Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ET 691
David Maimone
Internship Proposal
Description of Proposal
Rationale
The rationale for this proposal comes from feedback that OSE has received from past
professional developments. First, when OSE delivers face to face professional development, it
pulls staff out of school buildings. School administrators have been clear that the impact of
pulling staff out of the building hurts the schools’ ability to deliver effective instruction.
Feedback from the participants has also been negative in that the information they received
didn’t warrant the time away from their school buildings. In addition, providing an online option
to professional development will give teachers options as to how to receive information and will
be in line with BCPS’s desire to move PD to a digital platform.
Learning Objectives
The learning objectives will be different for every OSE staff member that participates
because they are all at different levels of comfort with technology and change. However, there
are a few overarching learning objectives that will guide this internship:
1. By December 2018 given one to one or small group instruction from David Maimone,
OSE staff (number of staff TBA) will be able to create and administer an online
professional development session in the form of a webinar or video tutorial.
3. By December 2018 given one to one or small group instruction from David Maimone,
OSE staff (number of staff TBA) will create one online professional development
presentation that meets the accessibility standards that BCPS has established.
Learning objectives for specific participants will vary depending on their comfort level with
technology and where they are on the ACOT model of technology. Most OSE staff are at the
Entry or Adoption levels and the goal would be to move them up the scale at least one level. In
order to address this change, I would look at Ely’s conditions.
Learning objectives that are specific to each learner will be determined by where they are
on the ACOT model as well as where they are in terms of Ely’s Eight Conditions of Change.
This will be done through a needs assessment developed and administered by me. The level of
dissatisfaction and the knowledge and skills of each participant will determine for the most part
where I will start and what learning objectives will be developed. Resources and time are two
conditions that will be addressed with OSE administration. Unlike a school building, OSE has
access to a lot of resources but less choice in what can be used, particularly for system-wide
professional development. In conjunction with OSE administration we will determine specific
incentives for the participants, although, I believe that participation will not be a problem as the
level of dissatisfaction may be high. Commitment from administration should not be an issue as
this internship aligns with BCPS expectations. Leadership will come from me in terms of
working with individual and small groups of OSE staff to develop their skills in delivering online
professional development.
The learning activities for this internship will differ from the traditional school-based
internship. The fact that everyone in OSE works such a non-consistent daily schedule doesn’t
allow for consistent group or committee development. The first component of this proposal will
be to develop three online (synchronous or asynchronous) professional development sessions on
the topic of delivering online professional development. Specific topics may include the
teaching with the adult learner in mind, accessibility, and accountability. These will be delivered
over the course of the fall semester. My plan is to target two to four individual or small groups
of staff members (such as those in the Early Childhood Office) to develop their ability to deliver
online professional development to the school-based special educators that they support. We
will utilize the information presented in the online professional development sessions. The plan
will be to meet on a regular basis in the fall with the intent of the PD to be delivered after
December 2018. These learning sessions will be tailored to each participant’s needs based on
where they are on the ACOT model. I will provide instruction and coaching in both using the
online platform to deliver the PD as well as ensuring that accessibility standards are met.
Participant specific goals and specific learning sessions will be documented.
The online component will be the three online professional development sessions that
will be on the topic of delivering professional development. This component will be a video
tutorial or webinar on topics such as PD for the adult learner, making online PD accessible, and
Participant accountability. My thought is that I could do these as webinars, but they may have a
more lasting effect if they were video tutorials that OSE used for all our staff. This may be up to
the OSE coordinator.
Realistic Timeline
Evaluation
Evaluation on the effectiveness of the internship will occur in three ways. The first will
be informal as I plan on eliciting feedback from each individual session that I conduct that I will
document in session notes. This will be used as formative assessment throughout the internship.
The evaluation of the participants’ effectiveness in developing and delivering accessible online
professional development will be done in two ways. First a feedback tool (survey) will be
administered to the participants to gauge their comfort level with technology in general, their
ability to create an online PD, and their comfort with incorporating accessibility standards.
Secondly, I will create a tool to evaluate their online PD for its delivery and accessibility.