Extended Workdays - Paid PD or Not

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Subject: [PD 5031] Re: Reflections
From: Tracey Hosselkus
Date: Wed Aug 4 11:35:56 EDT 2010

Just an addendum to what I wrote yesterday. I am using Facebook to connect with my Higher Ed Students and possible students to stay in touch and to get messages to them. They don't respond so well to phone, but do to Facebook messages. Only problem is that since it is blocked at work, I have to do it from home - sure extends my work day well into the evening - BUT it works!!!!

Tracey

Subject: [PD 5034] Re: Reflections
From: Andy Nash
Date: Wed Aug 4 11:43:06 EDT 2010

And this is no small matter - the never-ending workday. Is our flexibility in working at all hours being matched with flexibility in our official work schedules?

Andy Nash

Subject: [PD 5035] Re: Reflections
From: Kimberly A. Johnson
Date: Wed Aug 4 11:51:36 EDT 2010

Right on, Andy! We are struggling right now with a PD project that includes online courses - if teachers were attending a F2F training, they would be released from teaching and do this during their regular work day. With an online course they will not necessarily get release time to participate and end up doing this PD work on their own time. How can we make this more fair?

Kim Johnson

Hamline University, St Paul, MN

Subject: [PD 5036] Re: Reflections
From: Isserlis, Janet
Date: Wed Aug 4 11:58:09 EDT 2010

agreed

sub time? comp time? this is so difficult an issue, but I'm grateful that you both remind us all that teachers' time isn't an infinite resource, nor should it be donated...

Janet Isserlis

Subject: [PD 5052] donating our time
From: Paul Rogers
Date: Thu Aug 5 12:37:42 EDT 2010

A few people have posted messages basically in agreement with:

".. teachers' time isn't an infinite resource, nor should it be donated"

Well, in order to promote literacy in general and to conduct meaningful outreach to the community, it is necessary to donate a lot of time.

I donate my time in different areas as a teacher.

I think it has to do with how we look at our profession as individuals. Is it just a job or is it a 'calling' or a vocation?

Once a class I was teaching was canceled due to a drop in attendance.The students were very upset, so I volunteered to teach the class in the home of one of the students. This caused a problem with the program administration. Their approach was unnecessarily rigid and is an example of some of the things that could use improvement.

Paul Rogers

Subject: [PD 5060] seat time
From: babsfree at aol.com
Date: Fri Aug 6 09:02:32 EDT 2010

It seems to me that there should be some new flexibility built in to the systems to account for programs being able to get "time credit" for online interchanges and work accomplishments. In the real world this is being done via telecommuting and flex time and other means. Programs should be able to do the same, at least for some fixed percentage of time.

Subject: [PD 5061] Re: seat time
From: Peggy Baker
Date: Fri Aug 6 10:48:00 EDT 2010

If nothing else, the concept of seat time as a measure of learning is a very expensive one, and is coming under increasing pressure in the secondary and post-secondary arenas. Now that the nation's largest school district is beginning to fund schools to explore alternative methods to seat time for awarding credits and measuring student proficiency, it's likely that the impetus for change will accelerate.

--Peggy

Peggy Baker
www.easlinstitute.org

Subject: [PD 5061] Re: seat time
From: Federico Salas-Isnardi
Date: Fri Aug 6 12:41:32 EDT 2010

For programs receiving federal funds and reporting to the National Reporting System through their state, the NRS Guidelines for Distance Education allow for counting distance education "proxy" hours of students enrolled in adult education classes that meet certain criteria and follow one or more of the models of distance ed NRS considers. The three models include credit for completion of assignments through what is called teacher verification and also student mastery where students take some test over materials assigned online. So, if a program structured classes formally to include contact with students through the internet and the program was using one of the models approved those hours for students who cannot attend classes could be counted, for example, if they complete assignments online. I think it is important here to understand that the class has to be formally designated to be DE (even if it is a hybrid model) and the NRS would not allow you to count the hours of all the students who connect with the teachers using a social media application. I think there are people a lot more knowledgeable than me about these guidelines subscribed to this list who might want to contribute their perspective. For more on this you can read the NRS guidelines including guidelines for Distance Education under www.NRSWeb.org. Project IDEAL (Improving Distance Education for Adult Learners) also has a lot of information including papers on proxy hours.

It is interesting, however, that NRS guidelines do not mention social media at all as of March 2010 as a means to keep students involved. I suppose there would have to be a formalized way of figuring out how much time a student really spends in a social site and somehow turn that time into an educational activity of some sort. I would like to know what Project IDEAL researchers think about this.

As far as teacher compensation, I suppose that teachers who are formally assigned to classes that include a distance component are paid for at least some of the time they spend online with students. But, unfortunately, I know that most teachers spend a lot more time communicating with students outside the formal environment than what they get paid for.

federico

Federico Salas-Isnardi
Adult Literacy Specialist, Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning
Member, Executive Board, Association of Adult Literacy Professional Developers
Adult Education Consultant - Leadership in Literacy and Education ~ Houston, Texas

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