Online+Learning+for+Iowa's+Teachers

=Online Learning for Iowa's Teachers= Presentation for School Administrators of Iowa Annual Conference

What teachers are saying about online professional development: • “Sitting in a classroom for 8 straight hours is not a productive format for me.” • "Bringing a webinar right to my computer gives me inservice when I need it, instead of at the beginning of the year, in those forget-everything-thrown-at-you meetings." • “I hate when a class ends, the conversations stop. But with my online course, the conversation with other teachers kept going.” • “With coaching baseball during the summer and basketball during the winter, I don’t have the nights or weekends to take courses. Until they were online.” • “The online course I took really challenged me. In my other recertification courses, I could sit in the back and coast. There’s not place to hide online.” • “Not having to find a babysitter and being able to take a course outside of my AEA are Godsends.” • “I live in Audubon. I can’t drive in for classes 5 days in a row.”

Key things to consider • Online PD needs the technological support for teachers • Online PD is not synonymous with online courses; there are many flavors of online learning to fit the PD needs of your school • Not all online PD is right for all participants; it's not a panacea

The Statewide Online Council • [|Our (eventual) website] • All AEAs, working together • Providing more, quality professional development opportunities in one location, networking educators with other educators • Partnering with statewide institutions, such as the DE, ISEA, SAI, ILO, IDLA, and post-secondary institutions in Iowa.

Current Initiatives • **103b Training: Overview of State Requirements Regarding Seclusion and Restraint** - Available on the training server August 9. This fulfills the legal requirement for districts to provide teachers training in the legislation, and preventative strategies to avoid missteps. • **Medication Administration Training** - Added last spring to the training server. This training provides assistance for non-nurse employees to distribute medication to students, and can be used by districts to fulfill the requirement of training. • **Iowa Core Foundations Module** - Available for schools to use. Gives educators an overview of the foundational elements and intended outcomes of the Iowa Core. A great place for schools to start, for common vocabulary and understanding. • **Intel Elements Online Courses** - Online courses to be provided by AEAs, utilizing Intel's modular based resources. Four courses will be developed in 10-11: 1) Project Based Approaches, 2) Assessment in 21st Century Classrooms, 3) Collaboration in 21st Century Classrooms, and 4) Leadership of Project-Based Instructional Schools. • **Evaluator Training** - In the spring '11, Evaluator 1 & 2 will be offered only as an online course. Some offerings of Evaluator 3 will be offered as either an online or hybrid model course. • **Accessible Instructional Materials** - Online courses to be provided by AEAs, utilizing CAST's online courseware. Two courses will be delivered in '10-11. • **Project OLLIE** - 5-part professional development series for online pedagogy, currently being taught as online courses or as part of ARRA cohorts. • **Iowa School Counselor Resource and Social Network** - A social networking site for Iowa counselors to help share resources and connect with other counselors. • **Innovative Technology in Science Inquiry, Scale-Up (ITSI-SU), including teacher portal and Iowa ITSI-SU teacher networking site**. This National Science Foundation grant is in conjunction with the Concord Consortium and Heartland AEA, looking at ways to use an online portal to help support inquiry-based learning through scientific lab components. • **Webinar Series** - With leadership from Grant Wood AEA, a series of instructional webinars in technology integration for credit. Other local AEA initiatives will be conducted via webinar as well.
 * • Eduvision** - The Iowa school "Youtube"; an educational portal of resources for professional development, including videos, recorded meetings, classroom examples, webinars, podcasts, screencasts, and online learning objects. Example of Great Prairie AEA Eduvision and Heartland AEA Eduvision.