Transitioning into the Role of Technology Leaders: Building Faculty Capacity for Technology-enhanced Teaching

Kamini Jaipal-Jamani, Candace FiggDiane Collier, Tiffany Gallagher

Kari-Lynn Winters,Katia Ciampa

Teacher educators are tasked with the teaching of a new generation of teachers; yet they do not have the knowledge

and skills to model digital learning in their own pedagogy (Ertmer, 2005).

To explore how participation in a professional development initiative helped to prepare faculty members take on the role of technology leaders to develop faculty capacity for technology-enhanced instruction

Digital Pedagogies Collaboration

• To build faculty TPACK knowledge about technology-enhanced teaching,

• To develop a collaborative learning community of faculty members around technology enhanced teaching and research, and

• To provide leadership opportunities for faculty to serve as future workshop facilitators and mentors for other faculty and students.

Characterized by:1. Democratic partnership2. Systematic inquiry into one’s practice3. Collective participation of practitioners from the

same school or a group of schools4. Facilitated through mentoring and coaching5. Situated in practice and addressed problems of

practice6. Contributed to professional goals

Collaborative Research Action Cycle

START:Participant in TPACK

Workshop

Application in Practice

Reflect, Revise,

Extend to Practice

Mentoring with TPLDM Workshop

model

Instructor of TPACK

Workshop Experience

Digital Technologies

Research Collaborative

Action Research

Cycle

TPLDM Workshop Model: Four Experiences/Stages (2014-15)

Modeling Tech-enhanced Teaching Pedagogical Dialogue

Tool Demonstration Practice Task

TPLDM Workshop Model: Four Experiences/Stages (2014-15)

Faculty Workshop Facilitator

Tiffany GallagherAssociate Professor in Teacher Ed teaching Educational

Psychology & Language Arts methodsTimelines To The Rescue! (Featuring TimeGlider)

Faculty Workshop Facilitator

Kari-Lynn WintersAssociate Professor in Teacher Ed teaching Drama &

Language Arts methodsEnhancing Literacy with Technology (Featuring 15 web

tools & apps)

Faculty Workshop Facilitator

Diane CollierAssociate Professor in Teacher Ed - Language Arts methodsUsing Polls & Surveys To Enhance In-Class Discussion

And Learning (Featuring PollEverywhere)

Faculty Workshop Facilitator

Katia CiampaResearch Fellow in Teacher Ed teaching Technology &

Language Arts methodsiPads In The Classroom

Data Sources

1. Video-taped technology workshop presentations2. Workshop artifacts & evaluations3. Observer field notes4. Pre and Post Interviews5. Reflective journals

Findings

TPDLM Workshop Model

Impact of Technology Leadership

Findings: The TPLDM Workshop Model

Useful guide for designing workshops

The model helped remind me how simple the instruction for the workshop needed to be, and because I’m keeping it simple, it allowed me to think more clearly about the potential for how to use the tool effectively [in instruction].

I like the idea of being engaged in the activity before learning about the steps. . . I found the whole procedure really effective – I do tend to do these embedded things, but I do not tend to deconstruct it as clearly as we did with the process and that’s that part that I really got out of [the model.]

If I had not known about the model, I might have just jumped right into explaining how to use the tool, so I think that first step of engaging with the [tool is important], where I am going to start with them actually doing a poll, and then I’m going to give them examples and have a conversation about that [to highlight “kinds of information you can generate from students with the tool], then they are going to create an example of the two types of polls.

[The TPLDM workshop structure] was useful for how to introduce tools and content together.

Findings: Impact of Being Technology Leader

Deepened personal understanding of how to use tool more effectively in instruction

I’m really confident now teaching with this technology. . .facilitating a workshop is the only way to develop one’s confidence to teach with technology – for faculty to take on the role of teaching other faculty how to teach.

Through teaching you actually figure out what you need to do! It was really useful for me because I am always torn about how to do that – how to introduce the tools, then the content together, and what’s the balance. . . how to be more explicit about the tools in relation to the content.

I got to think about how to use the tool more effectively for sure and that I really needed to do this ‘mini-workshop’ in my own class which I have never done before.

Findings: Impact of Being Technology Leader

Perceived as an authentic way to promote faculty capacity for tech-enhanced teaching

It is the only way to [get faculty to teach with technology] I think . . .[my] initial [reaction to being asked to teach a workshop] was ‘I don’t think I can do it, why do you want me to do that?’ In hindsight, if you are not thrown into it, you are not going to take on that role.

Significance

Implications

• Enhances confidence and increases comfort level using technology for instructional purposes

• Creates “buy-in” – Participation as co-researchers provides opportunity for publication through scholarly reflection and self study

• Diminishes faculty resistance to changing instructional practices with technology

• Recursive professional development design model around tech-enhanced teaching is sustainable when. . .– attend technology workshops designed using

TPLDM Model,– plan and implement technology-enhanced activities

within personal instructional practice, and – share their knowledge with others through

facilitating workshops or mentoring.

Contact Info

• Kamini Jaipal-Jamani (kjaipal@brocku.ca) • Candace Figg (cfigg@brocku.ca)• Tiffany Gallagher (tgallagher@brocku.ca)• Kari-Lynn Winters (kwinter@brocku.ca) • Katia Ciampa (kciampa@brocku.ca)

Cadre of Faculty Retreat

• Faculty retreat in which faculty members (12) of the technology research collaborative provided feedback on the workshops, and

• Learned how to present a TPACK-based workshop so that they, too, could become future facilitators

Lagniappe Workshops Series 2

• Refined based on feedback from Series 1 Workshops & Faculty Retreat

• Multiple iterations in a cycle to improve practice and faculty confidence in how to teach with technology

Data Sources

• Workshop evaluation surveys

• Photographs of workshops in progress

• Field notes by researchers

• Email Interviews with Faculty

Recommendations for Successful Workshops

• Technology Workshops Design– Meet expressed needs and interests of faculty– Relevant to current technology used in the field– Short (1 ½ hours), repeated over time– PDLM Model supported transfer to daily

instructional practices• Research-Based Collaborative– Promoted participation, engagement, and

sustainability– Created presentation & publication opportunities

Design of PD Initiative

Informed by the literature on technology enhanced teaching (TPACK)– Technological Pedagogical content knowledge

(TPCK): the interaction of technological knowledge (TK) with pedagogical content knowledge (PCK)

– Technological content knowledge (TCK): the interaction of TK with content knowledge (CK)

– Technological pedagogical knowledge (TPK): the interaction of TK with pedagogical knowledge (PK)

Lagniappe Workshops Series 1

• Short, focused workshops• Followed specific TPACK-based workshop

model (PDLM Model)• Variety of workshops @ tech-enhanced

teaching– teaching with SMARTBoards, – digital tools such as Prezi, Pinterest, Google Drive

Documents, and – mobile devices such as iPads and document

cameras

Findings: Workshop Design• Useful guide for designing workshops

• Get quotes• Being a technology leader deepened their own understanding of how

to use the tools more effectively in instruction

• Pedagogical dialog phase was adapted for prior pedagogical experiences of the audience to focus on TPCK and how they could use in their own classrooms.

• Having faculty taking on technology leadership roles perceived as a way to promote faculty capacity for engaging in tech-enhanced instruction