First, I want to thank Jackie for inviting me to serve as a guest in the online discussions following out f2f panel at COABE.

My name is Noreen Lopez. I have a long and varied career in adult education starting as a classroom ESL and GED teacher. I later became a local program administrator, University faculty member, state department staff member for technical assistance and monitoring and eventually state director of adult education in Illinois. Then I joined Contemporary Books for a stint in the private sector designing new materials for adult education. While I had some technology experience in these later endeavors, most of my technology experience came as director of the PBS LiteracyLink project where we designed video, print and online materials for workplace skills, and GED preparation, as well as online materials for ESL and ESL/Civics teacher professional development. After leaving PBS I became an independent consultant. In that capacity I trained teachers on working with multi-media materials for distance learning; worked with NCAL on a project which included state technology planning; and facilitated some meetings in VA to plan for distance learning. Most recently I completed a review of the AEPro online professional development project for the National Institute for Literacy. The paper included a review of the literature on the topic of online professional development, a summary of a questionnaire completed by a sample of teachers who participated in AEPro, and a summary of a questionnaire completed by a sample of nine state offices of adult education about their plans for online PD.

A couple of the issues that I find most interesting are those dealing with teacher involvement in online professional development:

  • What gets the teachers to use online learning?
  • How can we best identify those who will be most successful using this approach? How can we keep teachers motivated in a distance learning environment?
  • And, how can we improve the completion rate for those participating in online professional development?

Clearly I have lots of questions. It¹s exciting to be involved in an area where we don¹t have all the answers but where we can all share our ideas about what might work. I look forward to all the discussions.

Noreen

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