Professional Development Plan

Bryan Iversen
Boise State 554 - Managing Technology Integration

Part 1: Professional Development Plan Logistics

Introduction
According to the Center for Public Education, Professional development can no longer just

be about exposing teachers to a concept in a one-time workshop, or giving teachers basic

knowledge about a teaching methodology. Therefore, I plan to use this statement to
support my Professional Development Plan that can be implemented across school
divisions regardless of grade level placement. The following will outline how to create
and implement an effective, ongoing professional development plan. This plan will be
largely based on the ideas of A.J Juliani, an Educational and Technology Innovation
specialist at Upper Perkiomen High School located in Pennsylvania.
Who are the learners?
The learners of this program will be anyone in the educational field. The beauty of this
plan will be that it expands across all grade levels and independent of skill level. This
plan will target the most basic of users to the most advanced educational technology
specialists.

Where will the PD take place?

Ideally, the initial training session will be done in person on campus in a group setting
as to reach the whole audience and explain the overall project depth. Once the objectives
are laid out, the training will be done on an as needed basis or requirements can be set
by each school or district. The PD will primarily take place in a personal setting such as
at home or in the classroom individually, however, it can also be completed during a
professional development day on campus.

Who will be the trainers?

This will be the crucial setup of the professional development plan. In order for this to
work, there needs to be at least one, but preferably two or more, ultra talented and
knowledgeable technology integration specialist on board to help create and implement
the plan. Once the plan is rolling along and more staff members demonstrate mastery of
desired skills, the technology team will grow expansively to support staff and develop
further professional development modules.

Goals/Objectives for the plan

The objective for this professional development plan will be for each school or district to
determine the desired amount of technological skill each of its teachers possess. This
plan can be modified accordingly to school or district plans.

Obstacles
The plan will be extremely labor intensive to get off the ground and will need a
dedicated team to develop and support the beginning of the program. However, as
mentioned earlier, as staff members become masters at certain skills, the overall
maintenance needed to further develop and support its staff will grow exponentially.
The consistent building of skills should help alleviate stress and potential problems.

Part 2: The Plan

Introduction
Following A.J Julianis professional development model he designed for his school, the
idea is to gamifyprofessional development using a series of modules that teachers will
complete. These modules will be competency based modules focused on a myriad of
technology skills. Upon mastery of each skill, teachers will earn digital badges to track
learning progress. Additionally, administration could use these badges as a way to form
teams of power users to alleviate the overall workload from the technology team.
These skills can be predetermined by a district or perhaps by sending out a staff
development survey. Either way, the modules will be focused on enhancing teachers
technological competencies that can be used immediately inside the classroom to help
improve engagement and student learning.

Step 1: Understanding why

The purpose of this professional plan is to equip educators with the toolkit needed for
innovation in the classroom using a myriad of 21st century teaching skills by building a
robust technologically advanced staff. My school is trying to develop a plan that will set
a standard of technology use in the classroom and this plan will provide the base level
skill it desires for all staff.

Step 2: Skills that are necessary for our current staff to be successful
In order to begin the development of the modules for the professional development
plan, it is necessary to determine what skills are currently needed to effectively operate
the programs required of our school. The following list are high need areas for our staff
because they are the principal areas where technology skills are required.

Google Apps For Education

Edmodo
Powerschool Gradebook
Rubicon Atlas Curriculum Management System
Google Sites or similar web design program for digital portfolios

These are the current systems that all teachers are required to use on a daily basis.
However, it is evident that there are teachers who need further training to enhance their
knowledge of each program. The first set of modules will need to be designed around
these programs to fulfill a basic set of technology skills at the school.

Step 3: Design a basic learning template

In order to create the learning modules based on the skills needed from the previous
steps, a basic learning template will need to be developed. Once the template is
developed, it can be modified according to skill accordingly. AJ Juliani adds three
sections to this step to help the learning process.
Section 1: Learn the skill - In this section, the learner is introduced to the skill that is to
be mastered as well as a plethora of ideas how this skill can be used in the classroom. A

variety of content is available for the teacher to learn the skill; video, articles, tutorials
etc.
Section 2: Proof of understanding - a short quiz or task to show the learner
understands the content that is to be mastered
Section 3: Performance task - the learner will create a product/use the skill to prove
they have learned the skill. This product needs to be directly related to classroom use
and sent back to the technology as proof of mastery.
Its important this structure wouldnt change drastically throughout the modules to keep
a sense of uniformity for the learner.

Step 4: Create a pre-survey

Using Google Forms, create a pre-survey to get an understanding of where the teaching
staff believe their current skills in technology are. This data can be used in individual
meetings with each teacher during their technology one-on-one consultation.
After the initial pre-survey, the teachers will take another survey asking their skill level
expertise on a scale 1-5, 1 being confused and 5 being master, built around the required
basic skills for each of the programs mentioned in step 2.
Once the entire staff has completed both surveys, a plethora of data will be available to
assess. Also, all staff members will earn their first badge at this point and then be shown
a menu of potential modules they can immediately begin working on.
Here are a few screen shots from AJ Julianis survey to get an idea of what it looks like
in action.

Staff Survey

Congratulations message upon completion

Step 5: Build the learning modules

Building the actual learning modules will be the most time consuming aspect of
designing this professional development plan. Ideally, a small team will be established
to help divide the workload as well as provide feedback for each other. It is possible to
use resources that are already available but creating tutorials is another highly effective
method of delivering content. The modules can be created using Google Forms and must
provide real world examples the teachers can transfer into their own classrooms.
Learning Module Examples

Section 1 - Learn the skill

Section 2 - Proof of understanding

Section 3 - Performance task

Step 6: Gamify the plan

Gamifying the professional development experience is the fun part of the process. By
gamifying the learning, it lends to learning by choice in a fun atmosphere while
providing authentic learning experiences. Badges will be given as each module is
completed and a leaderboard will be created showing staff progress.

One aspect that really stood out to me in AJ Juliani plan was that this leaderboard was
not made public, yet all stakeholders had access to the leaderboard to check in if they
wanted. This means that no teacher was put on public display if they were not keeping
up while those who were interested in seeing their progress compared to others also had
the capability to do. The data from the user boards can then be used to develop power
users or groups or other incentivised ideas.

Step 7: Launch correctly

Once the learning modules are developed and badges are created for gamifying, it is
crucial that the launching of the professional development is handled correctly. Before
launching to the whole school or district, a soft launch should be done with a select
number of teachers or administrative team members to troubleshoot any errors and
receive valuable feedback.
Once feedback is received and troubleshooting has been completed, launch the
professional development plan to the whole staff and make sure everyone understands
why the plan was developed and how it will be used.
Launching correctly will be a major contributor to the success of the overall professional
development. It is imperative the launch does not happen if the plan is not ready.
Resources: Visit AJ Juliani personal website to learn more about gamifying
professional development.
http://ajjuliani.com/gamify-professional-development-school/