The Ins and Outs of Web-Based Teacher Professional Development.

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The Ins and Outs of Web-Based Teacher
Professional Development.

• PHI DELTA KAPPA
• Northern Virginia Center
• Falls Church. VA
• Presented by the College of Exploration
• October 26, 2000

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The College of Exploration

• Established in 1991 as a charitable,
  not-for-profit educational organization
• http//www.coexploration.org
• Based in McLean, Virginia USA
• Focus Teacher professional development, science
  and the environment, and technology

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Teacher Professional Development Experience

• Designed, developed, delivered, and evaluated 16
  TCOE Web based teacher prof. development programs
  since 1995
• Additionally 4 others TCOE combination of onsite
  and online
• Range from 3 semester hours graduate courses for
  30 teachers to 1 semester hour workshops for 300.
• Evaluated numerous other web based programs and
  workshops

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People, Partnerships, Process, Product

• People - background
• Kristina Bishop - MBA and EdD from VA Tech
• Student Assessment - Metro Area School districts
  14 years
• Owned computer training company
• Technology Evaluations for NSF, PBS, NWF. DoDEA,
  GSH, Thinkquest
• Project Management for Dept Ed and NCES projects.
• Peter Tuddenham - son at VA Tech
• Military training (receiving and giving)
• Corporate training and Fortune 500 Strategic
  Management (Coors, US West, Arizona Public
  Service)
• Executive development research and delivery (5
  year project - US Army)
• President of IRIS online Teacher community
  1990-1992
• Support Staff - teachers, administrators,
  computer specialists

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People, Partnerships, Process, Product

• Emphasis on CO- part of coexploration
• Work with others - collaborative process to
  produce end product
• PartnersNASA, NOAA, National Geographics
  Sustainable Seas Expedition, Miami-Dade Schools,
  Dept. of Defense Dependents Schools, Kalamazoo,
  MI Schools, University of Maryland University
  College, Florida International University,
  University of Southern California Sea Grant
  Program, JASON Project, Bermuda Bermuda
  Biological Station for Research. United Nations
  International Oceanographic Commission

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People, Partnerships, Process, Product

• Sensitive and aware of time constraints for busy
  teachers
• Social process - Learning Community
• Conversational pedagogy
• Easy access to experts, help present complex
  material in relevant manner

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People, Partnerships, Process, Product

• Webconferences
• Webcourses
• Webseminars
• webworkshops

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WWW Technologies

• Web Conferences
• Educational Web Sites
• On-Demand Web Videos,
• Web Video-conferences, Web Broadcasts

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Web Conferences

• Professional development workshops for teachers
• Seminars for scientists
• Graduate level courses
• Virtual meetings
• Ongoing collaboration

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Recent Webconference and Web workshop for Teachers

• Department of Defense Education Activity
• 310 educators participated in internal
  webconference about technology curriculum and
  standards
• collaborative learning and working opportunity on
  the web, prior to the face to
  face meetings later in the school year.
• September 2000

• National Geographic Sustainable Seas Expedition
  Online Workshop
• Project Ocean STEWARD
• 350 educators and scientists interacting online
  learning about marine sanctuaries
• October-November 2000

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Workshop Features

• Teacher Professional Development Workshop
  Features
• Learn from the experts
• Using the Internet you can participate from your
  own home or school at a time convenient to you.
• Develop lessons and activities for your classroom
  during the workshop
• Get to know other educators from around the
  country
• Teacher resource room - bring your best lessons
  and activities to share with other educators
• Café area to informally chat with other
  participants
• Breakout sessions - to support varying grade
  levels and needs
• All materials presented will be archived on the
  Web

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Educational Web Sites

• Classroom BATS (BBSR and FIU) Using ocean data in
  the classroom
• Coral Cam (BBSR) Camera on the coral reef
• Water and the Solar System (NASA-JPL) Web
  archive of teacher online workshop contains
  presentations, lesson plans and activities for
  science classrooms

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On-Demand Video

• Keynotes - eg Sylvia Earle for SSE and HQ staff
  for DoDEA
• Capture of lectures for use later - Ocean Data
• Deep Sea Creatures - BBSR

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Web Broadcasts and Web Videoconferencing

• Lectures and presentations from the Bermuda
  Biological Station for Research
• Briefing on Ocean and Human Health from US Senate
  
• Web videoconference--from Bermuda to Southampton
  as part of Year of the Ocean activities

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Evaluation Results highlight the benefits What
Teachers Say

• Convenient method for discussion and networking
  with colleagues
• Opportunity to interact with experts
• Gathers together web-based resources, knowledge
  management
• Helps develop teachers web and multimedia
  technology skills

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Benefits (continued)

• Being able to read and digest materials at their
  convenience, any time of the day
• Share ideas, problems and successes with peers
• Dispels the sense of isolation some feel within
  their field of teaching
• Unique opportunity to grow professionally

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Ongoing Improvements to the Process

• Finding the right balance to have enough
  dialogue without overwhelming or burdening either
  the presenters or the participants
• Refining the model to find the best format,
  number of participants, duration, and scope of
  workshop or course

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Challenges that invite more research in the future

• Making the online workshop a good learning
  experience for all learning styles, preferences,
  and temperaments
• Need for research to understand how to make the
  online environment address these preferences
• Need to look at what makes a good online learner

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Future Projects

• Globalheartbeat.org
• Ocean and Human Health
• Educators Scientists
• HMS Challenger Project http//www.hmschallenger.or
  g/
• DoDEA Webconference for Language Arts
• DoDEA Webconference for School Partnership
  Programs
• Remote cameras/data streams/monitoring
• 3D worlds
• Multi-player simulation

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Contact Us
http//www.coexploration.org peter_at_coexploration.
net UK 01202 478248 USA 001 703 760 9334