Once teachers feel comfortable with adapting
lessons from others, a teacher is enticed to create his or her own
lessons. At this stage, mentoring, on-line just-in-time, and on-line
resources are critical professional development products. Workshops
can still be used when necessary, however, they should not be the main
form of PD.
Virtual
Mentor,
At this Level there is a shift from
face-to-face mentoring to virtual mentoring. One of the main
reasons for this is because the teacher will be at a level of technology
integration that is highly specialized to the curriculum and grade level
that they teach. Therefore mentors will most likely be from outside
their school building.
An example of virtual mentoring can be seen
at Teachers.net which is an open community for communication between
teachers. Something like this can be used to help teachers move from
their traditional paradigm to the constructivist paradigm. Mentors can
assist teachers who are at the paradigm shift level by using some type
of bulletin board system like the one below.
Another type of tool that is useful for virtual
mentoring are tools similar to TaskStream.
On-line
Just-in-time (JIT),
Continue utilizing the on-line form that was
discussed for the prior levels. The JIT training that they receive
will be different as compared to prior levels. At this level the
JIT training should focus on designing technology rich instruction that
matches students needs with the curriculum.
Additionally, if possible, provide
synchronous On-line JIT. This will increase the likelihood that
teachers will receive the training they need at the time that they need
it.
Resource search
engine and/or index,
Continue utilizing the resources that were provided at the prior
levels. However, at this level it is important to add
instructional design resources as well.
Here are example of two different pages of links that the Littleton
School District provides to teachers for creating projects that utilize
technology: