This presentation was completed by the participants of "Alternative Professional Development" session at the Powering Up With Technology 09 conference in Prince George's County, MD.

1. As presented on November 14th, 2009 at the PUWT 09 Conference
Created using Wordle.net

2.  What’s the difference between “PD” and
“Training”?
 What content are we doing during PD?
 What are the problems with traditional
“Butt-In-Chair” PD?
 What are some solutions to these problems?
 A word about “Follow-up Activities”
 A word about training by community
building

3.  PD:
 Ongoing process
 Often, but not always, mandatory
 Provided to larger audiences
 May contain more theory
 Training:
 May be provided to student and/or teacher
 May contain more “hands-on” interaction
 Provided to a smaller number of individuals
 Content is typically on one specific tool or idea

4.  Differentiated Instruction done after school via lecture
 Summer Inst.-3 day, in huge room, grade level talk and
practice
 Hands On-Technology- One full-day, all day
 Ongoing collaborative planning—planning lessons
 Modeling as PD “Job-embedded” learning
 How to use manipulatives
Note: The answers to the question are
 Online PD360 (videos) summative based
on audience participation and
 Webinars—seminars online discussion

5.  Tuning out after 20 minutes
 Takes away time from other activities
 Interruptions/distractions (other activities going on around you)
 Need high speed internet access to be engaged/to participate (some don’t have
this at home)
 Getting questions answered and filling in gaps in YOUR learning—hard to
apply in real setting (at school)
 Lack of follow up
 “Cutesy” activities distract some learners/seem like a waste of time
 They are not always differentiated to learners’ levels of proficiency
 Finding time to implement the new learning
 Technology-phobia/different levels of comfort with technology
Note: The answers to the question are summative based
on audience participation and discussion

6.  Follow-up using different modalities (audio, video, discussion,
projects, etc)
 Other sources to get information (other than just live people)
 Hands –on keeps people coming back and is more effective
 Many of the things on this list are good teaching skills teachers
use with students. Why should those strategies be any different
for adult learners?
 Action research, provide, follow-up (feedback) and debriefing
 Taking the initiative
 Primary Focus vs multiple foci (Maybe focus on one thing for the
course of the school year with measurable goals and outcomes)
 Discussion after the implementation
 Collect data – quantitative and qualitative data & utilize the data
Note: The answers to the question are summative based
on audience participation and discussion

7.  Strategy-A-Day Calendar
 Creation & Distribution
 AT Tonight DVDs
 Creation & Distribution
 Results
 AT Tonight Volume 1: ~300
 AT Tonight Volume 2: ~250

9.  Burn podcasts onto CDs to
play in the car!
 Try it with the A.T.TIPSCAST.
 Four volumes completed.
 Download the question
booklets.
 Distribute to educators.
 Over 5 hours of content!
www.attipcast.wordpress.com
www.tinyurl.com/attipscast

10. ADDRESSED UNADDRESSED
 Uses available time  Only Awareness Level
 Watch short videos on TV Training
during commercials with
DVD  Still need follow-up
 Listen to podcasts during  Still “sit n’ get” style
commute
 Not “hands-on”
 Read one calendar slide a
day
 No “extra” technology
required
 Everyone knows how to use
a CD and DVD player

11.  Recognized as a need but haven’t actually
implemented it yet.
 The Ideas:
 After viewing a DVD and answer the questions in the
booklet, get together to discuss what you experienced,
either web-based (online forums) or in persons
 Create a product from what you heard on a podcast or
saw on the DVD and then share that somehow (wiki,
existing online resource depending on the topic)

12.  Personal Learning Network (Environment)-
 Educators making connections with other educators.
 Foster and build this within educators
 What tools do we use to make up our own PLNs?
 Sorry- we ran out of time to do this one as a group- but
here are a few that I would have guessed would have
been mentioned:
•Twitter •Youtube/Teachertube/Schooltube
•Facebook •Plurk
•Moodle/Blackboard/Angel •Ning/Classroom 2.0
•iPod/Podcasts •Others?

13.  When training on a specific tool that is not available to
general educators (for example, a specific AAC device)
form communities of teachers who are working with
students who are using these devices.
 Example: 5 teachers (along with related services) in the
county are working with students who are using a
SpringBoard Lite (Augmentative Communication
Device). Quarterly meetings to bring these minds
together to share strategies, data collection techniques,
and resources may decrease likelihood of abandonment,
decrease time spend recreating same resources, and
increase student achievement/integration.

15. Check out
Night Light Stories
Free audio stories
for children of all
ages
www.nightlightstories.blogspot.com

16. The Practical (and
Fun!) Guide to
Assistive Technology
in Public Schools:
Building or Improving Your
District’s AT Team
www.iste.org/chewat